Twitter users start #PakistanstandswithIndia trend in show of support as COVID grips India
Thousands of Pakistani expressed their sympathy and solidarity and sent prayers for the people of India which is reporting the highest-ever coronavirus cases in a single day ever recorded since the pandemic began.
India’s second wave of coronavirus is rapidly sliding into a devastating crisis, with hospitals unbearably full, oxygen supplies running short, desperate people dying in line waiting to see doctors. Each day, India is reporting nearly 300,000 new infections and seeing more fatalities every day.
Expressing solidarity with the neighbours, Prime Minister Imran Khan said: “Our prayers for a speedy recovery go to all those suffering from the pandemic in our neighbourhood & the world” urging that “we must fight this global challenge confronting humanity together.”
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also expressed sympathies with the people in India amid the intensifying second wave which he said had hit the South Asian region hard. Qureshi said the pandemic was a reminder that “humanitarian issues require responses beyond political consideration”, adding that Pakistan continued to work with SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) to increase cooperation to tackle COVID-19.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said prayers of Pakistani citizens were with the people of India, adding: “May God be kind and may these difficult times get over soon.”
Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said it was “painful” to see the suffering of Indian people as they grappled with the coronavirus and oxygen shortages.
Pakistani singer and actor Farhan Saeed sent prayers for India saying: “May Allah make it easier for India and the entire world.”
A Twitter use, Aima Khan, said that the trend shows that “people on both sides of the border have a lot of love and concern for each other, let the people meet, support each other.”
Indians thank Pakistanis for prayers
Licypriya Kangujam, a nine-year-old environment thanked Pakistan for standing in these difficult hours.
Edhi offers help to India
A day earlier, Faisal Edhi, son of renowned philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and chairman of the Edhi Foundation, wrote a letter to Indian PM Narendra Modi in which he offered his organization’s help in confronting the epidemic.
He offered India “a fleet of 50 ambulances along with our services to assist you in addressing, and further circumventing, the current health conditions”.
“We are very sorry to hear about the exceptionally heavy impact that the pandemic has had on your country, where a tremendous number of people are suffering immensely,” Faisal said in his letter.
