Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has announced that the Government of Pakistan has set up an inquiry committee to probe the violence against Pakistani students in Bishkek where they were targeted by mobs last week, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The violence began in Bishkek on Friday night after videos of a brawl between Kyrgyz and Egyptian students went viral on social media, prompting groups of local residents to target university hostels and private lodgings of international students, including those from Pakistan.
According to official figures, about 10,000 Pakistani students are enrolled in Kyrgyzstan, with nearly 6,000 in Bishkek. The frenzied violence forced them to confine themselves for several hours in their rooms without food and drinking water, with many of them making evacuation requests online.
Ishaq Dar had held a meeting with his Kyrgyz counterpart in Kazakhstan on the sidelines of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers. Later, the two ministers travelled together from Astana to Bishkek.
Five Pakistani nationals were injured in last week’s violence. Four of them were released after receiving first aid. However, one student was hospitalized due to more serious injuries.
In Bishkek, Ishaq Dar also met with the student who remained under treatment among his other official engagements.
Pakistan has so far repatriated over 1,000 students from Bishkek after the mob violence via various flights.

Addressing a news conference along with Foreign Secretary Syrus Sajjad Qazi in Islamabad on Wednesday, Ishaq Dar said the government has formed an inquiry committee to look into the Bishkek incident and a notification in this regard will be issued today.

Ishaq Dar said this would be a fact-finding committee which will look into the factors and causes that led to mob attacks on students at Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan.

Dar said the committee will also investigate about the role of Pakistani Mission at Bishkek for facilitation of students.

He said the committee will coordinate with Kyrgyz authorities and review all the findings and developments at Bishkek and submit its report with two weeks.

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With the return of around 4,000 students to Pakistan from Bishkek consequent, Ishaq Dar said “For our own satisfaction, for the satisfaction of the ministry and the prime minister, we have decided to form an inquiry committee under Additional Secretary (Admin) Muhammad Saleem. This will carry out the fact-finding as how these developments took place. It will interact with the relevant people including at Pakistan mission and the Kyrgyz government.”

The minister told the media that the federal ministers had to cancel their visit to Bishkek on the suggestion of Kyrgyz authorities, however, during his interaction with Kyrgyz counterpart in Astana, he conveyed his desire for the visit to meet the Pakistani national affected by the violence, which led to his trip there.

During the visit to Bishkek, the deputy prime minister met Pakistani worker Shahzaib at the hospital who suffered a jaw fracture in the incident. He later flew back to Pakistan in the deputy prime minister’s special aircraft, after the Bishkek health authorities allowed him to travel to his homeland, on his desire.

The deputy prime minister was told by the Kyrghyz authorities that the violence was not Pakistan-specific; however the matter was settled with the Kyrgyz president publicly announcing zero tolerance for any such violence in the future.

Dar said that the Kyrgyz government assured him that they would take the perpetrators to task though some have already been arrested. They said the Kyrgyz government considered foreign students their valuable guests who contribute to the national economy.

The deputy prime minister said that on his request, the Kyrghyz authorities agreed to regularise around 1100 Pakistani workers who were about to be deported for overstay. Dar said he had also offered the Kyrgyz government to import Pakistan’s skilled manpower under any government-to-government mechanism, not through agents which they agreed upon.

He told the media that during an interaction with him at the Bishkek Airport, the representatives of Pakistani students expressed satisfaction over the Pakistani mission’s role during the situation.

Assessing the scare among the students, Dar said he had suggested the Kyrgyz deputy prime minister and foreign minister to send their representatives to interact with them.

To a question, the deputy prime minister said the medical education Pakistani students were getting in Kyrgyzstan was already under question by the PMDC and HEC.

He, however, said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had already formed a committee under him to look into how the youngsters aspiring for medical education could be accommodated locally, without compromising the standard of Pakistan’s robust medical education.