Pakistani officials say hundreds of students and pilgrims, who were evacuated after Israeli strikes on Iran, will be transported to their homes across Pakistan today, Wednesday, after they were brought a day earlier to Quetta, the capital of the southwestern Balochistan province, which borders Iran.
Commissioner of Quetta, Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat, said 545 pilgrims and 207 students reached Quetta from Pakistan’s Taftan border crossing with Iran and arrangements had been made to transport them to their hometowns.
“We are trying to make them stay in Quetta tonight. There are some restrictions on movement at night from Quetta,” Shafqaat told Reuters.
“There are law and order issues on roads at some places. We want to avoid any unfortunate or untoward incidents.”
Musharraf Abbas, who arrived from Tehran, said he was a student at the Iran University of Medical Sciences.
“Their [Iran’s] military residences and rooms were at about one-and-a-half-kilometer distance from our residence,” he told Reuters.
“They were attacked on late Friday night around 330pm in which their high level personnel, including scientists, revolutionary guards and military leaders were killed.”
Pakistan closed its border crossings with Iran at Panjgur in Balochistan province indefinitely due to escalating tensions, the district administration of Panjgur announced on Sunday, June 15. However, one of the busiest crossings at the Taftan border remains operational for repatriation and trade activity.
A group of 214 Pakistani students studying in medical and engineering institutions in Iran arrived at Pakistan’s Taftan border crossing from Tehran following Israeli airstrikes, officials said on Tuesday.
Iran and Israel launched new missile strikes at each other on Wednesday as the air war between the two longtime enemies entered a sixth day despite a call from US President Donald Trump for Tehran’s unconditional surrender.