SRINAGAR: Over 300 Kashmiri medical professionals are stranded in Central Asia’s Kyrgyzstan due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic and have appealed authorities in Jammu and Kashmir to get them back to the valley.
Several aggrieved students pursuing MBBS and MD at different medical universities in Bishkek, Osh and Jalalabad in Kyrgyzstan told Kashmir Reader over the phone that the university authorities had shown them the door due to the global pandemic.
Badeeyah, who is pursuing MD at Osh University, said that the authorities at the hostel they were putting up, had asked them to leave as the place had been designated by the local government authorities as a quarantine facility for the people infected with the novel Coronavirus.
Hailing from south Kashmir’s Pampore area, Badeeyah said they had literally come to the road before they took an apartment nearby on rent.
She told Kashmir Reader that 350 Kashmiri students studying at different medical colleges across the central Asian country had been put in a quandary due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Expressing fears over contracting the disease, the students appealed the Jammu and Kashmir administration to get them back to the valley without delay.
The students on Wednesday also took to twitter alleging inconvenience in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, which had forced the closure of shops, supermarkets and even grocery stores leaving hundreds of them high and dry for want of daily essential items.
A student said they could not fly back to India due to the closure of international airports and appealed the Indian authorities to arrange a special flight for their return.
Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan said they had taken up the matter with the government of India. Khan hoped the students will be able to return to the valley in coming days.
Rohit Kansal, official government spokesman, sought students’ details from this reporter but did not specify any time frame for their return.
On Tuesday, several Kashmir students stranded in Bangladesh and elsewhere due to the Covid-19 pandemic had appealed authorities for their return to the valley.

Irshad Khan