The Kyrgyz government said 29 people were injured, including three foreigners, in mob violence in Bishkek on the night of May 17-18 that appeared to be directed against foreign students and migrants, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reported.
The violence prompted diplomatic reactions from Pakistan and India, who warned their students in Bishkek to remain indoors.
The violence broke out after a video purportedly showing Kyrgyz students fighting medical students from Egypt on May 13 was widely shared online, with mobs gathering in several spots in Bishkek after users on social media claimed those who were beaten were Kyrgyz youths, without providing any evidence.
Riot police eventually cordoned off areas where mobs had gathered after video footage circulating online showed mobs attacking what appear to be foreign students in the street outside a hostel and beating them inside a dormitory.
Muhammad Ihtisham Latif, a Pakistani medical student in Bishkek, told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal, “The situation is bad here. The situation started when Egyptian students clashed with locals here. The locals are now protesting and they are beating Indian and Pakistani students…. They chase them in their hostels and houses…hostel (doors) were broken. I am locked up in the university along with other students since yesterday and I am sharing my voice with you.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed “deep concern” over the situation of Pakistani students in Kyrgyzstan, saying in a statement that he directed Pakistan’s ambassador to provide all necessary help and assistance to the students.
Police in Bishkek have detained four foreigners, including three citizens of Egypt, as suspects in a criminal case opened over beating of local residents.
The Kyrgyz government said in a statement that an investigation has been opened and those found guilty will be punished, rejecting what it said were “insinuations aimed at inciting intolerance toward foreign students,” but appeared to lay the blame for the violence on illegal migrants, saying authorities had been taking “decisive measures to suppress illegal migration and expel undesirable persons from Kyrgyzstan.”
The head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee of National Security (UKMK), Kamchybek Tashiev, said in a message that 500-700 local citizens aged between 18 and 25 had gathered in the city center to protest what they said was the increase of migrants working in Kyrgyzstan.
Tashiev appeared to try and lay the blame for the violence on illegal migrants, saying Kyrgyzstan has been grappling with an influx of illegal immigration coming to the country, mostly from Pakistan and Bangladesh, many of whom break the law.
“We identify at least 20-30 or 50 illegal migrants per day and try to expel them from the country. Based on official statistics, most of the foreigners who break the law are citizens of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Of these, we returned about 1,500 people from Pakistan and about 1,000 people from Bangladesh to their countries.”
