ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir held a meeting with US Central Command (CENTCOM) Chief General Michael Erik Kurilla, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday, and emphasized the need to increase joint military trainings between the two countries.
General Munir arrived in Washington last Tuesday on his first official visit to the United States since he became Pakistan’s army chief in November 2022. During his ongoing visit, he has met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Llyod J. Austin along with several other high-profile American security officials.
Pakistan’s army chiefs have frequently visited the US in their tenures as Islamabad and Washington remained strong Cold War allies and have jointly worked on a wide spectrum of issues ranging from regional stability to fighting militancy, particularly during the war in Afghanistan.
The army chief met the US general at the CENTCOM headquarters at Tampa Bay in Florida.
“During the meeting, matters of shared interests, particularly cooperation in regional security matters came under discussion,” the army’s media wing, ISPR, said in the statement issued after the meeting. “Both sides discussed avenues of joint training and reiterated the need for enhancing training interactions between CENTCOM and Pakistan Army.”
The army chief also visited CENTCOM Joint Operations Center during his visit to Florida.
The US State Department also highlighted Pakistan’s significance as an ally, as General Munir continues his visit to the US.
“Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally of the United States and a NATO partner,” Matthew Miller said in response to a question during a media briefing. “We look forward to partnering with them on regional security and defense cooperation.”
Pakistan’s army chief meets senior US general, calls for enhanced bilateral military trainings
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Pakistan’s army chief meets senior US general, calls for enhanced bilateral military trainings
- General Munir is on his first visit to the US since becoming the army chief and has met Antony Blinken, Llyod Austin
- The State Department calls Pakistan ‘major non-NATO ally,’ saying the US wants to partner with it on security issues
Pakistan reaffirms unwavering support for Palestine, demands unconditional ceasefire in Gaza
- Shehbaz Sharif’s message comes as world marks International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People
- Calls on international community to act “swiftly and decisively” to put a halt to Israel’s “atrocities” in Gaza
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed Pakistan’s unwavering support for the people of Palestine on Tuesday and demanded an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, as the world marks the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People today.
The International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People is marked every year on Nov. 29 to express support for the people of Palestine facing occupation at the hands of Israel. This year, the day is being observed on Nov. 26.
Pakistan’s message of support for Palestine comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East. Israel has killed over 44,000 people since Oct. 7, 2023 after Hamas launched a surprise attack on the Jewish state the same day. Israel has also launched military operations against Lebanon and exchanged missile attacks with Iran over the past few months.
“International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is being observed on Tuesday to express solidarity and support with the oppressed people of Palestine,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said.
“In his message on the occasion, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed the unwavering support of the people and Government of Pakistan for the just cause of Palestine and the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”
Sharif said Pakistan calls on the international community to “act swiftly and decisively, to impose an immediate halt to Israel’s atrocities.”
He condemned Israel’s attacks on Palestinian civilians, hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure in Gaza.
“He said Pakistan further calls for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and stresses the urgency of ensuring unhindered humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people,” the state broadcaster said.
Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters” and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Since the beginning of the war in October last year, Pakistan has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza and raised the issue at the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other international forums, urging an end to Israeli military actions.
Four Rangers, two cops killed in clashes as Imran Khan supporters enter Islamabad — state media
- Army deployed in Pakistan’s capital with instructions to shoot miscreants on site, says state media
- Pakistan interior minister warns Imran Khan’s party against crossing any “red line” as they reach capital
ISLAMABAD: Four Rangers personnel and two policemen have been killed in clashes with Imran Khan’s supporters in Islamabad, state-run media reported on Tuesday, as thousands of protesters entered Pakistan’s capital demanding the jailed former prime minister’s release from prison.
Thousands of rallygoers, who had reached the edges of Islamabad on Monday night in protest caravans that set out from various parts of the country last week, entered Islamabad where they reportedly clashed with law enforcers on the city’s Srinagar Highway.
Supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party set out despite the government refusing to grant the PTI permission to enter Islamabad for a sit-in. Last week, the district administration also imposed a two-month ban on public gatherings in the capital, citing security challenges and inconvenience to the public.
Khan’s PTI is protesting for the release of political prisoners, including Khan, among other demands. State broadcaster Radio Pakistan said the government had invoked Article 245 of the constitution to deploy the army in the capital “to deal with the miscreants with an iron hand.”
“According to security sources, miscreants rammed a vehicle into Rangers personnel resulting in the martyrdom of four Rangers officials during PTI’s protest on Srinagar Highway in Islamabad,” Radio Pakistan said.
“Five other Rangers personnel and several police officials sustained severe injuries.”
The report said that Khan supporters pelted stones on Rangers personnel and carried out indiscriminate firing on security personnel at the Chungi no. 26 area in Islamabad’s tiwn city of Rawalpindi.
It said two police officers were also killed in clashes.
“Under Article 245, the Pakistan Army has been called in, and orders have been issued to deal with the miscreants with an iron hand,” Radio Pakistan said.
“Clear orders have also been issued to shoot miscreants and troublemakers on sight.”
Meanwhile, the PTI alleged on social media platform X that law enforcers had opened fire on its unarmed supporters in the capital. It said that the party’s protest caravan in the city’s G-11 area was being heavily teargassed.
“The fake government is ready to go to any extent to maintain its illegal occupation,” the PTI said.
Islamabad has remained under a security lockdown since Sunday, with authorities closing all schools in the capital and the adjacent garrison city of Rawalpindi, while Internet and WhatsApp messaging services have also slowed.
All routes connecting Islamabad and Rawalpindi have been completely shut since Sunday, as are highways and roads from other cities leading to the federal capital.
Inspector General (IG) Punjab, Dr. Usman Anwar, said on Monday that 119 cops had been injured, some of them due to gunfire by miscreants.
Speaking to reporters late Monday night, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the government had offered the PTI a designated place at Sangjiani area in Islamabad to protest.
“A head of state is in Islamabad, it is a sensitive [time], we do not want to go to an extreme step at D-Chowk,” Naqvi said, referring to the Belarusian president, who is in Islamabad with a high-level delegation.
“But do not cross the red line which forces us to go to that extreme step.”
‘TILL MY LAST BREATH’
The PTI march started on Sunday but could not reach Islamabad the same day as shipping containers placed by the government on key points on major highways slowed the pace of the caravans. The PTI says its final destination is D-Chowk, a high-security area in the capital’s Red Zone that houses key government buildings and is a popular site for protests.
The largest PTI protest caravan began its journey from Peshawar, the provincial capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province where Khan’s party is in power. It is being led by KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan’s wife Bushra Khan, who was released on bail in October after nearly nine months in detention.
Khan has been in jail since August last year and faces a slew of charges he says are politically motivated.
“Until Khan does not return to us, we will not end this march,” Bushra said to supporters from atop the protest caravan on Monday afternoon.
“I will stand there till my last breath, you people have to stand by me. I will keep standing even if nobody does because this does not concern just my husband but the country and its leader.”
Islamabad police has confirmed over 400 arrests related to the protest in the past few days, saying the detainees were being held in different police stations. The PTI said over 3,500 of its leaders and supporters had been arrested in connection to the protests.
The PTI’s march has coincided with a visit to Islamabad by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and a 68-member delegation to discuss investment deals. The government has accused the PTI of trying to sabotage the foreign visit in a bid to destabilize its economic recovery efforts.
The PTI rejected this criticism, saying its protest had been called before the announcement of the Belarusian delegation’s visit.
‘Give us another solution,’ Balochistan CM asks opponents of military operation against separatists
- Government has announced operation but not shared details of scale, scope, whether it will be joint effort with China
- Analysts say military solutions will not work in Balochistan, plagued by low-level separatist insurgency since decades
QUETTA: Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan, on Monday asked opponents of a planned military operation against separatists in the insurgency-plagued southwestern province to suggest another solution to a surge in militant attacks, saying the armed campaign would target “terrorists and their camps.”
The province has seen a rise in deadly attacks that have targeted both citizens and security forces in recent months, including a series of coordinated assaults in August in which over 50 people were killed and a suicide bombing last month that targeted Pakistani army troops at a railway station, killing 27, including 19 soldiers, who were in civilian clothing.
Last Tuesday, the federal government announced that it would launch a “comprehensive” military operation to stem the rising tide of separatist militancy, though many political parties, civil rights groups and citizens have questioned the chances of the armed campaign’s success in the vast province.
“Obviously, this will be a targeted operation and the operation will be against those who are committing this terrorism, there will be operations against the terrorist camps,” Bugti said in response to questions by reporters.
“My question to all political parties is that if any other solution is seen emerging against this terrorism, then the government and the state of Pakistan are ready for this solution. These nationalist parties should tell us that solution … If any other political party knows any other solution, I ask them to tell the government.”
The statement from the prime minister’s office last week announcing the launch of the operation did not give any details, including which security forces would take part, whether the campaign would be limited to ground operations or could involve the air force, when it would be launched and in which parts of the vast, remote Balochistan province. It also did not mention if the plan would be a joint effort with Beijing, since Balochistan is home to key Chinese Belt and Road projects, and there has been a rise in attacks on Chinese nationals and interests in the region.
Pakistan’s military already has a huge presence in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran and is home to a decades-long separatist insurgency by militants fighting for a separate homeland to win a larger share of benefits from the resource-rich province. The government and military deny they are exploiting the province’s mineral wealth or ignoring its economic development.
The military has long run intelligence-based operations against insurgent groups, the most prominent being the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which has escalated attacks in recent months on the military and nationals from longtime ally China.
The region hosts the Gwadar Port, built by China as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion investment in President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative to expand China’s global reach.
In addition to the recent attacks, the BLA also claimed a suicide bombing last month outside the international airport in the southern port city of Karachi that killed two Chinese engineers.
Ethnic Baloch separatists have launched several insurgencies in Balochistan since the birth of Pakistan in 1947, including from 1948-50, 1958–60, 1962–63 and 1973–1977. An ongoing low-level insurgency began in 2003. The army has launched several military campaigns in response, including as early as 1948 in the state of Kalat and a five-year-long operation in the 70s under Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
“Many political governments have come and gone in Balochistan but the operation has continued,” Sardar Akhter Jan Mengal, head of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) and a prominent Baloch nationalist leader in the province, told Arab News last week. “No one can resolve Balochistan’s political issue with military operations.”
Indeed, political leaders and independent analysts have for years urged the government to take a holistic approach to resolving Balochistan’s problems, which they say stems from decades of economic deprivation and political disenfranchisement. The province, which comprises 44 percent of Pakistan’s total land mass, is its most backward by almost all economic and social indicators.
Rich in land and mineral wealth, most parts of the region often lack even the rudiments of modern life. For instance, though home to Reko Diq, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits, and the site of major Chinese investment projects, the province lacks employment opportunities and basic facilities like Internet, health and education.
Balochistan is also the least represented in Pakistan’s parliament, where legislative seats are allocated to provinces according to their population. Balochistan has a population of only 14.89 million people in a country of over 240 million and is hence allocated only 16 National Assembly seats. Punjab, with a much smaller land area but a population of 127.68 million, gets 141 seats.
Elephant Madhubala to reunite with cousins today after 15-year separation
- Madhubala, one of only three captive elephants in Pakistan, was brought from Tanzania in 2009 along with three other elephants
- She and her companion, Noor Jehan, were then brought to Karachi Zoo, Noor Jehan died last year, leaving Madhubala alone
KARACHI: Elephant Madhubala is set to be reunited with her cousins at Karachi’s Safari Park sanctuary today, Tuesday, after being separated from them for 15 years and spending the last year alone, an animal welfare organization said.
Named after a legendary Indian actress, Madhubala, one of only three captive elephants in Pakistan, was brought to the country in 2009 along with three other elephants from Tanzania. She and her companion Noor Jehan were separated from their kin about a decade and a half ago and moved to the Karachi Zoo.
Noor Jehan passed away in April 2023 at the age of 17 after being critically ill due to neglect, leaving Madhubala alone at the zoo since then. Animal rights organizations have since campaigned for Madhubala to be shifted to the Safari Park, saying the solitary life was taking a toll on her health.
A team from FOUR PAWS International, a Vienna-based animal welfare organization, has arrived in Karachi to oversee Madhubala’s transfer to the sanctuary on Tuesday.
“I’m excited to see how Madhubala will react when she meets her cousins,” Dr. Amir Khalil, director of reveal and rescue at FOUR PAWS, told Arab News.
“Imagine someone who hasn’t seen their siblings in fifteen years — how will she feel when they finally reunite?”
FOUR PAWS said in a statement last month that the adaptation work at Karachi’s Safari Park had reached its final stage.
Madhubala will be carried from the Karachi Zoo to the Safari Park in a huge transport crate. The elephant has been trained to enter and exit the crate by herself and sit inside it during the move.
“As part of the final preparations, the focus now lies on completing the landscaping of the elephant enclosure at Safari Park, finalizing enrichment features, and continuing the necessary training of the three elephants, including resuming crate training for Madhubala,” FOUR PAWS said.
The elephant enclosures at Safari Park will have water elements for bathing, skincare and thermoregulation. Enrichments such as hay nets, varying substrates like soil, sand, clay, and sawdust will be provided for Madhubala to dust bathe. The area has also been secured by elephant-proof fencing.
Animal rights activists have long campaigned about the plight of animals in Pakistan, especially elephants, and demanded they be shifted to “species-appropriate” locations such as the Safari Park.
Pakistan says over 20,000 Hajj applications received today
- Saudi Arabia has allotted Pakistan a total quota of 179,210 pilgrims for the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage
- Quota of 5,000 has been allocated this year for overseas Pakistanis on “first-come, first-served basis”
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani religious affairs ministry has said over 20,000 Hajj applications had been received by Monday, as the nation prepares for the annual pilgrimage slated to be held in June next year.
Saudi Arabia has allotted Pakistan a total quota of 179,210 pilgrims for the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage, to be divided equally between the government and private schemes. Around 15 designated Pakistani banks started receiving applications for Hajj 2025 from intending pilgrims on Monday.
“20,170 Hajj applications received till Monday,” a spokesperson for the Religious Affairs Ministry said on Monday, saying applications were continuing to be filed at designated banks across the country.
“Reception of applications under the government Hajj scheme will continue till December 3.”
A quota of 5,000 has been allocated for overseas Pakistanis on a “first-come, first-served basis,” the ministry said, adding that the lottery for the government Hajj scheme would be held on Dec. 6
Pakistan’s religious affairs minister this month announced the country’s Hajj 2025 policy, according to which pilgrims can pay fees for the annual Islamic pilgrimage in installments for the first time.
Under the government scheme, the first installment of Hajj dues, amounting to Rs200,000 ($717), has to be deposited along with the Hajj application, while a second installment of Rs400,000 ($1,435) must be deposited within ten days of the balloting. The remaining amount has to be deposited by Feb. 10 next year.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s religious affairs ministry said it had launched the “Pak Hajj 2025” mobile application to guide and facilitate pilgrims. The app is available for both Android and iPhone users.
