Woman presumed dead in triple murder case against powerful Balochistan minister found alive

Giran Naz, standing next to her four sons and a daughter after Balochistan levis force recovered the family from the [alleged] custody of provincial Minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran in Barkhan district of Balochistan on February 23, 2023. (Photo courtesy: Balochistan Levis Force)
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Updated 23 February 2023
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Woman presumed dead in triple murder case against powerful Balochistan minister found alive

  • Levies paramilitary force discovered three mutilated bodies in Hajji Kot area of Barkhan district on Monday night
  • Communications Minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran ia accused of kidnapping, killing members of woman’s family

QUETTA: In a dramatic twist in a triple murder case in Pakistan’s Balochistan province that has grabbed national headlines this week and sparked protests, a senior official said a woman believed to have been kidnapped and killed by a powerful politician had been recovered alive.

The Levies paramilitary force discovered three mutilated bodies in a well in the Hajji Kot area of Barkhan district in southwestern Balochistan on Monday night. The victims were said to belong to the family of a local tribesman, Khan Muhammad Marri, who has accused Communications and Works Minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran of holding his family hostage in “private jails” and eventually killing them. Khetran is currently under arrest.

Protesters set up a camp in Quetta on Tuesday, refusing to bury the mutilated bodies, allegedly belonging to a woman, Giran Naz, and her sons, Muhammad Nawaz and Abdul Qadir. Prior to the bodies being discovered, a video went viral of Naz accusing Khetran of detaining her family and requesting Pakistani authorities to secure their release.




A group of protesters sit right next to the coffins of a woman and her two sons in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 22, 2023, accusing a provincial minister of triple murder and demanding his arrest. (@paank_bnm/Twitter)

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and poorest province. The arid western region is rich in minerals but plagued by violence, with powerful tribes long having held sway over political and social life in the region. Separatist militants also run amok in the area, carrying out frequent attacks on security forces and accusing the federal government of looting the region’s resources while leaving its people in poverty.

Deputy Commissioner Barkhan, Abdullah Khosa, told Arab News Naz and five of her children had been held hostage at different locations. Naz was recovered from Kohlu, he said.

“Our Levis Quick Response Force (QRF) teams raided various locations and recovered some members from Kohlu and Duki and some were recovered from the bordering areas of Barkhan and Dera Bugti,” Khosa said.

About the three bodies found in the well on Monday, the official said the woman’s face had been mutilated and was unrecognizable but the two male bodies were of Naz and Marri’s sons.

“Now we will investigate the identity of the woman whose body was found,” Khosa said.

Police surgeon Dr. Ayesha Faiz, who performed an autopsy on the woman’s body, said it belonged to a 17-18 year old girl.

“The body is not of some old woman,” she told reporters, adding that the girl had been sexually assaulted before being shot in the head three times. Acid had been poured on her face and neck to conceal her identity.

Khetran, meanwhile, was summoned by the deputy inspector general (DIG) of police in Quetta for interrogation on Wednesday and subsequently arrested.

The Balochistan government has also formed a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) after the triple murder triggered outrage on social media and protests in Quetta.

Jahangir Marri, the secretary general of the Marri Ittehad Pakistan that organized the Quetta sit-in, accused the police and paramilitary forces of trying to protect the provincial minister who he accused of maintaining “private jails” to torture people.

He said the protests would go on until police presented Naz and her children before the people and proved that they were alive.

“Our protest will continue in Quetta,” he told Arab News, “and we won’t end the sit-in until the authorities bring the recovered woman and her sons here.”


UN says most flour delivered in Gaza looted or taken by starving people

Updated 57 min 48 sec ago
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UN says most flour delivered in Gaza looted or taken by starving people

  • Experts warn Gaza is at risk of famine, with the rate of young children suffering acute malnutrition nearly tripling
  • According to World Food Programme guidelines, 4,600 metric tons of flour would provide roughly eight days’ worth of bread for Gaza’s 2 million residents, based on a standard daily ration of 300 grams per person

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations said on Monday that it has only been able to bring minimal flour into Gaza since Israel lifted an aid blockade three weeks ago and that has mostly been looted by armed gangs or taken by starving Palestinians.
The organization has transported 4,600 metric tons of wheat flour into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing, the only entry point Israel allows it to use, Deputy UN spokesperson Fahan Haq told reporters.
Haq said aid groups in Gaza estimate that between 8,000 and 10,000 metric tons of wheat flour were needed to give each family in Gaza a bag of flour and “ease the pressure on markets and reduce desperation.”

HIGHLIGHTS

• US-backed GHF says has given out total 11.4 million meals

• UN calls for more supplies to be let into Gaza

• Gazans at risk of famine

“Most of it was taken by desperate, starving people before the supplies reached their destinations. In some cases, the supplies were looted by armed gangs,” Haq said.
According to World Food Programme guidelines, 4,600 metric tons of flour would provide roughly eight days’ worth of bread for Gaza’s 2 million residents, based on a standard daily ration of 300 grams per person.
Haq called for Israel to let in far more aid via multiple crossings and routes.
The UN has mostly delivered flour along with limited medical and nutrition items since Israel lifted the 11-week blockade in mid-May. Experts warn Gaza is at risk of famine, with the rate of young children suffering acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Israel and the United States want the UN to work through the controversial new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but the UN has refused, questioning its neutrality and accusing the distribution model of militarizing aid and forcing displacement.
Israel and the United States have accused Hamas of stealing aid from the UN-led operations, which the militants deny.
The GHF uses private US security and logistics firms to operate. It began operations in Gaza on May 26 and said on Monday so far it has given out 11.4 million meals.
Israel makes the UN offload aid on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, where it then has to be picked by the UN and aid groups already in Gaza. The UN has accused Israel of regularly denying access requests.

 


Trump says Iran is involved in Gaza hostage negotiations

Updated 10 June 2025
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Trump says Iran is involved in Gaza hostage negotiations

  • Under the proposal 28 Israeli hostages — alive and dead — would be released in the first week, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians
  • The United States and Iran are also separately trying to negotiate a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Monday Iran is involved in negotiations aimed at arranging a ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas.
“Gaza right now is in the midst of a massive negotiation between us and Hamas and Israel, and Iran actually is involved, and we’ll see what’s going to happen with Gaza. We want to get the hostages back,” Trump told reporters during an event in the White House State Dining Room.
Trump did not elaborate and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for details of Iran’s involvement. Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States has proposed a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it would abide by the terms but Hamas thus far has rejected the plan.
Under the proposal 28 Israeli hostages — alive and dead — would be released in the first week, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians.
The United States and Iran are also separately trying to negotiate a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
 

 


Gaza’s Al-Amal hospital ‘virtually out of service’: WHO

Updated 10 June 2025
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Gaza’s Al-Amal hospital ‘virtually out of service’: WHO

  • The WHO said June 5 that Al-Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals were unable to fully treat the wounded that continue to pour in because of serious shortages of medicines and medical supplies after two months of total blockade

GENEVA: The Al-Amal Hospital in Gaza, one of the few still operating in the Palestinian territory, is now “virtually out of service” due to intense military activity, the head of the WHO said Monday.
“Access to the hospital is obstructed, preventing new patients from reaching care, and leading to more preventable deaths,” the World Health Organization’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X.
Tedros said two emergency medical teams — one local, the other international — “are still doing their best to serve the remaining patients with the limited medical supplies left on the premises.”
“With the closure of Al-Amal, Nasser Medical Complex is now the only remaining hospital with an intensive care unit in Khan Younis,” he said.
The WHO said June 5 that Al-Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals were unable to fully treat the wounded that continue to pour in because of serious shortages of medicines and medical supplies after two months of total blockade.
Israeli authorities have recently allowed in some humanitarian aid, but way less than what is needed.
Nearly 20 months of relentless war, triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, has created one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world, with civilians exhausted by bombardments, forced displacement and hunger.
 

 


Russia has plans to test NATO’s resolve, German intelligence chief warns

Updated 10 June 2025
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Russia has plans to test NATO’s resolve, German intelligence chief warns

  • Germany has pledged to step up its support further under the new government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, promising to help Ukraine develop new missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory

BERLIN: Russia is determined to test the resolve of the NATO alliance, including by extending its confrontation with the West beyond the borders of Ukraine, the Germany’s foreign intelligence chief told the Table Media news organization.
Bruno Kahl, head of the Federal Intelligence Service, said his agency had clear intelligence indications that Russian officials believed the collective defense obligations enshrined in the NATO treaty no longer had practical force.
“We are quite certain, and we have intelligence showing it, that Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward,” Kahl told Table Media in a podcast interview.
“That doesn’t mean we expect tank armies to roll westwards,” he added. “But we see that NATO’s collective defense promise is to be tested.”
Germany, already the second-largest provider of armaments and financial support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, has pledged to step up its support further under the new government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, promising to help Ukraine develop new missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory.
Without detailing the nature of his intelligence sources, Kahl said Russian officials were envisaging confrontations that fell short of a full military engagement that would test whether the US would really live up to its mutual aid obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
“They don’t need to dispatch armies of tanks for that,” he said. “It’s enough to send little green men to Estonia to protect supposedly oppressed Russian minorities.”
Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea involved occupation of buildings and offices by Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms and civilian clothes, who came to be known as the “little green men” when Moscow initially denied their identity.
Kahl did not specify which officials in Moscow were thinking along these lines.
Merz, who visited Donald Trump in Washington last week, pushed back against the US president’s assertion that Ukraine and Russia were like two infants fighting, telling Trump that where Ukraine targeted Moscow’s military, Russia bombed Ukraine’s cities.
Kahl said his contacts with US counterparts had left him convinced they took the Russian threat seriously.
“They take it as seriously as us, thank God,” he said.


Gaza-bound aid boat with Greta Thunberg on board arrives in Israel after its seizure

Updated 10 June 2025
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Gaza-bound aid boat with Greta Thunberg on board arrives in Israel after its seizure

  • The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organized the voyage, said the activists were “kidnapped by Israeli forces” while trying to deliver desperately needed aid
  • “I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible,” Thunberg said in a prerecorded message released after the ship was halted

JERUSALEM: A Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists arrived at an Israeli port Monday after Israeli forces stopped and detained them — enforcing a longstanding blockade of the Palestinian territory that has been tightened during the Israel-Hamas war.
The boat, accompanied by Israel’s navy, arrived in Ashdod in the evening, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. It published a photo on social media of Thunberg after disembarking.
The 12 activists were undergoing medical checks to ensure they are in good health, the ministry said. They were expected to be held at a detention facility in Ramle before being deported, according to Adalah, a legal rights group representing them.
The activists had set out to protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which is among the deadliest and most destructive since World War II, and its restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid. Both have put the territory of around 2 million Palestinians at risk of famine.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organized the voyage, said the activists were “kidnapped by Israeli forces” while trying to deliver desperately needed aid.
“The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted and its life-saving cargo — including baby formula, food and medical supplies — confiscated,” it said in a statement.
It said the ship was seized in international waters about 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Gaza, and Adalah asserted that Israel had “no legal authority” to take it over.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry portrayed the voyage as a public relations stunt, saying on social media that “the ‘selfie yacht’ of the ‘celebrities’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel.”
It said the activists would return to their home countries and the aid would be sent to Gaza through established channels. It circulated footage of what appeared to be Israeli military personnel handing out sandwiches and water to the activists, who were wearing life vests.
Israel says boat was carrying minimal aid
Israeli officials said the flotilla carried what amounted to less than a truckload of aid.
“This wasn’t humanitarian aid. It’s Instagram activism,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said. “Meanwhile, Israel has delivered over 1,200 truckloads in the last two weeks. So who’s really feeding Gaza and who’s really feeding their own ego? Greta was not bringing aid, she was bringing herself.”
After its 2½-month total blockade aimed at pressuring Hamas, Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month, but humanitarian workers and experts have warned of famine unless the blockade is lifted and Israel ends its military offensive. About 600 trucks of aid entered daily during the ceasefire that Israel ended in March.
An attempt last month by Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza by sea failed after two drones attacked the vessel in international waters off Malta, organizers said. The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the ship’s front section.
Rights group questions Israel’s seizure
The Madleen set sail from Sicily a week ago. Along the way, it stopped on Thursday to rescue four migrants who had jumped overboard to avoid being detained by Libya’a coast guard.
“I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible,” Thunberg said in a prerecorded message released after the ship was halted.
Adalah, the rights group, said in a statement that “the arrest of the unarmed activists, who operated in a civilian manner to provide humanitarian aid, amounts to a serious breach of international law.”
Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament who is of Palestinian descent, was among those on board. She has been barred from entering Israel because of her opposition to Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.
She was among six French citizens on board. French President Emmanuel Macron called for consular protection and the repatriation of the French citizens.
“Most of all, France calls for a ceasefire as quickly as possible and the lifting of the humanitarian blockade. This is a scandal, unacceptable, that is playing out in Gaza. What’s been happening since early March is a disgrace, a disgrace,” Macron said
Next week, Macron co-hosts a conference at the UN on a two-state solution and recently said France should move toward recognizing a Palestinian state.
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said the crew and passengers were aware of the risks, Swedish news agency TT reported. Stenergard said the ministry’s assessment is that no one was in danger and there was no need for consular support.
An 18-year blockade on Gaza
Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of a blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s Palestinian population.
Israel sealed off Gaza from all aid in the early days of the war ignited by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but later relented under US pressure. In early March, shortly before Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas, the country again blocked all imports, including food, fuel and medicine.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages. Most have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas still holds 55 hostages, more than half believed to be dead.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said that women and children make up most of the dead.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of the population, leaving people almost completely dependent on international aid.
Efforts to broker another truce have been deadlocked for months. Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the captives are returned and Hamas is defeated, or disarmed and exiled.