Pakistan forms committee to investigate mob attack on its students in Bishkek

Islamabad, May 22 (IANS) The Pakistan government has constituted an inquiry committee to investigate and ascertain why its students were attacked and assaulted in the mob attack in Kyrgyzstan’s Bishkek on the night of May 17.Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who travelled to Bishkek on Tuesday to address concerns of the Pakistani students there, said that till date, over 4000 students have been brought back from Kyrgyzstan.Addressing the media after his return, Dar said that there are about 10,000 Pakistani students enrolled in different universities in Kyrgyzstan, about 6000 of them in the capital Bishkek alone where the incident of mob attack occurred.”Additional secretary administration of the foreign ministry, Muhammad Saleem, will head a fact-finding committee to look into the incident, including the reason for such developments and subsequent reaction of the Pakistani mission and the government,” said Dar.”The committee will coordinate with the Kyrgyz authorities and review all the findings and developments in Bishkek and submit its report within two weeks,” he added.Of the 4,036 students who have already returned to Pakistan, 3,233 students took commercial flights while 513 availed the special flight facility arranged by the federal government. The special flight arranged by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government also brought back 290 students.The mass repatriation of Pakistani students began after the security situation went out of control in Bishkek last Friday following a viral video of a recent brawl that took place between the locals and Egyptian students.The attack caused serious injuries to many international students mostly from Pakistan. This prompted thousands of Pakistani students to confine themselves in their hostel rooms for several hours.Pakistan has also called on the Kyrgyz government to ensure that the culprits behind the attacks are arrested and brought to justice.”My counterpart (Deputy PM, Kyrgyzstan) told me that the Kyrgyz President has publicly announced that action would be taken against those involved in the mob violence,” said Dar.–IANSint/hamza/as