While the Imran Khan government in Pakistan has been drawing flak for not paying heed to the Pakistani students stranded in the war-torn zone, a video has gone viral wherein claims are being made that Pakistani students are using the Indian flag to escape the crisis-stricken Ukraine as the Russians have given an assurance that Indians will not be harmed provided they displayed their national flag on their vehicle.
In the video being widely circulated on Twitter, a man is heard telling a Pakistani news anchor how Pakistani students are being compelled to use the Indian flag to get a safe passage out of the war-hit Ukraine as their country led by Imran Khan has turned a blind eye towards them.
Pakistani student using indian flag to come out of ukraine… Thats power of our india and Modiji… Watch till the end.#indianstudentsinukraine #nuclearwar pic.twitter.com/dBVp4Dj4xe
— Jay (@PoojaraJaydeep) February 28, 2022
Youtube channel Hindustan Special, which mostly reports news related to Pakistan, also shared a video on February 27, in which a man, who appears to be working for the media outlet, revealed how the Pakistani students in Ukraine have picked up the Indian flag and raised slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ to safely reach the border of Ukraine to get into another country.
He is heard saying that the Pakistani government has left its students stranded in the war-hit country, meanwhile, the Indian PM Narendra Modi has spoken to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, who assured that Indians would be allowed to move out of Ukraine safely. Moreover, PM Modi had also spoken to the heads of countries bordering Ukraine and the nations had assured that Indians would be allowed entry without a problem. Accordingly, the Indian government has advised Indian students stranded in Ukraine to carry the national flag on their vehicles for safety.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan government is doing little to assure the safety of its student stuck in Ukraine. In fact, the Imran Khan government has asked students stranded in Ukraine to travel to Ternopil “to enable evacuations” as the situation improves. These helpless Pakistani students, according to Hindustan Special were left with no other option but to hire vehicles and paste Indian flags on the vehicles and raise ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogans, pretending to be Indian, to safely reach Ternopil from where they could be evacuated.
Hindustan Special also shared accounts of Pakistani students stranded in metro subways in Ukraine. The distressed students can be heard saying that they have been stuck there without food and water with no one from the Pakistan embassy coming to their rescue. Slamming the Pakistani government, one of the students said, “The embassy is lying that they have evacuated all students. But we all are sitting here. All countries are evacuating their people, but Pakistan is not bothered.”
“Our only mistake is that we are Pakistanis,” lamented another Pakistani student, waiting to be evacuated from war-torn Ukraine.
In another video shared by the YouTube channel, A to Z- 2nd channel on February 27, an Indian student is heard revealing how they were provided with a safe passage through three nations as they reached the Hungary border just because they had an Indian flag pasted on their vehicle. “The respect and honour the soldiers and army personnel are displaying seeing the Indian flag is a matter of pride for us. We were being let go without any checking. This indicates that India has built a name for itself around the globe. I am proud Indian,” said the student.
In the same video, a Pakistani girl student is heard lamenting that their government is not bothered about them and have left them alone in a time of crisis. “Indians are better off than us, we are paying the price of being Pakistanis,” rued the distressed student.
Pakistani students stranded in Ukraine slam Imran Khan government
OpIndia had reported on February 25, how Pakistani students stuck in Ukraine have been lamenting their government’s indifference to their predicament amidst an escalating military offence carried out by the Russian forces. They have alleged that while India is actively evacuating its students in Ukraine via Hungary, the Pakistani government is doing little to rescue stranded Pakistanis.
Expressing concern at their plight, one of the students while speaking to Pakistani news channel ARY News conveyed her disappointment with the lack of initiative displayed by the Imran Khan government as compared to that exhibited by the Modi government in evacuating Indian students.
On Thursday, ARY News reported that there are more than 1,500 Pakistanis, including 500 students, stranded in strife-torn Ukraine. Pakistan’s Ambassador to Ukraine Dr Noel I Khokhar claimed that all Pakistanis in Ukraine were safe and asked to move to secure locations.
Even though Pakistan’s Ambassador asserted that students stuck in Ukraine were safe, their parents back home accused the Pakistani embassy of papering over concerns raised by their children through glib assurances. They have alleged that the Pakistani embassy was only giving statements instead of their children’s safe evacuation from the war zone.
Stranded Indian students advised to carry National flag on vehicles for free and safe passage
Meanwhile, India has advised Indian students stranded in Ukraine to carry the national flag on their vehicles for safety. Speaking to news agency ANI, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy revealed that PM Modi had spoken to the heads of countries bordering Ukraine and the nations had assured that Indians would be allowed entry without a problem. Reddy advised that students who were travelling by road to the borders of Ukraine should display the Indian flag prominently on the vehicles.
Mission Ganga: The Evacuation Program to bring back Indian students from Ukraine
Since Russia’s declaration of military action against Ukraine on February 24, the Indians stuck in the war-hit zone are being evacuated by the government of India under the Mission Ganga program. The number of Indians stranded in Ukraine is reported to be anywhere between 16,000 to 20,000, with most media houses reporting them at 18,000. However, as of now, the official government figure is 16,000. So far, 907 Indians have been evacuated. Notably, the Indian government had issued multiple advisories urging Indians to leave Ukraine before the war was declared.
