New Delhi, June 14 (IANS) With ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan showing no sign of let up, the Indian government is exploring all options to evacuate 116 Indians trapped in the riot-hit former Soviet republic, including airlifting them in a special plane.
‘All efforts and all options are being considered to ensure their safe passage back home,’ government sources told IANS Monday. The airlifting could be an option, but it will depend on the ground situation, the sources added.
All Indians are safe, the sources added.
India’s ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Jyoti Swarup Pande is monitoring the developments and met officials of the Kyrgyz foreign office and sought assurance over the safety of Indian students.
In the worst ethnic violence in decades, at least 124 people have been killed and more than 1,685 wounded in southern Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz health ministry said Monday.
The plight of Indians, mostly medical studnets, has sparked widespread concern in India. The chief opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asked the government to ensure the safe passage of trapped students.
‘We are concerned about the situation in Kyrgyzstan. Many of our children are there. We want their safety and we want the government of India to arrange safety passage for them,’ BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters.
In a statement, the external affairs ministry said here that 15 students were stranded in Jalalabad and 99 students, a professor and a businessman, in Osh.
‘Our mission is in close and regular touch with several Indian nationals as well as with relevant departments of the Kyrgyz government, including the ministry of foreign affairs and security agencies,’ said the ministry.
‘Everything possible is being done to ensure the safety and well-being of the Indian nationals, within the constraints posed by the difficult ground situation.’
‘Our mission in Bishkek is monitoring the developments closely and additional steps would be taken as soon as the situation becomes more conducive,’ it added.
Indian students trapped amid street violence in southern Kyrgyzstan are getting increasingly worried about their security.
‘Anyone can die at any moment,’ Zaheer Khan, an Indian student, told Times Now channel over the phone from Osh. Indian students, he said, were confined to their homes.
Said student Amrit Das: ‘The building next to my home is burning. We are stuck inside our home.’ The violence on the street has meant that students can’t go to the airport to catch a flight home.
Sumita, who studies in Jalalabad, said students don’t have any money to spend.
Students complained that authorities have asked them to lock their homes from inside. Some said supply of electricity, water and cooking gas had been blocked.
Deadly riots swept through Osh and another southern city of Jalalabad Friday and Saturday, Kyrgyz news agency AKIpress reported Sunday.
Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbek groups set ablaze cars, and looted stores and markets.
The Kyrgyz interim government, which imposed curfew in the entire Jalalabad region, has allowed police and troops to shoot to kill in order to control the riots.
The humanitarian situation in southern Kyrgyzstan remains complicated as most businesses have closed down and residents have started facing acute shortages of food and medical supplies.
Officials from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are set to gather Monday to discuss ways to resolve the crisis, including possible deployment of a peacekeeping contingent to the violence-hit Kyrgyzstan.
CSTO, a post-Soviet security bloc, comprises Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
