Saudi embassy, Pakistan join hands to provide Ramadan rations for the needy
Saudi embassy, Pakistan join hands to provide Ramadan rations for the needy/node/2470201/pakistan
Saudi embassy, Pakistan join hands to provide Ramadan rations for the needy
Managing Director of Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, Syed Tariq Mahmood Al-Hassan (left), meeting with the Saudi Ambassador, Nawaf Al-Maliki at the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan on March 2, 2024. (APP)
ISLAMABAD: The Saudi embassy and Pakistan Bait-ul-Maal (PBM) this week agreed to join hands to distribute ration bags among the needy during Ramadan and to care for 100 orphans across the country, state-run media reported.
The agreement took place on Friday when PBM Managing Director Syed Tariq Mahmood Al-Hassan visited the Saudi embassy in Islamabad at the invitation of Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki.
Saudi relief agencies and other social organizations from the Kingdom have previously collaborated with the PBM on numerous projects aimed at helping the needy and vulnerable individuals.
“The Saudi Embassy on Friday agreed to collaborate with Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) to distribute ration bags during Ramadan ul Mubarak and take responsibility for the care of 100 orphans supported by Pakistan Sweet Home,” the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said in a report.
It added that Malki assured Hassan of further cooperation from the embassy in additional social projects in Pakistan.
Hassan thanked Malki and recognized Saudi Arabia’s focus on global social sectors.
“He highlighted the enduring support between the two brotherly nations during challenging periods, emphasizing Saudi Arabia’s continual prioritization of Pakistan’s economy and social well-being,” the APP said.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal expressed concern over the rising number of poliovirus cases being reported from Sindh, the health ministry said on Sunday, directing authorities to submit a detailed report on the number of families refusing to get their children vaccinated.
Pakistan has so far reported six polio cases in the first three months of 2025. Four out of the six cases have been reported from Sindh, as per official data.
Kamal paid a visit to the provincial Emergency Operation Center (EOC) in Karachi, Sindh’s capital, on Sunday where he sought a detailed report from authorities about parents refusing polio vaccinations for their children.
“The health minister has expressed concern over four polio cases [reported] from Sindh,” the health ministry said in a statement.
“Forty-three thousand patients in Sindh refused vaccination out of which about 42,000 are from Karachi,” Kamal was quoted as saying.
The minister was given a detailed briefing on the ongoing polio vaccination campaigns and the challenges faced by authorities.
Kamal said eliminating polio from Pakistan was a national priority, directing authorities to utilize all resources to eradicate the disease.
Polio is a paralyzing disease with no cure, and multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine, along with the completion of the routine vaccination schedule for children under five, are essential to providing immunity against the virus.
The South Asian country last year reported 74 polio cases. Pakistan has planned three major polio campaigns in the first half of 2025, with the next rounds scheduled for April and May.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in the world where polio remains endemic.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies.
Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
QUETTA: At least five soldiers of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were killed and 11 others injured on Sunday morning after their convoy was targeted in a blast in southwestern Pakistan, a police official said.
The latest attack took place at the N-40 highway connecting Pakistan to neighboring Iran in Nushki district. A convoy of seven Frontier Corps buses was traveling to Taftan from the provincial capital of Quetta when it was hit by a “powerful explosion” near Rakhshani Mill, Zafar Sumalani, station house officer at the Nushki Police Station, told Arab News.
“Five security personnel were killed in the attack and 11 others injured,” Sumalani said. “The number of casualties might increase as the bus carrying dozens of FC soldiers was completely destroyed.”
A soldier inspects a bus after a blast in Nushki in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan provice on March 16, 2025. (Nushki Police)
The doctor said the critically injured were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Nushki and were later shifted to Quetta for treatment.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the blast in a statement shared by his office. The prime minister directed authorities to provide medical treatment to the injured, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
“Such cowardly acts cannot shake our resolve against terrorism,” Sharif was quoted as saying by the PMO.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast but suspicion is likely to fall on the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent ethnic Baloch separatist outfit in the province.
The blast takes place days after BLA militants stormed the Jaffar Express train on Tuesday in a remote mountain pass in Balochistan after blowing up train tracks. The militants held over 400 passengers hostage in a day-long standoff before the military rescued them.
Pakistan security forces killed 33 insurgents, rescued 354 hostages before bringing the siege to a close on Wednesday, according to army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry. A final count showed 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers had died in the attack.
Oil-and-mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province. Ethnic Baloch separatists have long accused the central government of discrimination, which Islamabad denies.
The military has a huge presence in Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran. The army has long run intelligence-based operations against insurgent groups such as the BLA, who have escalated attacks in recent months on the military and nationals from longtime ally China, which is building key projects in the region, including a port at Gwadar.
More than 50 people, including security forces, were killed in August last year in a string of assaults in Balochistan that were claimed by the BLA.
Bomb targeting bus carrying security forces kills 5, wounds 10 in southwestern Pakistan
Bomb attack takes place in Nushki district in militancy-wracked Balochistan province, say police
No one has claimed responsibility but suspicion likely to fall on separatist Baloch Liberation Army
Updated 16 March 2025
AP
QUETTA, Pakistan: A roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying security forces in restive southwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least five officers and wounding 10 others, police said.
The attack occurred in Nushki, a district in Balochistan, said Zafar Zamanani, a local police chief. He said the blast also badly damaged another nearby bus. The dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital.
Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister of Balochistan, condemned the attack.
No one immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which days ago ambushed a train, took about 400 people on board hostage and killed 26 hostages before security forces launched an operation and killed all 33 attackers.
Oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and least populated province. Ethnic Baloch residents have long accused the central government of discrimination — a charge Islamabad denies.
Baloch Liberation Army has been demanding independence from the central government.
ISLAMABAD: Iraqi Special Forces have completed an over two-month-long training course at the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) in northwestern Pakistan, state-run media reported on Sunday, as both countries eye bolstering military and defense cooperation for regional security.
The Iraqi personnel arrived in Pakistan in December 2024 to undergo training at the NCTC located in Pabbi town in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
“Pakistani military institutions are playing an important role in providing counter-terrorism training and enhancing security cooperation in the region,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
It added that the cooperation for military training between the two states dates back to 1955, under which the Pakistan Army agreed to train Iraqi Special Forces.
The state broadcaster said that the Pakistan Army will train more Iraqi Special Forces personnel at the NCTC, describing the center as an “internationally renowned training center with modern facilities.”
Pakistan and Iraq have strengthened ties in recent years through defense cooperation, with Islamabad frequently providing training to Iraqi security forces.
In 2014, Iraq procured Super Mushak trainer aircraft from Pakistan to bolster defense relations between the two Muslim-majority nations.
QUETTA: One cop was killed while five others were injured on Saturday after an improvised explosive device (IED) blast targeted an Anti-Terrorism Force (ATF) vehicle in southwestern Pakistan, a police official said.
The attack took place at the Western Bypass area of Quetta, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province. An ATF patrolling vehicle was targeted with a remote-controlled IED fitted inside a cement block, the station house officer (SHO) of Brewery Road Police Station, Mehmood Kharoti, told Arab News.
The ATF operates under the Balochistan Police and is a specialized unit responsible for countering “terrorism” and organized crime.
“One ATF [cop] Dilbar Khan was killed on the spot and five others were injured in the attack,” Kharoti said.
The police officer said the injured were shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.
“According to the Bomb Disposal report, two kilograms of explosives were used in the attack,” he added.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion is likely to fall on the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent ethnic Baloch separatist outfit operating in the province.
The blast takes place days after BLA militants stormed the Jaffar Express train on Tuesday in a remote mountain pass in Balochistan after blowing up train tracks. The militants held over 400 passengers hostage in a day-long standoff before the military rescued them.
Pakistan security forces killed 33 insurgents, rescued 354 hostages and brought the siege to a close on Wednesday, according to army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry. A final count showed 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers had died in the attack.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s biggest in terms of landmass, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency, with separatist groups accusing the government of exploiting the province’s natural resources while leaving its people in poverty.
Government officials deny the allegation and say they are developing the province through multibillion-dollar projects, including those backed by China.
