‘Destructive Forces’: Kyrgyzstan Asks Pak Media, Netizens Not To Spread ‘False’ Info Amid Mob Violence

The Kyrgyz foreign ministry in a statement issued Saturday urged Pakistani social media users and also its mass media to refrain from spreading false information after hundreds of Kyrgyz men attacked buildings housing foreign students.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic informs that destructive forces in foreign mass media, social networks, especially in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan deliberately spread totally false information about the situation in the Kyrgyz Republic that does not correspond to reality,” the Kyrgyz ministry of foreign affairs said in a press release.

“The Ministry asks representatives of the media, the blogging community and foreign colleagues to be guided only by official and verified information from the competent authorities of the Kyrgyz Republic,” the press release further said.

The statement came on the same day Pakistan summoned and handed a note of protest to Kyrgyzstan’s top diplomat in the country in response to violence against Pakistani students in Bishkek.

The charge d’affaires of the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan in Islamabad, Miles Moldaliev, was summoned by the foreign office of Pakistan, where officials apprised him of the deep concern over the reports of incidents against Pakistani students in Kyrgyzstan.

“It was impressed on the Kyrgyz charge d’affaires that the Kyrgyz government should take all possible measures to ensure the safety and security of Pakistani students and citizens,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement said the Kyrgyz health ministry had confirmed four Pakistanis were given first aid and discharged while one was still under treatment for injury.

The Pakistan embassy maintained that it did not receive any confirmed report regarding the alleged death and rape of Pakistani students in Bishkek.

Pakistani media outlets said that over 12,000 Pakistani students study in Kyrgyzstan.

Social media went abuzz with reports of Pakistani students being beaten as hashtags #SavePakistaniStudents, #Kyrgyzstan trended on X. News18 could not independently verify the videos shared and claims made regarding the state of Pakistani students on social media.

Pakistani students speaking to BBC Urdu said that armed mobs attacked student quarters and residences where students were living on rent. They also said that female students were harassed.

“I tried to lock the door of the hostel room along with my roommate but they broke the door and entered. All three of us were brutally tortured,” a final year student of a medical college in Bishkek was quoted as saying by BBC Urdu.

Khadija Siddiqui, a barrister, also posted a video of Pakistanis protesting outside the Kyrgyz embassy demanding safety of Pakistani students.

Kyrgyz police said they had mobilised forces in the Central Asian nation’s capital on Friday to quell the violence, where local mobs attacked buildings housing foreign students, including Pakistanis.

The attack, the police said, was prompted by foreigners – whose nationality was not immediately clear – beating up locals in the city.