Bishkek ;Social media spreading misinformation about Kyrgyzstan situation: Dar
540 Pakistani students to return from Kyrgyzstan via three flights today,
LAHORE ; (Tahir Chuhdary)Bishkek ;Social media spreading misinformation about Kyrgyzstan situation, Deputy PM Dar on Sunday said his Kyrgyz counterpart Jeenbek Kulubayev had told him that situation in Bishkek was peaceful and social media had been used to create a hype about the situation.
Addressing a press conference, Dar, quoting Kulubayev, said a total of 16 foreign students were injured in the attacks on Friday, including four to five Pakistanis, and described the reports about alleged deaths as completely false.
At least 540 Pakistani students would return to the country from Kyrgyzstan through three commercial flights the government would run on Sunday (today), Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has said as they seek repatriation after a violent mob attacked foreign students.
The return of more than 500 students would bring the tally of returning students to 670 after 130 students arrived in Lahore on Saturday night.
“Upon our request, the Air Force will operate one flight, airbus, having the capacity to carry 130 students. So far, 50 students have registered themselves with the embassy for the flight,” Dar told reporters in Islamabad.
The Kyrgyz authorities have said that paid bloggers are spreading rumours, he said and added that social media was being used to incite people to violence.
Dar, who is also the deputy prime minister, said they had initially planned to leave for Bishkek, but Kulubayev informed him that there was need to do so as the situation had been controlled.
No incident has been reported since Friday, said the foreign minister who added that more flights would be operated to bring those Pakistani students back who wanted to do so.
Speaking on the occasion, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the incident wasn’t targeted against Pakistan, as situation developed only after a brawl between the locals and some Egyptian students which later also affected those from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Without naming the PTI, he said a political party, which had previously written a letter to the IMF against Pakistan’s interests, had launched a social media to promote lies about the state of affairs in Bishkek.
Pakistani students reach home in first flight from Bishkek
Neither any student has been killed nor anyone raped, said Tarar who added that a certain political party was busy in inculcating wrong and negative information into the minds of students’ parents.
Dar said a total of 11,000 Pakistani students had been studying in Kyrgyzstan, out which over 5,000 were in Bishkek while the remaining in other cities. The incident involved a group of medical students, he told the press conference.
He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was monitoring the situation personally and described Kyrgyzstan as friendly nation, adding that one had trust the Kyrgyz officials and one could not derail diplomatic ties with another country just because of rumours and fake news.
The Kyrgyz foreign minister had informed him that some of the individuals involved in violent acts had already been arrested and the government would not spare anyone.
Bishkek ;Social media spreading misinformation about Kyrgyzstan situation: Dar
Dar cancels Kyrgyzstan visit.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Frontier Regions and National Heritage and Culture Minister Amir Muqam to Kyrgyzstan was cancelled on Sunday, sources said as students wait for return flights after they braved the violence,
They were scheduled to leave today at 11am for the Central Asian country to review the situation after a violent mob attacked foreign students, including Pakistanis.
Sources said that the ministry has decided to send additional staff from the missions in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to Pakistan’s embassy in Kyrgysztan to assist the small diplomatic staff.
