At least 205 Pakistani students returned to the country from Kyrgyzstan via a special flight on Thursday, as the Karachi airport received the first flight of students from the Central Asian country.

“The provincial government has been in contact with them,” Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told reporters at the Karachi airport.

Pakistani students from Kyrgyzstan started returning to the country on May 18 after a violent mob attacked international students following clashes between two groups. The first commercial flight brought back at least 140 students back home.

Families of the students were also at the airport to receive them. “Thank God, students safely returned to the country,” Murad said and added that 55 girls and 150 boys landed in Sindh’s capital.

“It was a very big issue for these students and the country after what happened in Kyrgyzstan’s Bishkek,” he said.

According to the Sindh chief minister, 99 students – out of the 205 – were from Karachi.

While sharing the details, he said that around 180 students, including six injured, were remaining in Kyrgyzstan and added that the Sindh government would bear the expenses for the return.

Murad also spoke about the completion of the studies of students.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formed a 25-member committee to examine the state of public and private medical colleges in the country as hundreds of medical students returned to Pakistan after a violent mob attacked international students in Bishkek.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar would lead the committee as the chairman.

More than 3,000 students returned to Pakistan from Kyrgyzstan, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar told reporters on Wednesday.

The government has also asked the Air Force to run special flights to bring back students.

“I had said that I would not be placated until I physically came to Kyrgyzstan. The president had assured me that everything is under control and not to worry,” he said while sharing details of his meeting with his Kyrgyz counterpart on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Astana earlier this week.

In his meeting, he demanded that those responsible for the attacks on Pakistani students should be held accountable.