'They did nothing': Pak student, who was stranded in Ukraine, dismisses embassy's evacuation claims
Mar 07, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], March 7 : As the Russian-Ukraine conflict continues to unfold, several tales of hope, horror and, disappointment, have emerged from the conflict zone.
One such story is about a Pakistani student Misha Arshad who was among thousands of international students studying in various universities across Ukraine because of its low tuition and cost of living.
Arshad, a student at the National Aerospace University, managed to flee Kharkiv after living in the basement of a hostel for a week.
Slamming the behaviour of the Pakistani embassy, she said "they did nothing" to help them evacuate. "We are the future of Pakistan and this is how they treated us in this difficult time," she lamented.
"When the war broke out, the university administration shifted those living in apartments to hostel basements. I stayed with some 120 students from Nigeria, China, India and even some local Ukrainians," Arshad was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
"It wasn't safe for us to leave our shelter or even try and flee as air strikes continued all day and night."
Following her harrowing experience in Kharkiv, Arshad took a bus ride arranged by the Indian embassy to Ternopil city. "I was the only Pakistani in a bus full of Indian students," said Arshad.
Contrary to the accounts of their own students, the Pakistani foreign ministry claimed that they have evacuated 1,476 Pakistani nationals stranded in the conflict zone.
Their embassy in Lviv even went on to claim that they were helping Indian students, according to Dawn's report.
Dismissing media reports that their embassy helped Indian students, Arshad said, "The successful evacuation by our government is fake news."
Of the 76,000 international students in Ukraine, nearly 25 per cent were from India, while the rest were from Morocco, Turkmenistan, Nigeria, China and Pakistan, according to the University World News.
India has launched Operation Ganga to evacuate Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine. India's Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday said that around 13,300 people returned to India from Ukraine so far by 63 flights under Operation Ganga.
