ISLAMABAD - Keeping humanity over animosity, the Embassy of Pakistan in Ukraine came to rescue the Indian students after their own embassy officials left them stranded there, following the ongoing conflict with Russia.
Neglecting their obligation to ensure the evacuation of their nationals, the officials of the Indian embassy fled for their own survival, leaving the Indian students at the mercy of none.
The Indian students reported that the officials of the Indian embassy went missing as they sought their help for evacuation. However, Pakistan’s gesture of assisting the students from an arch-rival country won the hearts of many.
In a viral video, the Indian students in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, can be seen among Pakistani students at the embassy. There were reportedly no Indian officials present, so the Pakistani embassy had stepped in to help them.
The students travelled from Kharkiv to Lviv city but found no official at the Indian embassy and the Pakistani embassy welcomed them.
“You can see, these are all Pakistani students here. We are four Indians only,” a student can be heard saying in a relaxed environment pointing to his fellow travellers. They are all seen having meals apparently at the Pakistani embassy.
However, keeping up their own tradition, some paid trolls of the Modi government disgusted the Indian student, who shared the video and praised the Pakistani embassy.
Prof Ashok Swain, a known Modi critic who teaches international relations at a Swedish university, shared the video on Twitter with a caption: “Indian embassy officials are missing at the Romanian border. Pakistani embassy is helping Indian students to escape war in Ukraine.”
The Pakistan embassy helped the Indian students at a time when the students from South Asia and Africa complained of feeling at risk owing to the racist behaviour from Ukrainians while boarding trains or crossing the border. They were either pushed out or made to wait for hours on the border while locals and westerners get preferential treatment.
In a video shared by the opposition leader in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, reportedly, the Ukrainian forces are seen torturing an Indian girl whose loud screams are also audible in the video while she was trying to reach the Poland border. The soldiers also fired shots in the air to horrify the fleeing people. The students say they are being discriminated against on account of their colour and racial background.
“Officials are giving us roses at the airport. But when we were stranded at the borders, nobody came to help us. Had the government evacuated us on time, there would have been no need for these show-offs,” said Divyanshu Singh, a student from Motihari, Bihar.
Pakistan’s humanitarian gesture reiterated its peace overtures and evidenced that the biggest hindrance in achieving peace in South Asia was the Hindutva ideology that has taken over India.
After coming to power, Prime Minister Imran Khan offered India peace by saying, “If you take one step towards peace, we will take two steps.”
Instead of a reciprocating peace gesture, India sent its fighter jets a few months later to strike “imaginary terror camps” in Pakistan.
Above all, India revoked Article 370 and 35A, striping Kashmir of its special status – a move seen by Islamabad as escalation and aggression because Kashmir was an internationally recognised disputed territory.