ISLAMABAD: Experts have interpreted General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s statement on Saturday as an indirect message to the country’s nuclear rival India. They claim the army chief was indicating that Pakistan knew about New Delhi’s intentions, though it was still willing to resolve outstanding regional disputes through peaceful negotiations.
“A dialogue is the only route to establish peace in the region. Pakistan remains committed to such a dialogue, but only on the basis of sovereign equality, dignity and honor,” the army chief had said, while stressing that the Kashmir dispute was the core matter of concern.
“Failing to coerce politically and militarily, India has been working on hybrid warfare techniques to bleed Pakistan,” foreign relations and defense expert Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal told Arab News.
Jaspal claims that New Delhi is making the best use of hybrid warfare tools. But Pakistan’s best option is a constructive dialogue with India “to combat both internal and external challenges to its security.”
Addressing the graduating cadets at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul, Gen. Bajwa had said: “Our enemies know that they cannot beat us fair and square and have thus subjected us to a cruel, evil and protracted hybrid war. They are trying to weaken our resolve by weakening us from within.”
Analyst Qamar Cheema told Arab News that the army chief had previously opened doors for talks with India and also asked the Afghan government to inform India that Islamabad was willing to hold dialogue on the transit route for trade through Pakistan, but he did not receive any response.
Elements within the state questioning the very armed forces that eliminated terror threats days after peace returned to the region bears the hallmark of some forces determined to destabilize the country, Cheema explained while trying to decode what the army chief had said.
“His reference to hybrid war is in this context,” he said.
Prominent columnist Zahid Hussain told Arab News: “There is an obvious link between the two comments – by hybrid war he meant a mix of overt and covert hostilities and therefore has called for a meaningful negotiation with India to end this situation.”
Earlier this week, the army chief warned that “the armed forces with the support of the people of Pakistan will not let their ulterior motives succeed.”
The Pashtun Tahafuz (or protection) Movement (PTM) led by a human rights activist, Manzoor Ahmed Pashteen, has lobbied to address the plight of Pashtuns in the country. The movement gained momentum after the killing of an aspiring model and shopkeeper, Naqeebullah Mehsud, in an allegedly fake police encounter. From there, its demands grew to address other issues facing Pashtuns.
Earlier this month, the PTM drew international attention over its large protest gathering that mainly demanded: The abolition of the Frontier Crimes Regulation, a draconian law from the British colonial era; removal of landmines from the tribal areas; release of all political prisoners and others incarcerated on trumped-up charges; removal of army checkpoints; and recovery of missing people. The movement has also leveled allegations against the army for triggering these issues.
“You cannot solely blame it (Pashtun troubles) on the army,” Khalid Muhammad, director general of Islamabad-based national security think-tank Command Eleven, told Arab News.
However, a Peshawar-based analyst, Lehaz Ali, told Arab News: “Viewed from the outside, the movement may give vibes of an uprising, but those who live in this region and have experienced these problems describe these demands as genuine.”
Ali said that frustration and anger had been mounting within the Pashtun community, which felt its voice had been ignored. Talks can resolve the matter, Ali explained. He acknowledged that extraordinary steps had to be taken over the past decade to control the worsening security situation in the country’s northwest to defeat the threat of terror.
Yet, he added: “A situation usually isn’t what it seems when viewed from a distance. Therefore, this movement is speculated as a conspiracy with a foreign support.”
Analysts link Pakistan army chief’s hybrid war statement to India
Analysts link Pakistan army chief’s hybrid war statement to India
- Army will not allow anti-state elements to disrupt peace using Pakistanis
- Pakistan wants dialogue with India, but New Delhi should not construe it as a weakness
DHL cargo plane crashes in Lithuania
- The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a “DHL cargo plane
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.
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.
