ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, briefed the Senate Committee of the Whole House in Islamabad on Tuesday on matters pertaining to national security. It is the first time in six years — since the US raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in 2011 — that the country’s military leaders have addressed Pakistan’s lawmakers in the Senate.
The military’s top brass, including Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Naveed Mukhtar, accompanied Bajwa amid tight security to brief the Senate Committee, chaired by Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, in a four-hour meeting which was also attended by members of Parliament.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor told media that Director General Military Operations (MO) Maj. Gen. Sahir Shamshad Mirza had informed the whole house about the military’s approach on security matters which affect the nation. The army is expected to provide further details of the discussion at a press briefing this week.
The briefing was also intended to bridge information gaps between lawmakers and the armed forces, while also addressing concerns about the role of the armed forces, Ghafoor added.
Defense analyst, and retired brigadier, Haris Nawaz, told Arab News: “The purpose of this briefing is that the army believes in civilian supremacy and accepts democracy. The Senate is the right forum to brief them on the prevailing geopolitical and geostrategic environments, and on what the army is doing to safeguard Pakistan’s interest in the region.”
The military’s unilateral decision to take lawmakers into its confidence comes amid Washington’s policy change toward Islamabad, ongoing skirmishes at the Pakistani-Indian disputed border and the volatile situation at the Afghan border.
Insiders quoted Bajwa as saying that his visits to a number of countries in recent months were intended to strengthen military diplomacy against the backdrop of regional geostrategic change, and his meetings further cemented bilateral understanding between Pakistan and its neighbors and allies.
“We cannot ignore the changes that are taking place in Afghanistan,” the chief of army staff reportedly said. “Border management is necessary to protect the Pak-Afghan border.”
Nawaz said that Bajwa briefed the House on his trips to Iran, China, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The army’s top brass explained that, since 2015, the military courts had passed judgment on 274 terror-related cases, sentencing 161 people to death. Since Bajwa took command of the army, the courts have received 160 cases and, so far, 56 convicts have been executed.
Pakistan’s largest broad-spectrum security operation — Radd-ul-Fasaad (Elimination of Discord) — was launched in February to eliminate the threat of terrorism and consolidate the gains of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, which was launched in 2014 as a joint military offensive that resulted in thousands of raids, said Maj. Gen. Mirza.
The efforts, he reportedly told the Senate, have resulted in 1,249 operations in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and the restive Tribal Areas, with 31 major operations in the region. In Punjab, that number was 13,011 with seven major ops, and in Baluchistan 1,410 including 29 major ops.
Maj. Gen. Mirza added that 18,001 operations were executed based on intelligence sharing, in which 19,993 weapons were confiscated and a total of 4,983 search operations were conducted.
An estimated 8,780 suspects have been remanded in police custody since the paramilitary operation began in 2013 in Pakistan’s commercial hub of Karachi, Maj. Gen. Mirza said, from whom 1,948 terrorists have been captured and 154 kidnappers have been arrested, leading to the recovery of those kidnapped.
Nawaz said that, apart from the two military-led operations, the army chief discussed the visits of US officials to Pakistan and told legislators of their expectations from the US, which wants its non-NATO ally to eliminate terrorists from its soil.
“He also highlighted the Indian intelligence and Afghan intelligence agencies fomenting terrorism in Pakistan, especially in Baluchistan,” said Nawaz, who believes that this briefing will have addressed the concerns and questions of the Senate about the army’s activities.
Pakistan military officials brief lawmakers on national security
Pakistan military officials brief lawmakers on national security
DHL cargo plane crashes into a house in Lithuania, killing at least 1
- The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a “DHL cargo plane
VILNIUS: A DHL cargo plane crashed into a house Monday morning near the Lithuanian capital, killing at least one person.
Lithuanian’s public broadcaster LRT, quoting an emergency official, said two people had been taken to the hospital after the crash, and one was later pronounced dead. LRT said the aircraft smashed into a two-story home near the airport.
The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a “DHL cargo plane flying from Leipzig, Germany, to Vilnius Airport.”
It posted on the social platform X that city services including a fire truck were on site.
DHL Group, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, did not immediately return a call for comment.
The DHL aircraft was operated by Swiftair, a Madrid-based contractor. The carrier could not be immediately reached.
The Boeing 737 was 31 years old, which is considered by experts to be an older airframe, though that’s not unusual for cargo flights.
UN chief slams land mine threat days after US decision to supply Ukraine
- The outgoing US administration is aiming to give Ukraine an upper hand before President-elect Donald Trump enters office
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the mines ‘very important’ to halting Russian attacks
SIEM REAP, Cambodia: The UN Secretary-General on Monday slammed the “renewed threat” of anti-personnel land mines, days after the United States said it would supply the weapons to Ukrainian forces battling Russia’s invasion.
In remarks sent to a conference in Cambodia to review progress on the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, UN chief Antonio Guterres hailed the work of clearing and destroying land mines across the world.
“But the threat remains. This includes the renewed use of anti-personnel mines by some of the Parties to the Convention, as well as some Parties falling behind in their commitments to destroy these weapons,” he said in the statement.
He called on the 164 signatories — which include Ukraine but not Russia or the United States — to “meet their obligations and ensure compliance to the Convention.”
Guterres’ remarks were delivered by UN Under-Secretary General Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.
AFP has contacted her office and a spokesman for Guterres to ask if the remarks were directed specifically at Ukraine.
The Ukrainian team at the conference did not respond to AFP questions about the US land mine supplies.
Washington’s announcement last week that it would send anti-personnel land mines to Kyiv was immediately criticized by human rights campaigners.
The outgoing US administration is aiming to give Ukraine an upper hand before President-elect Donald Trump enters office.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the mines “very important” to halting Russian attacks.
The conference is being held in Cambodia, which was left one of the most heavily bombed and mined countries in the world after three decades of civil war from the 1960s.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told the conference his country still needs to clear over 1,600 square kilometers (618 square miles) of contaminated land that is affecting the lives of more than one million people.
Around 20,000 people have been killed in Cambodia by land mines and unexploded ordnance since 1979, and twice as many have been injured.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said on Wednesday that at least 5,757 people had been casualties of land mines and explosive remnants of war across the world last year, 1,983 of whom were killed.
Civilians made up 84 percent of all recorded casualties, it said.
Philippines’ Marcos says threat of assassination ‘troubling’
- Security agencies at the weekend said they would step up their protocols
MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said on Monday he will not take lightly “troubling” threats against him, just days after his estranged vice president said she had asked someone to assassinate the president if she herself was killed.
In a video message during which he did not name Vice President Sara Duterte, his former running mate, Marcos said “such criminal plans should not be overlooked.”
Security agencies at the weekend said they would step up their protocols and investigate the statement, which Duterte made at a press conference. The vice president’s office has acknowledged a Reuters request for comment.
An average of 140 women and girls were killed by a partner or relative per day in 2023, the UN says
- The agencies reported approximately 51,100 women and girls were killed in 2023
- The rates were highest in Africa and the Americas and lowest in Asia and Europe
UNITED NATIONS: The deadliest place for women is at home and 140 women and girls on average were killed by an intimate partner or family member per day last year, two UN agencies reported Monday.
Globally, an intimate partner or family member was responsible for the deaths of approximately 51,100 women and girls during 2023, an increase from an estimated 48,800 victims in 2022, UN Women and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime said.
The report released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women said the increase was largely the result of more data being available from countries and not more killings.
But the two agencies stressed that “Women and girls everywhere continue to be affected by this extreme form of gender-based violence and no region is excluded.” And they said, “the home is the most dangerous place for women and girls.”
The highest number of intimate partner and family killings was in Africa – with an estimated 21,700 victims in 2023, the report said. Africa also had the highest number of victims relative to the size of its population — 2.9 victims per 100,000 people.
There were also high rates last year in the Americas with 1.6 female victims per 100,000 and in Oceania with 1.5 per 100,000, it said. Rates were significantly lower in Asia at 0.8 victims per 100,000 and Europe at 0.6 per 100,000.
According to the report, the intentional killing of women in the private sphere in Europe and the Americas is largely by intimate partners.
By contrast, the vast majority of male homicides take place outside homes and families, it said.
“Even though men and boys account for the vast majority of homicide victims, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by lethal violence in the private sphere,” the report said.
“An estimated 80 percent of all homicide victims in 2023 were men while 20 percent were women, but lethal violence within the family takes a much higher toll on women than men, with almost 60 percent of all women who were intentionally killed in 2023 being victims of intimate partner/family member homicide,” it said.
The report said that despite efforts to prevent the killing of women and girls by countries, their killings “remain at alarmingly high levels.”
“They are often the culmination of repeated episodes of gender-based violence, which means they are preventable through timely and effective interventions,” the two agencies said.
Russia says it downs seven Ukrainian missiles over Kursk region
Russia’s air defense systems destroyed seven Ukrainian missiles overnight over the Kursk region, governor of the Russian region that borders Ukraine said on Monday.
He said that air defense units also destroyed seven Ukrainian drones. He did not provide further details.
A pro-Russian military analyst Roman Alyokhin, who serves as an adviser to the governor, said on his Telegram messaging channel that “Kursk was subjected to a massive attack by foreign-made missiles” overnight.
