ISLAMABAD: Twelve-hour-long bus rides, multiple check posts, interrogations and bills piling on were how many of nearly 600 Pakistanis evacuated from Syria this week described their fear-filled journey of leaving the war-torn nation by road through neighboring Lebanon. 
More than 1,300 Pakistanis have been stranded in Syria since last week when opposition forces seized the capital of Damascus unopposed following a lightning advance that sent President Bashar Assad fleeing to Russia on Sunday.
Pakistan’s mission in Damascus told Arab News on Wednesday 585 Pakistani nationals had been safely evacuated from Syria and were in Beirut. Efforts to transport another batch of 150 people had been hindered, the official said, due to “continuous bombing by Israeli forces.” Soon after the overthrow of Assad on Sunday ended 54 years of rule by his family, Israeli troops moved into the demilitarized zone set up after the 1973 Middle East war, saying the incursion was a temporary measure to ensure border security. On Tuesday, the Israeli military said a wave of air strikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles.
With major Syrian airports shut, the evacuations came after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged Lebanese PM Najib Mikati on Monday to “personally” assist in getting Pakistanis, including pilgrims, out of Syria by land routes through the border with Lebanon. 
“It took us over 12 hours to reach the Syria-Lebanon border, a distance that should have been just two hours,” Ilyas Naqvi, a Pakistani expatriate from Islamabad who has been living and working in Syria along with his family since 2000, told Arab News in a telephone interview. 

“At every checkpoint, we were searched and questioned by different groups, and with each stop we feared for our lives, not knowing if we would make it through.”
Naqvi appealed to the Pakistani government to make arrangements for the immediate return of Pakistanis, saying they were facing “severe financial hardships.”
“I arranged my own transport because it was unsafe to stay in Syria,” he explained. “A coaster that normally costs $10 per person to the Lebanon border charged $200 per head for my family of four, leaving us with very limited funds left.”
Abeel Hassan, who hails from Pakistan’s northwestern Parachinar city and had traveled to Sayyidah Zaynab town in Syria for a religious pilgrimage, also described an arduous journey to the border. 
“We heard continuous gunfire along the way, which kept all of us in constant fear,” Hassan said. 
However, he praised the Pakistani embassies in Syria and Lebanon for ensuring a safe evacuation and swiftly arranging visas at the Lebanon border.
“Our safe travel wouldn’t have been possible without the embassy officials who accompanied us and negotiated with the armed Syrians at various checkpoints to ensure our safe passage,” Hassan added.
The journey to the Lebanon border took his family six hours, he said, and they received visas at the border without having to pay a fee due to the assistance of the Pakistani mission in Lebanon. 
Zawar Hussain from Pakistan’s Hafizabad city, who had also traveled to Syria on a religious pilgrimage, said all pilgrims had paid in advance for the journey due to which they had brought limited funds on the journey. The ordeal in Syria left them in financial difficulty, making it hard even to afford food in Beirut.
“Due to the emergency situation, everything is highly overpriced here,” Hussain told Arab News. “We paid $80 for food for five people just yesterday [Tuesday].”
While wealthy pilgrims have already returned home by buying their own plane tickers onwards from Beirut, the majority lacked such funds, he added:
“We request the government to arrange charter or commercial flights for us, as we do not have the funds to purchase air tickets, which cost over $1,100.”
Ali Hassan, another pilgrim from Pakistan’s eastern city of Sargodha, said hotels at Sayyidah Zaynab — home to the Sayyida Zaynab Mosque which is believed to house the grave of Zaynab bint Ali, the granddaughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (pbuh) — had doubled their charges following the regime change, leaving pilgrims financially drained.
“Now, we don’t have enough money to buy water bottles for our family of five, as a bottle of water here in Beirut costs one dollar,” Hassan said. 
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Lebanon Salman Athar said despite the small size of the Beirut mission, the embassy was doing “everything possible” to assist Pakistani nationals.
“We have arranged visas for them without any fee and provided the best hotels and food,” Athar told Arab News, adding that the mission was in continuous contact with evacuees and the Lebanese government. 
“The foreign ministry is also working with the government to arrange a chartered flight from Beirut to bring them home,” he added, “and once it is finalized, they will be repatriated.”

LONDON: The father and stepmother of a 10-year-old girl found dead in her home in England were found guilty Wednesday of her murder.
Urfan Sharif, 42, was accused of Sara Sharif’s murder alongside his partner, 30-year-old Beinash Batool. His brother, 29-year-old Faisal Malik, was found guilty of causing or allowing the girl’s death.
Police found Sara’s body under a blanket in a bunk bed at her home in Woking, southwest of London, on Aug. 10, 2023, with dozens of injuries including extensive bruising, burns and fractures. A post-mortem examination concluded she died of unnatural causes.
Prosecutors have said that all three defendants played a part in a “campaign of abuse” against Sara in the weeks leading to her death. The three fled the UK for Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, on Aug. 9, the day after Sara was believed to have died.
The discovery was made after Urfan Sharif called UK police from Pakistan to say he had “legally punished her, and she died,” prosecutors said. He told the phone operator it wasn’t his intention to kill her but he had “beat her up too much,” they said.

Police in Pakistan found the three suspects after an extensive search and put them on a flight to the UK They were arrested upon arrival at London’s Gatwick Airport.
Batool and Malik had declined to give evidence. They denied involvement in the abuse.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones has said all three defendants lived in the same house as Sara and that it was “inconceivable” that just one of them had acted alone.
He alleged that each of the suspects sought to point the finger at the others. He said Sharif’s case was that Batool, Sara’s stepmother, was responsible for the girl’s death, and he made a false confession to protect her.
The jury heard a recording of a phone call made on the evening of Aug. 8, 2023, the day Sara was believed to have died, in which Batool could be heard asking about booking a flight to Islamabad for four adults and four children.