ISLAMABAD: Pakistani army chief General Syed Asim Munir on Thursday spoke out against social media users in the country, saying online platforms were being used to spread “anarchy,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
Munir’s remarks come days after the military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry, in a veiled reference to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party of jailed ex-premier Imran Khan, accused “digital terrorists” of making the military’s anti-militancy efforts controversial using social media platforms.
Khan’s popularity, which persists even from behind bars, has been fueled by social media, including driving Pakistan’s young people to turn out to vote in Feb. 8 elections in which Khan-backed candidates won the greatest number of seats despite having to contest as independents after the PTI was deprived of its iconic bat symbol by the election commission.
Khan, who is widely believed to have been propelled to power with the backing of the military in 2018, was ousted in a parliamentary no-trust vote he blames was orchestrated by the military in cahoots with his political rivals. Both deny the charge. Since his ouster, his party has faced a state-backed crackdown that has only seemed to bolster support for Khan and which has been publicized widely on social media, along with unprecedented criticism of heavy hand in politics. The current military leadership says it no longer interferes in politics.
“He [Munir] said smugglers and mafia are supporting terrorism while anarchy is also being spread through social media,” Radio Pakistan said, reporting on the army chief’s comments at a conference in Islamabad.
The army chief’s comments come amid a ban on X in Pakistan since February when a government official held a press conference and made confessions of rigging in the general election. The government also has reportedly begun installing a nationwide firewall to regulate Internet usage, control access to social media sites, including Facebook, YouTube, and X, and empower the government to identify IP addresses associated with what it calls “anti-state propaganda.”
Speaking at Thursday’s ceremony, the army chief resolved to give a “befitting response” if anyone attempting to create “unrest and chaos” in Pakistan.
“No power in the world can harm Pakistan because this country has been created to sustain,” Radio Pakistan said, quoting Munir.
Speaking about a surge in militancy in Pakistan, the army chief urged Pakistani religious scholars to encourage tolerance.
“Spreading unrest is the biggest crime and the Pakistan Army under the ordains of Allah Almighty is striving to eliminate unrest,” the army chief said. “We do not consider such people as Pakistanis who do not accept Shariah [Islamic law] and the constitution.”
Army chief says ‘anarchy’ being spread through social media in Pakistan
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Army chief says ‘anarchy’ being spread through social media in Pakistan
- Popularity of jailed ex-PM Imran Khan has been fueled largely by young social media users
- X has been banned in Pakistan since February and government is reportedly installing a firewall
Pakistan says US confirmed no F-16s flown, shot down during India standoff
- Deputy PM says Pakistan had approached US authorities who confirmed no F-16s involved in May 7-10 fighting with India
- Armies of nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan faced-off in four days of their worst confrontation in decades
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday the US had confirmed to Pakistani officials that no F-16 fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) were flown or shot down during the four-day conflict with India last month.
Militaries of nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan faced-off in four days of fighting between May 7-10, which saw the use of fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery by both sides before a ceasefire was announced by US President Donald Trump.
In the days that followed, Indian media claimed the Indian Air Force had shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet during the conflict.
“Turned out to be a lie that the F-16 they claimed of shooting down,” Dar said while addressing a press conference.
“It was proved when we approached relevant authorities in America, they confirmed in 24 hours that no F-16 was flown from Pakistan or went down.”
The US has not commented on the Pakistani deputy PM’s remarks.
The use of F-16s in the latest conflict could have raised concerns due to the strict end-use monitoring agreements imposed by the US.
In February 2025, the US had released $397 million for a program aimed at ensuring that Pakistan’s F-16s were used exclusively for counterterrorism operations and not against other nations, particularly India.
The funds will support the Technical Security Team (TST), a group of contractors stationed in Pakistan to oversee the use of F-16s under strict end-use monitoring rules.
According to Pakistan-specific defense and analysis group Quwa, TST has been present in Pakistan since 2019 when the US approved its current deployment with a $125 million support package for the PAF F-16 fleet.
Pakistan in 2019 invited US officials to conduct a count of its F-16 jets after India made a similar claim of shooting down a Pakistani F-16 during a dogfight in the skies that year. According to a Foreign Policy magazine report, the officials had said that all F-16s were present and accounted for.
In 2022, the US government had notified Congress of a proposed $450 million foreign military sale to Pakistan to support the sustainment of the PAF’s F-16 program.
Tensions between Pakistan and India remain high after the two countries agreed to a ceasefire on May 10. Both sides accuse each other of supporting militancy across their respective borders, allegations both governments deny.
Pakistan PM vows stronger defense, tech ties with Belarus in meeting with visiting minister
- Shehbaz Sharif briefs Belarusian defense minister on Pakistan’s stance after standoff with India
- He hopes for expanded bilateral engagement following April’s memoranda of understanding
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday vowed to strengthen Pakistan’s bilateral ties with Belarus in the fields of defense and technology, during a meeting with Belarusian Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Victor Khrenin in Islamabad.
The meeting follows Sharif’s official visit to Belarus in April, where both countries signed a roadmap for military-technical cooperation between 2025 and 2027, as well as multiple agreements on trade, defense and industrial collaboration.
The two sides have since reaffirmed their commitment to expanding economic and strategic cooperation, with Pakistan aiming to attract foreign investment and benefit from Belarus’s manufacturing expertise, particularly in agriculture and heavy machinery.
“Pakistan and Belarus enjoy excellent bilateral relations that are growing stronger with time,” Sharif said, according to a statement from his office. “We wish to further promote economic partnership with Belarus.”
“We want to benefit from Belarus’s expertise in the manufacturing of agricultural machinery,” he continued. “Cooperation with Belarus in the fields of information technology and defense will also be further strengthened.”
The Pakistani leader also recalled the signing of several memorandums of understanding during his April visit, which he said would help expand bilateral engagement.
Sharif took the opportunity to brief the Belarusian delegation on recent regional tensions, including the April 22 Pahalgam incident, in which India accused Pakistan of involvement in an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The prime minister reiterated Islamabad’s position that it had offered an impartial investigation, but instead faced military aggression from New Delhi.
“India responded by targeting civilian populations, killing innocent people,” Sharif told the delegation. “On May 10, Pakistan responded decisively in self-defense.”
The Belarusian defense minister conveyed a message of goodwill from President Aleksandr Lukashenko and thanked the Pakistani side for its warm hospitality.
“We want peace and stability in South Asia,” Khrenin said, adding the purpose of his visit was to follow up on the agreements signed during Sharif’s earlier trip and advance military and technical cooperation.
The meeting was also attended by Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Minister for Defense Production Raza Hayat Hiraj along with other senior officials.
200,000 Afghans left Pakistan since deportation drive renewed in April
- Pakistan has launched strict campaign to evict over 800,000 Afghans who have had their residence permits canceled
- In total, more than one million Afghans have left Pakistan since expulsion drive was first launched in November 2023
ISLAMABAD: More than 200,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the government renewed a deportation drive in April, Islamabad’s interior ministry told AFP.
Pakistan has launched a strict campaign to evict more than 800,000 Afghans who have had their residence permits canceled, including some who were born in Pakistan or lived there for decades.
According to the ministry, more than 135,000 Afghans left Pakistan in April, while the number dropped to 67,000 in May and more than 3,000 were sent back in the first two days of June.
Millions of Afghans have poured into Pakistan over the past several decades, fleeing successive wars, as well hundreds of thousands who arrived after the return of the Taliban government in 2021.
A campaign to evict them began in 2023, prompting hundreds of thousands to cross the border in the span of a few days, fearing harassment or arrest.
In total, more than one million Afghans have left Pakistan.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration on Tuesday voiced concern over a surge in Afghan families being deported from Iran, recording 15,675 crossing in May, a more than two-fold increase from the previous month.
The influx across both borders threatens to strain Afghanistan’s already “fragile reception and reintegration systems,” IOM said in a statement.
Islamabad has labelled Afghans “terrorists and criminals,” but analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure neighboring Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to control militancy in the border regions.
Last year, Pakistan recorded the highest number of deaths from attacks in a decade.
Pakistan’s security forces are under enormous pressure along the border with Afghanistan, battling a growing insurgency by ethnic nationalists in Balochistan in the southwest, and the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates in the northwest.
The government frequently accuses Afghan nationals of taking part in attacks and blames Kabul for allowing militants to take refuge on its soil, a charge Taliban leaders deny.
Some Pakistanis have grown weary of hosting a large Afghan population as security and economic woes deepen, and the deportation campaign has widespread support.
Pakistan is now threatening to lift the protection granted to the 1.3 million Afghans holding refugee cards issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees at the end of June.
Pakistan blockchain chief meets US counterpart amid digital assets adoption push
- Bilal Bin Saqib meets the director of Trump’s Council of Advisers for Digital Assets in Washington
- He says Pakistan is building a real framework for digital asset adoption and economic modernization
KARACHI: Pakistan’s top blockchain policymaker on Wednesday expressed the country’s ambition to become the Global South’s leader in digital assets during a meeting with his American counterpart at the White House in Washington.
Bilal Bin Saqib, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Crypto & Blockchain and CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council, met with Robert ‘Bo’ Hines, Executive Director of the US President’s Council of Advisers for Digital Assets. The meeting marked a deepening of bilateral engagement on cryptocurrency strategy and blockchain integration between the two countries.
In March, the administration in Islamabad established the Pakistan Crypto Council to help guide national policy on blockchain, digital currencies and crypto-related investments. This was followed by the government’s announcement of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas, making Pakistan one of the first Asian countries to integrate Bitcoin into its sovereign asset strategy.
The government also plans to establish an autonomous regulatory body to oversee the country’s digital finance and crypto ecosystem.
“I envision Pakistan to be a leader in the Global South for digital assets,” Saqib said according to a statement circulated after the meeting. “From launching our Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to unlocking national infrastructure for crypto mining and AI data zones, Pakistan is building a real framework for digital asset adoption and economic modernization.”
During the meeting, both officials discussed aligning national strategies on decentralized technologies, fostering regulatory coherence and building innovation ecosystems to promote youth engagement and financial inclusion.
Bo Hines, appointed in January by President Donald Trump, heads US policy development on digital assets and works alongside Council Chair David Sacks to position the United States as a global leader in the sector.
Saqib also held a separate meeting with officials from the White House Counsel’s Office to discuss legal frameworks around blockchain governance.
Pakistan’s broader digital asset strategy includes allocating 2,000 megawatts of surplus power to support Bitcoin mining and AI-driven data zones, aiming to turn untapped energy into economic productivity, job creation and digital infrastructure growth.
As regulatory frameworks continue to evolve globally, Pakistan says it is taking proactive steps to integrate private sector innovation with state policy and international partnerships, positioning itself as a key player in the next phase of the global digital economy.
Pakistan army says 14 militants killed in counterterror operation in northwest
- Security forces killed the militants in an intelligence-based operation in North Waziristan district
- The prime minister applauds the security forces for their ‘professional excellence’ after the operation
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security forces killed 14 militants this week in the country’s volatile northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military’s media wing said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pledged to completely eradicate militancy from the country.
The operation comes amid a noticeable uptick in militant attacks in Pakistan, particularly in the border regions near Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, Pakistani officials have increasingly blamed India for backing the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an outlawed umbrella group of militant factions responsible for a majority of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Islamabad refers to the TTP as Fitna Al-Khawarij, a term rooted in Islamic history that denotes an extremist sect that rebelled against legitimate authority and declared other Muslims as apostates. It also describes the group as an Indian proxy.
“On 2-3 June 2025, an intelligence-based operation was conducted by the security forces in general area Datta Khel, North Waziristan District, on reported presence of Khawarij belonging to Indian proxy, Fitna Al-Khawarij,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
“During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged the Indian-sponsored Khawarij location, and after an intense exchange of fire, fourteen Indian-sponsored Khawarij were sent to hell,” it added.
The ISPR said “sanitization operations” were ongoing to clear the area of any remaining militants, reaffirming the military’s commitment to “wipe out the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country.”
Prime Minister Sharif also praised the security forces for their “professional excellence” in the North Waziristan operation, saying such efforts were critical to eliminating the threat posed by what he called enemies of humanity.
“We will crush the nefarious designs of these terrorists,” Sharif said in a statement issued by his office. “With the professional capability of our security forces, we will uproot the monster of terrorism once and for all.”
He said the government and the armed forces were fully committed to ensuring the complete elimination of militant violence from Pakistan.
