KARACHI: The governor of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, Kamran Tessori, has pledged to cover the medical expenses of a paralyzed Pakistani teenager who was separated from his Indian mother amid escalating tensions between the two countries, his office said on Thursday, following Arab News’ coverage of the boy’s story.

Seventeen-year-old Muhammad Ayan was being treated at New Delhi’s Apollo Hospital after a spinal injury he sustained during a 2023 gunfight between police and criminals in Karachi. He and his family were forced to leave India after the April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists. India accused Pakistan of backing the assault. Islamabad has strongly denied the allegation.

In the wake of the attack, both countries ordered each other’s nationals to leave, exchanged gunfire in Kashmir, and imposed diplomatic restrictions, leaving many families stranded or divided. Among them was Ayan’s family. His Indian mother, Nabeela, was unable to leave with them. The family returned to Karachi while she remained in New Delhi.

“Arab News is doing a good job. You should highlight the problems of the people and keep pointing toward the solution — which you people keep doing — then the problems move toward a solution. Ayan’s case is an example of this. You pointed it out, and we are trying now,” Tessori told Arab News on Friday.

“If Ayan’s treatment is not possible in Pakistan, then we are also contacting different countries to see where this treatment is possible. God willing, we will get it done wherever it is possible.”

The Pakistani official urged India to put an end to its “war mania,” pointing to several other cases such as Ayan’s. There has been no immediate comment from the Indian side on Ayan’s case.

Arab News published a report earlier this week highlighting Ayan’s separation from his mother and the abrupt end to his treatment in India, which prompted Tessori to take action.

“She was separated from us while crying, and we also came here with great difficulty, crying,” Ayan told Arab News, choking back tears.

Ayan’s father, Muhammad Imran, married Nabeela — his maternal cousin and a New Delhi resident — 18 years ago. She had been living in Pakistan on a visa that was periodically renewed, without ever obtaining Pakistani nationality. After the attack, the suspension of visa services invalidated the family’s 45-day Indian medical visa, and Nabeela was left behind.

Imran said that he had spent every last rupee in hopes that his son would walk again. But rising bilateral tensions made the family fearful while in India.

“I told them, ‘I’m married (to her),’ I pleaded, cried, and showed a lot of humility,” he said of his conversations with Indian authorities. “But they said, ‘No, write an exit and leave.’”

For Ayan, the trauma of paralysis was compounded by the emotional shock of being separated from his mother.

“I went for treatment with hope, but that hope shattered because of the accident and the fact that my mother couldn’t come with us,” he said. “I was completely separated from a mother’s love. We were far apart; it made me cry.”

Kashmir has been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. The region is divided between the two countries, though both claim it in full. They have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory.

Since 1989, several Kashmiri groups have carried out attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of supporting these groups — a charge Islamabad denies, insisting it offers only diplomatic and political support to Kashmiris.

Ayan’s father thanked Arab News for highlighting his family’s plight.

“They conveyed our words to higher officials, because of which Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori took notice,” he said on Friday.

“I am also very thankful to him, who promised to have my son treated anywhere in the world.”

LAGOS: Nigeria’s northeast is facing a brutal resurgence of militant attacks, which have killed at least 100 people in April.
The state of Borno in particular, where the Boko Haram militant group emerged 16 years ago, remains the epicenter of a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 and displaced some two million people in Africa’s most populous country.
The Lake Chad basin serves as a crucial strategic corridor for militant groups, said Kabir Adamu, director of the Nigerian consulting firm Beacon Consulting, in terms of logistics, recruitment and cross-border attacks involving Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Boko Haram, also known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS):
The movement was founded in 2002 in Maiduguri, Borno state, by radical preacher Mohammed Yusuf, who attributed Nigeria’s woes to the Western values left by former British colonial powers.
It launched an insurgency in 2009 and took control of significant areas in the northeast.
Through counteroffensives, the Nigerian army took back some of the lost territories but Boko Haram remains operational in some regions.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated group relies heavily on fear-based tactics, targeting civilians, looting villages and conducting kidnappings.

The Daesh West Africa Province (Daesh-WAP):
This group emerged in 2016 from a split within Boko Haram, with Daesh-WAP opposing the killing of Muslims. It is proving to be more organized and more ideological, focusing its attacks on military targets and infrastructure.
Other groups are operating in the northwest of the country, near the border with Niger, such as Ansaru, a dissident movement linked to Al-Qaeda, or Lakurawa.
It is also worth noting the emergence of other groups, particularly in the northwest and central regions of the country, “which may not be strictly militant but utilize similar methods, blurring the lines between criminal and terrorist activities,” said Adamu.

The ongoing resurgence of attacks is linked to several factors, experts said.
“There were direct calls made by the Daesh between January and March 2025, urging its affiliates worldwide to intensify their operations,” Adamu said.
Idriss Mounir Lallali, director of the Algeria-based African Center for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT), has seen a “strategic recalibration” by Boko Haram and Daesh-WAP, as the two groups seem to have overcome a period of mutual conflicts.
The militants have adapted their combat tactics, through the use of drones, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), ambushes and coordinated raids, allowing them to intensify operations in rural and semi-urban areas.
Regional efforts in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel and west Africa are facing structural weaknesses.
“Governance has been abandoned in so many of these places,” said Confidence McHarry, from consulting firm SBM Intelligence in Lagos.
Niger in March withdrew from a task force it had created along with Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad to combat militants around Lake Chad, disrupting cross-border patrols and intelligence sharing.
Chad has also threatened to withdraw from the task force.
“Without a reinvigorated multinational approach, these gaps risk becoming safe havens for militant expansion,” Lallali said.
While Nigerian forces have achieved territorial gains and succeeded in neutralising key militant commanders, Daesh-WAP and Boko Haram have both demonstrated significant resilience.
Many of their fighters have retreated into ungoverned areas.
“Security forces, while concentrated in key garrisons, have left many border and rural areas exposed,” Lallali said.
Insurgents take advantage of these vulnerabilities to restore supply routes and rebuild their influence among local populations.
At the end of April, Nigeria appointed a new leader for anti- militant operations in the northeast, General Abdulsalam Abubakar.