Pakistan to fly citizens out of Yemen amid Saudi raids
Pakistan says it is set to evacuate its citizens from Yemen amid growing violence in the Arabian Peninsula country due to a Saudi-led campaign of airstrikes there.
Shujaat Azim, an adviser to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said in a television interview on Sunday that over 500 Pakistani citizens who have gathered in the western port city of Hodeida would be taken out of Yemen by a plane.
The mission would be followed by more flights, the official added.
The comments come a day after Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said 16 buses transported stranded Pakistanis from the capital of Sana’a to Hodeida, where they were kept in a school to be evacuated.
Some Pakistanis are still in the Yemeni port city of Aden waiting a lull in the clashes to be rescued, he added.
“The situation in Yemen is turning bad and it is our priority to safely evacuate our people. There are around 3,000 Pakistanis residing in Yemen, of which around 1,000 are trying to leave the country and come back to Pakistan,” Chaudhry said.
According to the official, a Pakistani naval vessel would also head to Yemen on Sunday.
The Al Saud regime unleashed its deadly air raids without a UN mandate against Yemen on March 26 in an attempt to restore power to fugitive Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told the parliament on March 27 that Islamabad is not prepared to participate in the Saudi-led aerial assaults against Yemen, but there have been conflicting reports about the participation of the cash-strapped and violence-hit country in the Saudi-led coalition.
The Riyadh regime’s blatant violation of Yemen’s sovereignty comes against a backdrop of total silence on the part of international bodies, particularly the United Nations.
Latest deadly Saudi airstrikes
The development comes as a military official said on Sunday that fresh Saudi-led air raids targeting Al-Subaha base in western Sana’a left 15 soldiers dead.
Medical sources at a military hospital in the capital also said the facility received 12 bodies and 18 injured troops following the attack.
Reports say at least 45 civilians, including six children, have so far lost their lives in Saudi-led airborne attacks against Yemen.
MR/MKA/HMV
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