Babu Khan
Srinagar, May 21 : Living under constant distress, thousands of Kashmiri students are stranded in various countries. Some are running short of money while others fear they may die of food scarcity and anxiety in the face of public health emergency.
More than 5000 Indian students are enrolled in different colleges and university in Kyrgyzstan. Among them over 800 are Kashmiris who are stranded there.
A Kashmiri female student who is a pursuing medicine from Medical University at Osh in Kyrgyzstan said they have been left at the mercy of God.
“We have been under complete lockdown. But nobody is asking us about food or water. We feel unsafe here and are being treated unwell. Nobody is concerned about us,” she said. “Government of India has evacuated some students in various countries but no one is concerned about those who are in Kyrgyzstan,” she said.
She said they live under constant panic because of increasing number of coronavirus cases at Osh, as the city has been epicenter of coronavirus there. “Please take us out from here. We want to go home and be in quarantine there,” she said in a broken voice.
Another student of the same university said they have been vacated from university hostels. “Our hostels have been turned into quarantine centers. We are putting up in private accommodation. We are running short of money. We don’t know how to feed ourselves,” the student said.
Thousands of Kashmiri students are also stranded in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Iran, and several other countries because of travel ban in view of coronavirus. These have appealed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to evacuate them from there.
In Ukraine, at least 200 Kashmiri students are stranded. One of the students who is studying medicine at Sumi State University in Ukraine said they have been lodged in a crowded hostel room.
“We are around 500 Indian students who have been lodged in large hostel. There are around 200 Kashmiri students studying in various universities of Ukraine. There is also scarce of medicines including sanitizers and masks. We should be evacuated to India as we fear of getting infected,” he said.
Narrating her woeful tale, a student from Jalalabad University fear they may die because of fear and hunger.
“We are already running out of money. We don’t know how to feed ourselves under these circumstances. Nobody is concerned about us,” she said, appealing Indian government to raise issue with the Kyrgyzstan so they are provided at least food.
