Former minister seeks evacuation of J-K students from coronavirus-hit Iran

Former J-K finance minister Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Wednesday appealed to the Centre to evacuate people belonging to the Union Territory from Iran, which reported a spike in coronavirus cases.

Bukhari said he is in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs and have submitted details of over 240 Jammu and Kashmir students who are stuck in Shiraz, Tehran and other cities of Iran.

He appealed to the central government to act on the details and take measures for safe evacuation of these students. "I have information from the stranded students who study in Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Shiraz University of Medical Science (SUMS), Iran that over 300 students from J&K are studying in various provinces of the country," he said in a statement.

"All of them are currently safe but they apprehend contamination if they are not evacuated from Iran very soon," Bukhari added. He appealed to the government, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the external affairs minister, to arrange a chartered flight for these students and a separate quarantine facility for them.

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