ISLAMABAD: When armed men tried to kidnap and threatened to kill him, Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui feared he would become another statistic in a growing list of activists and bloggers who have disappeared in Pakistan after criticizing the country’s powerful military or advocating peace with hostile neighbor India.
Siddiqui, the Pakistan bureau chief for the World is One News, a New Delhi-based 24-hour television news channel, said he suspected the attack Wednesday was payback for his critical reporting on Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence agencies.
Siddiqui was heading to the airport to catch a flight to London when his taxi was stopped. He was ordered out of the vehicle, beaten and threatened.
He escaped, fleeing into oncoming traffic and flagging down a passing car. Behind him he said he heard the gunmen shout: “Shoot him! Shoot him!“
“They wanted to make me a missing person,” Siddiqui said in a telephone interview from a local police station where he went after the attack to file a complaint and demand police protection. “This has been coming. It’s all about what I write.”
The gunmen took his computers, several hard drives, his telephone and his passport, said Siddiqui, who is also a reporter for the France 24 television network and has had past run-ins with Pakistani intelligence. In May, he received threatening calls from the counter-terrorism wing of the Federal Investigation Agency, ordering him to come in for questioning. Siddiqui, who did not comply, filed a complaint with the courts and said he was told by the FIA that he was being investigated because of his critical stories about the military.
On Wednesday, Siddiqui’s World is One News website, was inaccessible in Pakistan. Visitors to the site were told: “The site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited for viewership from within Pakistan.” It’s not clear when the site went offline in Pakistan.
The Committee to Protect Journalists Asia program coordinator Steven Butler said the attempted abduction on Wednesday “sends a chilling signal to the entire press community.”
The CPJ “is very concerned about the recent pattern of disappearances,” Butler said in an email interview. “While most of the recent disappearances have been mainly social activists, or even students, these abductions amount to severe intimidation for anyone who exercises free speech.”
The spokesman for Pakistan’s main intelligence service, the ISI, did not respond to a written request for comment about the attack on Siddiqui. The government says it is investigating the allegations and has set up a commission to investigate complaints of “enforced disappearance.” In its year-end report, obtained by The Associated Press, the commission said there are 1,532 people who remain missing, suspected of being taken by Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Among them is peace activist Reza Khan, who was taken from his home in the eastern city of Lahore in December by armed men, who also ransacked his apartment, seizing his computer, his files and his telephone. He hasn’t been heard from since and human rights activists accuse the country’s intelligence agencies of kidnapping him to stop Khan’s attempts to improve relations between Pakistan and India through interactions between school children.
“We are convinced he was taken by the intelligence because of his work trying to improve relations with India,” said I.A. Rehman of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “His neighbor saw the men take him. He took the number of the car, but the police said it was fictitious. In Pakistan only the intelligence agencies have the right to use license plate numbers that are fictitious.”
Khan’s father, Mohammed Ismail Khan, has gone to the courts to petition for his son’s freedom but has heard nothing since he was taken last month.
“The nights are very long for his mother and me. We console each other and we pray for our son. God knows where he is and what condition he is in,” the elder Khan said in a telephone interview.
Early in 2017, six bloggers and social activists, all of whom had criticized the military on social media, disappeared. Five were freed and the sixth is still missing. Those who were freed all said they had been held by the country’s powerful intelligence agencies and were tortured. They have all fled the country.
Zeenat Shahzadi, a young Pakistani journalist, was abducted by armed men in 2015 while investigating the disappearance of an Indian national. Pakistani human rights groups blamed intelligence agencies. Local media reports said she was released late last year after being held for two years.
Zahid Hussain, a security analyst and author of two books on militancy in Pakistan, said the country’s intelligence agencies have become increasingly sensitive to attacks against the military on social media because of social media’s penetration in Pakistan and the difficulty of controlling it. “Pakistan is very sensitive about anything linked with India,” believing New Delhi has stepped up its covert operations inside Pakistan, he said.
Having fought three wars against each other, India and Pakistan, both nuclear weapons states, regard one another with deep suspicion and accuse each other of fomenting violence on their territory.
Butler, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, noted the lack of accountability of those behind the wave of abductions.
“We certainly, like many others, suspect that intelligence agencies are behind many of these abductions,” Butler said. “It’s worrisome because they do not appear to be accountable to anyone. The best remedy would be to find the perpetrators, arrest them and bring them to justice.”
Pakistan reporter says he escaped kidnapping attempt
Pakistan reporter says he escaped kidnapping attempt
Escaped lion attacks woman and children in Pakistan street
- CCTV footage shows the lion jumping the barrier around its home and pursuing the family
- It knocks the woman to the ground and claws the arms and faces of her two children
LAHORE: An escaped pet lion chased a woman and two children down a busy street in Pakistan’s Lahore, police said Friday, with dramatic footage showing the big cat leaping a wall before pouncing on them.
CCTV footage released by the police showed the lion jumping the barrier around its home and pursuing a woman carrying her shopping on Thursday night.
The lion jumped on her back, knocking her to the ground, the footage showed.
A police report quoted the father as saying the lion then turned to his five-year-old and seven-year-old children, and clawed their arms and faces.
All three were taken to hospital but were not in a critical condition.
The owners who ran out of the house were “amused to see their lion attack” the passersby, the father added in the report.
Police said Friday they had arrested three men.
“The suspects fled from the spot, taking the lion with them. They were arrested within 12 hours of the incident,” the office of the Deputy Inspector General Operations in Lahore told AFP.
The lion, an 11-month-old male, has been confiscated by police and sent to a wildlife park.
Officials at the facility said that the animal appears to be in good health.
Keeping exotic animals, especially big cats, as pets has long been seen as a sign of privilege and power in Punjab, the most populous province of the country.
In December 2024, an adult lion escaped from its enclosure in another neighborhood of Lahore, terrorizing residents before being shot dead by a security guard.
The incident prompted the provincial government to pass new laws regulating the sale, purchase, breeding and ownership of big cats.
The law now requires owners to obtain licenses for the animals which are barred from being kept in residential areas.
Breeders have to pay a hefty fee for registration, while farms have to be a minimum of 10 acres in size.
Russia’s recognition of Taliban rule marks start of geopolitical shift, experts say
- Afghan FM says Russia’s recognition would ‘set a good example for other countries’
- No other nation has formally recognized Taliban government after its 2021 takeover
KABUL: Russia’s formal recognition of the Taliban government as the legitimate authority in Afghanistan could mark the beginning of a major geopolitical shift in the region, experts said on Friday.
Russia became the first country on Thursday to officially recognize the Taliban rule, nearly four years since the group took control of Afghanistan.
Moscow’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, had “officially conveyed his government’s decision to recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” during a meeting in Kabul with the country’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Mutaqqi, according to a statement issued late on Thursday by the Afghan Foreign Ministry.
This was followed by the Russian Foreign Ministry announcing hours later that it had accepted the credentials of a new ambassador of Afghanistan, saying that “official recognition of the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will give impetus to the development of productive bilateral cooperation between our countries in various fields.”
Muttaqi welcomed the decision and said in a statement that it would “set a good example for other countries.”
No other nation has formally recognized the Taliban government after it seized power in 2021, after US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan following 20 years of war.
However, a handful of countries, including China and the UAE have designated ambassadors to Kabul, while a number of foreign governments have continued the work of their diplomatic missions in the Afghan capital.
“Russia’s decision to recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a huge step. It’s one of the biggest achievements of the Islamic Emirate’s foreign policy in the last more than four years. It can be the beginning of a major geopolitical shift in the region and globally,” Naseer Ahmad Nawidy, political science professor at Salam University in Kabul, told Arab News.
“The US’ one-sided position to support Israel in the war against Gaza and attack Iran compelled Iran and Russia to take independent steps, ignoring the US in their decisions. It’s a new phase towards moving to a multipolar world.”
With Moscow’s role as a key political player in Central Asia, its recognition of the Taliban will likely influence other countries in the region to follow suit, he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has steadily built ties with the Taliban government, despite it being widely shunned by the international community due to repeated human rights violations.
The rights of Afghan women in particular have been curtailed since the Taliban takeover. They are barred from secondary schools and higher education, restricted in public places and not allowed to take up most of the jobs available in the country.
“I consider this recognition as a deep stab in the back as an Afghan woman and for Afghan women who have been deprived of life, education, work, freedom,” Afghan women’s rights advocate Riha Ghafoorzai told Arab News.
Under the Taliban, Afghan society has been turned “into a political prison, with no free press, no political opposition, and no civil rights,” she said.
“Recognizing such a rule is an insult to the sacrifices of thousands of Afghans who have fought for a modern, free, and democratic Afghanistan.”
With the recognition, Russia effectively broke an international consensus that was aimed at forcing the Taliban to listen to public demands, implement reforms and establish a legitimate system.
But instead, Moscow is sending “a message to the Taliban that there is no need for reform, the international community will soften and the regime will eventually be legitimized, even if it is against the nation,” Ghafoorzai added.
“Russia’s recognition of the Taliban is a profound political message that will have far-reaching and long-term consequences for the geopolitical balance of the region, international norms, and the fate of the Afghan people,” she said.
“Recognizing extremism is a great political betrayal of democracy. I hope that the international community will closely examine this situation for the future of humanity.”
PM Sharif discusses trade, investment and regional ties with ECO leaders on summit sidelines
- The Pakistani prime minister meets the presidents of Türkiye, Iran, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan
- Sharif reaffirms his administration’s resolve to further strengthen relations with these countries
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday held a series of meetings with the presidents of Türkiye, Iran, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the 17th Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit in Khankendi, Azerbaijan, reaffirming Pakistan’s commitment to regional peace, connectivity and enhanced bilateral trade and investment.
The two-day summit, held from July 3-4, focused on promoting economic cooperation, sustainable development and regional integration among ECO member states.
Sharif led Pakistan’s delegation, using the opportunity to deepen bilateral and multilateral ties with key regional partners.
In his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the two leaders reviewed the full spectrum of bilateral relations and vowed to accelerate progress in critical areas.
“The two leaders reiterated their resolve to bring about meaningful progress in relations... [emphasizing] the importance of deepening cooperation in trade, defense, energy, connectivity and investment,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
To advance this agenda, both sides agreed to exchange high-level delegations to finalize understandings reached between the sides.
Sharif reaffirmed Pakistan’s “unwavering commitment” to working closely with Türkiye to promote peace, stability and sustainable development in the region.
In another key engagement, the Pakistani prime minister met Iranian President Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, with both leaders reviewing the implementation of previous agreements to strengthen bilateral ties.
Sharif praised Iran’s leadership during the recent conflict with Israel and welcomed Tehran’s decision to agree to a ceasefire.
“The Prime Minister reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering solidarity with the people and Government of Iran and Pakistan’s strong commitment to continue working closely with Iran for peace in the region through dialogue and diplomacy,” said another PMO statement.
In turn, President Pezeshkian thanked Pakistan for its diplomatic support during the crisis and acknowledged its role in efforts to de-escalate tensions.
The prime minister also held talks with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, in what was their third bilateral meeting this year. The two leaders agreed to further strengthen their economic partnership, especially by accelerating Azerbaijan’s investments in Pakistan.
“The two leaders agreed to enhance their cooperation in the fields of trade and investment while expressing satisfaction over the progress made regarding the investment prospects,” the PMO said.
Sharif invited President Aliyev to visit Pakistan, noting that recent exchanges had significantly strengthened bilateral ties.
The Azerbaijan leader had previously announced a $2 billion investment package for Pakistan during a visit to Islamabad in 2024, and the two countries have also deepened defense cooperation, including Islamabad’s sale of JF-17 fighter jets to Baku.
In his meeting with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Sharif focused on regional integration, energy cooperation and the Trans-Afghan Railway Project, which is seen as vital for unlocking trade corridors between Central and South Asia.
“The two leaders agreed on visits of their senior ministers to Tashkent and Islamabad to finalize necessary agreements,” the PMO said, adding that the two sides viewed their cultural and historical ties as a strong foundation for broader collaboration.
Saudi, Russian foreign ministers meet in Moscow
- Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing relations and building on existing strategic partnerships
MOSCOW: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Friday, as part of an official visit aimed at strengthening the longstanding relationship between the two countries, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
During the meeting, the two ministers reviewed Saudi-Russian ties and ongoing cooperation between the Kingdom and the Russian Federation, and discussed avenues for further collaboration across a range of fields, SPA added.
Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing relations and building on existing strategic partnerships.
The talks were followed by an official session, in which Prince Faisal and Lavrov underscored the depth of friendship between the Kingdom and Russia. It also included a wide-ranging discussion on key regional developments and joint efforts to support stability and security in the Middle East, including the crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The visit comes amid ongoing diplomatic engagement between Riyadh and Moscow on regional issues and shared interests in global energy markets and political coordination.
Prince Faisal reiterated, in a press conference during his visit, that the Kingdom rejected military solutions and consistently advocated for resolving all conflicts, regardless of their nature, through negotiation.
Crops wither in war-torn Sudan as power cuts cripple irrigation
- Sudan’s agricultural sector is now facing another crushing blow from the nationwide power outages
- State-run power plants have been repeatedly targeted, suffering severe damage and ultimately leaving farms without water
KHARTOUM: Hatem Abdelhamid stands amid his once-thriving date palms in northern Sudan, helpless as a prolonged war-driven power outage cripples irrigation, causing devastating crop losses and deepening the country’s food crisis.
“I’ve lost 70 to 75 percent of my crops this year,” he said, surveying the dying palms in Tanqasi, a village on the Nile in Sudan’s Northern State.
“I’m trying really hard to keep the rest of the crops alive,” he told AFP.
Sudan’s agricultural sector — already battered by a two-year conflict and economic crisis — is now facing another crushing blow from the nationwide power outages.
Since the war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023, state-run power plants have been repeatedly targeted, suffering severe damage and ultimately leaving farms without water.
Like most Sudanese farms, Abdelhamid’s depends on electric-powered irrigation — but the system has been down “for over two months” due to the blackouts.
Sudan had barely recovered from the devastating 1985 drought and famine when war erupted again in 2023, delivering a fresh blow to the country’s agriculture.
Agriculture remains the main source of food and income for 80 percent of the population, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Now in its third year, the conflict has plunged more than half the population into acute food insecurity, with famine already taking hold in at least five areas and millions more at risk across conflict-hit regions in the west, center and south.
The war has also devastated infrastructure, killed tens of thousands of people, and displaced 13 million.
A 2024 joint study by the United Nations Development Programme and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) found that nearly a third of rural households have lost irrigation and water access since the war began.
Without electricity to power his irrigation system, Abdelhamid — like thousands of farmers across the country — was forced to rely on diesel-powered pumps.
But with fuel scarce and prices now more than 20 times higher than before the war, even that option is out of reach for many.
“I used to spend 10,000 Sudanese pounds (about four euros according to the black market rate) for irrigation each time,” said another farmer, Abdelhalim Ahmed.
“Now it costs me 150,000 pounds (around 60 euros) because there is no electricity,” he told AFP.
Ahmed said he has lost three consecutive harvests — including crops like oranges, onions, tomatoes and dates.
With seeds, fertilizers and fuel now barely available, many farmers say they won’t be able to replant for the next cycle.
In April, the FAO warned that “below average rainfall” and ongoing instability were closing the window to prevent further deterioration.
A June study by IFPRI also projected Sudan’s overall economic output could shrink by as much as 42 percent if the war continues, with the agricultural sector contracting by more than a third.
“Our analysis shows massive income losses across all households and a sharp rise in poverty, especially in rural areas and among women,” said Khalid Siddig, a senior research fellow at IFPRI.
