Islamabad, June 15 (IANS) A Pakistani military aircraft Tuesday brought the first group of 136 students from violence-hit Kyrgyzstan home, a Pakistan minister said, adding that another plane had left to bring the others still stranded.
Information Minister Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira, who received the students at a military airbase in Rawalpindi, said the government will take all measures to bring all students from southern city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan where ethnic violence has claimed over 100 lives, Xinhua reported.
Several students told reporters at the airbase that they were not expecting to return live.
‘Gunmen also fired at our bus when we were on way to the airport,’ a female medical student said.
A Pakistani student was killed during the violence in Osh and over 100 are still trapped there, the report said.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Basit said another military transport plane will bring over 100 students by Tuesday evening.
Pakistan sent the second plane to Kyrgyzstan with medicines and food items for the people affected by ethnic violence, head of the National Disaster cell Major General Nadeem Ahmed said.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the Senate Monday that Pakistan would be sending humanitarian aid to the people of Kyrgyzstan.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Tanvir Khaskheli told Geo TV over phone that some traders or labourers have also been sent home with the students in the first flight. All Pakistanis are safe and sound, he added.
