Updated on
Summary
Another C130 plane sent to Kyrgyzstan to bring back the 130 trapped Pakistanis back would likely to reach Islamabad in evening today. Earlier, some 136 Pakistanis arrive home, after suffering days of distress in Kyrgyzstan, in a special C130 was sent to bring them back which landed at Chaklala Airbase this morning. BackgroundTension engulfed Kyrgyzstan since the toppling of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. When Mr Bakiyev was ousted in an uprising on 7 April 2010, his stronghold in the south became the centre of instability. Among the Kyrgyz population, pro-Bakiyev elements organised resistance to the interim government by seizing government offices and taking officials hostage. The sizeable Uzbek community displayed sympathy to the new government in Bishkek.As Roza Otunbayeva, the interim president, struggled to control the south, well-established criminal elements and drug dealers exploited the power vacuum. The spark for communal violence was provided by a clash between Kyrgyz and Uzbek gangs in a casino. It soon turned into street fighting among the youth in Osh. Fuelled by rumours of atrocities on either side, angry mobs from other towns and villages arrived in Osh, forcing large numbers of ethnic Uzbeks to flee to Uzbekistan. So far, around 200 Uzbeks have been killed in the ethnic strife unleashed in Kyrgyzstan.
