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00:00 At this time, we have Hassan Ali Ziagham, who is the Ambassador of Pakistan in Kyrgyzstan.
00:05 The whole situation is at the helm of affairs.
00:07 Thank you very much, Ambassador for joining me in the program.
00:10 Ambassador, there is an on-ground situation because there is a lot of fake news going around here
00:14 that some Pakistani students have been martyred, some female students have been raped.
00:21 Can you confirm this or can you reject this?
00:26 Yes, the Kyrgyz government has confirmed this to us. Their press release is on record.
00:31 They have said that no international student has died, no such incident has happened with any girl.
00:40 And look, this incident has been going on for 19 hours.
00:45 It is not possible that such a big incident has happened and these things have not come to the media yet by the parents of the children.
00:53 The name of the children is still coming. So, what the Kyrgyz side has told us so far is that these news are completely wrong and no such incident has happened.
01:02 Ambassador, there are news of the visit of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishak Dara that they will go to Kyrgyzstan. Can you confirm this?
01:11 Yes, these things are in the process. I am not in a position to confirm at the moment, but I think these things will be confirmed in a while.
01:20 There is one complaint that you have given an emergency number in the tweet that you have tweeted.
01:26 Students are complaining that they are not able to reach out to the emergency number and they are sitting in the hostels in fear.
01:32 So, have they been rescued? Is the emergency number not reachable? What is going on?
01:38 Look, there are a lot of calls coming on the emergency numbers at the moment.
01:42 But I would like to request this thing that this emergency means that if you are really in a life-threatening emergency,
01:49 the problem here is that the children are calling us because they are in danger of being attacked.
01:55 So, the problem is that our numbers are getting overwhelmed and 7 out of 10 calls are like that,
02:02 which are fine, are worrying, but are not in that much of an emergency situation.
02:07 So, I would request the students and their parents to give us a chance that until we are in a very serious emergency situation,
02:16 if you call on this number, then those problems will increase for us because we are getting a lot of calls.
02:23 We are coordinating the flights of children, coordinating them with their universities, coordinating them with the Kirghiz government.
02:31 So, there is a lot of thing going on. Not only is the mission doing it, but the CMU of the ministry is also doing it.
02:36 And we are working together as a team. So, kindly help us in this work.
02:41 Ambassador, at this time, the riots, the violence, the mob was going to different places and attacking the Pakistani students' hostel.
02:51 What is the situation of that on ground? The information is reaching to you.
02:55 On ground, our team has gone to different hostels.
02:58 Even now, students are complaining that in a few places, boys are roaming in the form of 2-3 groups.
03:07 And they are trying to create a situation.
03:11 But from wherever we are getting the information, we are telling the Kirghiz side.
03:14 We have been told by the Kirghiz media that 3,700 law enforcement officers are on ground at this time.
03:22 And they are trying to fix the situation.
03:25 Let me tell you that our children are not only in the hostel, but are scattered in the whole city.
03:30 So, it is practically very difficult for the law enforcement to reach every place at the same time.
03:37 But I can say that today's situation is much better than yesterday.
03:44 Yesterday, there were thousands of people, almost 1000.
03:48 But today, that situation is not there.
03:51 Till now, there are only a few incidents.
03:54 But they are not as serious as yesterday's situation.
03:58 Ambassador, you have correctly pointed out that it is very difficult to be scattered.
04:02 So, how is the Pakistan Embassy doing the arrangements for the basic necessities of the children who are completely isolated at this time?
04:13 Yes, our community has taken an initiative.
04:17 We have also shared their numbers.
04:19 So that if a child needs food, they will go to help.
04:23 They will help them and are doing it on the ground.
04:26 Right. Last question, Ambassador.
04:28 Do you have any message for the parents who are worried?
04:31 The whole community is worried.
04:33 We have 10,000-12,000 students there.
04:35 Yes, yes.
04:36 The message for the parents and students is that this situation is difficult.
04:40 But this is not an impossible situation.
04:43 The Kyrgyz government is trying its best.
04:45 And our job is to help them.
04:48 And especially, as I said in my video message, that a lot of news is unauthentic.
04:53 Spreading it, all our attention is directed to that.
04:59 So it is important to kindly confirm it before spreading it on social media.
05:05 I would like to re-emphasize this.
05:07 Right. Ambassador Hassan Ali Zakim, thank you for joining me.
05:11 And best of luck in handling this situation.
05:13 We pray that the 10,000-12,000 students in Kyrgyzstan, who are in a very difficult situation,
05:18 their parents and their families are worried at this time.
05:21 Not only the parents, the whole community is worried at this time.
05:24 That the situation is developing there.
05:26 Our children, if they choose to stay there, may Allah keep them safe.