Another group of 176 Pakistanis stranded in India due to the novel coronavirus lockdown will return home on Wednesday (today).

According to details, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan said that a group of 176 stranded Pakistanis in India due to the novel coronavirus lockdown will return home today.

These Pakistanis will come back via Wagah-Attari border between the two countries, a Foreign Ministry statement said, adding that these Pakistanis were stranded in different Indian states due to the extended lockdown and closure of Wagah-Attari border following the outbreak of the pandemic.

These were stranded in states including Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand and Delhi.
In line with the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s directions, for safe and smooth repatriation of stranded Pakistanis, the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi remained in close contact with the Indian side and the Foreign Office has been coordinating with other national authorities in Pakistan.

“The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi also helped and coordinated logistics for transfer of these Pakistanis to Attari from more than 20 different Indian cities, amid the lockdown,” the statement added. The ongoing attempts of the Foreign Ministry will continue till the repatriation of all remaining stranded Pakistanis, according to the statement.

More than 400 stranded Pakistani Nationals already repatriated from India via the Attari-Wagah border since 20 March 2020.

The Foreign Ministry said earlier that a special cell i.e the Crisis Management Unit is working at the ministry round-the-clock with a dedicated team to monitor the phased repatriation of Pakistanis across the globe in the wake of the rising threat of COVID-19.