Ex-J and K minister appeals to govt to evacuate the state's students from Iran

Former PDP minister Altaf Bukhari on Wednesday appealed to the central government to evacuate Kashmiri students and businessmen stranded in Iran due to the coronavirus outbreak in that country.

In a statement here, Bukhari said the rising number of deaths and number of infected people in Iran has created fear among residents of Jammu & Kashmir who are stranded in Iran and their families here.

"As we know that Iran has confirmed three more deaths and 34 new cases on Tuesday, taking the country's overall death toll to 15 and infection tally to 95. I am in touch with the ministry of external affairs, government of India and have submitted details of over 240 J&K students who are stuck in Shiraz, Tehran and other cities of Iran," Bukhari said, while appealing to the government to take measures for safe evacuation of these students at an earliest.

He said the ground situation in Iran has worsened. "Iran has been hit by the deadliest coronavirus outbreak by far outside China. I have information from the stranded students who study in Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Science in Iran that over 300 students from J&K are studying in various provinces of the country. All of them are currently safe but they apprehend contamination if they are not evacuated from Iran very soon," Bukhari sad.

The former minister appealed to the government to arrange a chartered flight for these students and a separate quarantine facility for them.

Bukhari said the the government should consider operating a special flight to Shiraz or to a nearby functional airport and airlift the J&K residents stranded there to bring them back to India.