ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday called for an end to violence in Bethlehem, the Palestinian city venerated by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus and which now sits in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Since the 1967 war between Israel and neighboring Arab countries, Israel has occupied the West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state. Israel has built Jewish settlements across the territory and several of its ministers live in settlements and favor their expansion.
Violence has surged across the hilly land since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza in October last year. Hundreds of Palestinians — including suspected armed fighters, stone-throwing youths and civilian bystanders — have died in clashes with Israeli security forces, while dozens of Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, Israeli authorities say.
“The place [Bethlehem] where Prophet Isa [Jesus] was born, his birthplace, today there is a raging market of bloodshed and violence there,” Sharif said as he addressed a church service in Islamabad.
“I believe that on this occasion [of Christmas], wherever in the entire world that Christians live, we should try our best to end this bloodshed in Palestine. And Prophet Isa, who was a peace messenger, for the success of his mission, we need war to end there.”
The West Bank has been transformed by the rapid growth of Jewish settlements over the past two years, with strident settlers pushing to impose Israeli sovereignty on the area.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on X in October that since the start of the Gaza conflict more than 120,000 firearms had been distributed to Israeli settlers to protect themselves.
Pakistan calls for end of violence in Bethlehem, birthplace of Christ
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Pakistan calls for end of violence in Bethlehem, birthplace of Christ
- Palestinian city is venerated by Christians as birthplace of Jesus and now sits in Israeli-occupied West Bank
- Violence has surged across the hilly land since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza in October last year
Pakistani official takes notice of paralyzed teenager torn apart from mother in India, promises treatment
- Muhammad Ayan, paralyzed after a spine injury in 2023, was under treatment at New Delhi’s Apollo Hospital, when he and his family were forced to leave India
- The development came after Pakistan, India asked each other’s nationals to leave following a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists
KARACHI: Kamran Tessori, the governor of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, has taken notice of an ailing Pakistani child who was separated from his Indian mother, Tessori’s office said on Thursday, amid tensions between the two neighboring countries.
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors have plummeted after India accused Pakistan of backing an attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 people on April 22. Islamabad has rejected the charge. Both countries have since exchanged gunfire in Kashmir, taken diplomatic measures against each other, expelled citizens and ordered the border shut, leaving many in limbo.
Muhammad Ayan, paralyzed after he suffered a gunshot wound to his spine during a gunfight between police and street criminals in Karachi in 2023, was under treatment at New Delhi’s Apollo Hospital, when he and his family were forced to leave India, following the Kashmir attack. Ayan’s mother, Nabeela, who is an Indian national, could not travel with them.
Arab News this week published a story on the 17-year-old teenager who had to return to the southern Pakistani city of Karachi along with his father, Muhammad Imran, and siblings after being separated from his mother, prompting Governor Tessori to take notice of Ayan’s tragedy.
“I will pay all the expenses of the treatment of the disabled child,” Tessori was quoted as saying by his office.
Ayan narrated to Arab News how he got separated from his mother amid tears and sobs.
“She was separated from us while crying and we also came here with great difficulty, crying,” an emotional Ayan said.
Ayan’s father, Imran, had married his maternal cousin, Nabeela, a resident of New Delhi, 18 years ago. Since then, Nabeela had been living in Pakistan on a visa that was intermittently renewed without her ever needing to acquire Pakistan’s nationality.
But the suspension of visas meant Imran and his Pakistani children’s 45-day medical visa was no longer valid. And Nabeela was eventually left behind in India.
The April 22 assault occurred as tourists enjoyed tranquil mountain views at the popular site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, when gunmen burst out of forests and raked crowds with automatic weapons.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full but governing separate portions of it. Both countries have two of their three wars over the disputed territory.
Separatist groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of backing the militants, Islamabad denies it and says it only supports Kashmiris diplomatically and politically.
Imran said he went to India after spending “every single rupee” with the hope that his son would walk again. However, bilateral tensions between India and Pakistan, and the ensuing atmosphere in India made his family “very scared.”
“I told them, ‘I am married [to her],’ I pleaded with them, cried, and showed a lot of humility,” Imran said about his interaction with Indian authorities.
“But they said, ‘No, write an exit and leave.’“
For Ayan, the shock of being separated from his mother compounded the trauma of his paralysis and incomplete treatment.
“I went for treatment with a hope but that hope shattered because of that accident and then the fact that my mother was not coming with us,” he said.
“I was completely separated from a mother’s love. We were far apart; it made me cry.”
In his statement, Governor Tessori said Pakistanis are a proud nation and know how to share each other’s pain.
“If India has descended into hostility toward humanity, I will get him treated,” he said.
PM says no ‘conceivable advantage’ for Pakistan in Indian-administered Kashmir attack
- Public anger has swelled in India since the attack and PM Narendra Modi has vowed to pursue the attackers ‘to the ends of the earth’
- The Pakistani information minister says New Delhi has offered no evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the attack that killed 26 people
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan would gain no “conceivable advantage” by involving itself in an incident like the Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Kashmir at a time when it is on the path to economic stability, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday, amid heightened tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi over the attack that killed 26 people on April 22.
India has accused Pakistan of backing the attack, which Islamabad denies. The nuclear-armed rivals have since expelled each other’s diplomats and citizens, ordered the border shut and closed their airspace to each other. New Delhi has also suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty with Islamabad.
Soldiers on each side have also exchanged fire along their de facto border, driving tensions between India and Pakistan to their highest point in recent years. The situation prompted US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to call senior officials in India and Pakistan this week in an effort to defuse the crisis.
The tensions come at a time when Pakistan is treading a long, tricky path to economic recovery under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program since averting a default on its foreign debt obligations in 2023. Islamabad has reached out countries in Central Asia and beyond to boost trade as economic indicators significantly improved in the South Asian country.
“Pakistan condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and underscored the nation’s sacrifices in the war against terror,” PM Sharif said in his conversation with Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, underscoring his nation’s hard-earned economic gains over the past year.
“Pakistan would gain no conceivable advantage by involving itself in any such incident at a time when it was on the path to economic stability.”
Sharif reiterated his call for a credible, transparent and neutral international investigation into the Pahalgam attack, expressing concerns over India’s “weaponization of the waters of the Indus Basin.”
India on April 23 suspended the World Bank-mediated Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 that ensures water for 80 percent of Pakistani farms, saying it would last until “Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.” Islamabad has described India’s move as an “act of war.”
In his conversation with the Pakistan premier, the Qatari emir his country wanted to work with Pakistan toward ensuring the de-escalation of the current crisis.
Public anger has swelled in India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to pursue the attackers “to the ends of the earth.” A Pakistani minister has said that Pakistan has “credible intelligence” that India is planning to attack it within days.
Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told CNN on Thursday that India had failed to provide a shred of proof of Pakistan’s involvement in the Pahalgam incident.
“India, after Pahalgam incident, blamed Pakistan without any evidence, but Pakistan has offered a fair and transparent investigation to the matter,” he said, adding that New Delhi had used such incidents as pretexts to attack Pakistan in the past.
“This is not the first time, they have done this before in the past, exploiting such incidents to their advantage.”
On Thursday, Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Asim Munir, reviewed a military training exercise by the armed forces in the eastern Punjab province, the military said.
It said in a statement that the “exercise was meticulously designed to validate combat readiness, battlefield synergy, and the operational integration of cutting-edge weapon systems under near-battlefield conditions.”
“Let there be no ambiguity: any military misadventure by India will be met with a swift, resolute, and notch-up response,” the statement quoted Munir as saying. “While Pakistan remains committed to regional peace, our preparedness and resolve to safeguard national interests is absolute.”
The Indian army in a statement on Thursday said it responded to “unprovoked” small arms fire from Pakistan in the Kupwara, Uri and Akhnoor sectors of Indian-controlled Kashmir. The previous day, Pakistan’s state-run media said Indian forces had violated the ceasefire agreement along the de facto border in Kashmir by initiating fire with heavy weapons on troops in the Mandal sector of Azad Kashmir. The incidents could not be independently verified.
The region of Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. The two countries have fought two wars and one limited conflict over the Himalayan territory.
The United Nations (UN) has urged the arch-rivals to talk, while China, which shares its border with both India and Pakistan, this week repeated its call on both sides to “exercise restraint.” Saudi Arabia has said Riyadh was trying to “prevent an escalation,” while Iran has offered to mediate the crisis.
Pakistan saw ‘sharp’ 22 percent decline in militant attacks in April, says think tank
- Pakistan’s security forces have been battling twin insurgencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan provinces
- April also marked the lowest monthly death toll among security forces since June 2024, says think tank’s report
KARACHI: Pakistan witnessed a sharp decline in militant attacks during April, an Islamabad-based think tank said in its report this week, saying that they dropped by a whopping 22 percent compared to the previous month, March.
The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank, said in its monthly report that both militant attacks and resultant casualties dropped sharply compared to March.
Pakistan’s security forces have been battling twin insurgencies in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and southwestern Balochistan provinces. In KP, the Pakistani Taliban frequently carry out some of the deadliest attacks against security forces while in Balochistan, Pakistani troops are battling ethnic Baloch separatists seeking independence from the state.
“The number of militant attacks fell by 22 percent— from 105 in March to 82 in April— while fatalities and injuries declined by 63 percent and 49 percent, respectively,” the PICSS said in its press release on Thursday.
The report said Pakistani security forces killed 203 militants in various operations throughout the month. Militants formed an overwhelming majority (73 percent) of the total fatalities in April, while only four casualties were reported. Of these, two were civilians and two were security personnel, it added.
“A total of 287 people were killed in April due to militant violence and security operations, down from 335 in March,” the think tank said.
The report said April also marked the lowest monthly death toll among security forces since June 2024, noting that civilian deaths also dropped significantly last month.
“PICSS attributed these improvements to proactive intelligence-led operations and enhanced border vigilance,” it said.
The report said the most “consequential development” of the month was a two-phase military operation near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border that targeted a large group of infiltrating Pakistani Taliban militants.
“At least 71 militants were killed— making it the biggest loss suffered by the group in a single operation to date,” the report said.
The think tank also noted the resurgence of attacks on local peace committee members in tribal districts who have historically resisted militant infiltrations.
“The resurgence of attacks on these volunteers, particularly in the tribal districts, suggests that groups like the TTP [Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan] are attempting to reassert dominance by silencing local resistance structures,” it said.
The report said mainland KP recorded 37 militant attacks in April, marginally down from 42 in March while tribal districts reported 17 attacks last month, slightly down from 18 in March. Balochistan witnessed 21 militant attacks in April, compared to 35 in March while Punjab reported three and Sindh four attacks in April.
It said Pakistan’s capital Islamabad remained peaceful in April, with no militant attacks reported for the second consecutive month.
Pakistan army chief vows ‘swift, resolute’ response to any military action by India
- General Syed Asim Munir witnesses Pakistan army’s high-intensity field training exercise drill near Jhelum
- Tensions surged after India blamed Pakistan for Apr. 22 attack on tourist resort in Indian-administered Kashmir
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir on Thursday vowed that any military misadventure by India would be met with a “swift, resolute” response amid surging tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
These remarks came from Munir while he visited the Tilla Field Firing Ranges (TFFR) near the eastern city of Jhelum to witness “Exercise Hammer Strike,” a high-intensity field training exercise conducted by Pakistan Army’s Mangla Strike Corps. The army continued to hold war exercises on Thursday in a bid to demonstrate its military might to its neighbor.
Pakistan has vowed to give a befitting and “strong” response to any military action by India as tensions surged after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for being involved in an attack on Indian-administered Kashmir on Apr. 22.
Islamabad has denied involvement in the attack, which killed 26 people and prompted both countries to take several hostile measures against each other. These included India suspending a decades-old water-sharing treaty, suspending visas for Pakistani nationals and declaring its military advisers “persona non grata.” Pakistan responded with tit-for-tat measures.
“Let there be no ambiguity: any military misadventure by India will be met with a swift, resolute, and notch-up response,” Munir was quoted as saying by Pakistan military’s media wing. “While Pakistan remains committed to regional peace, our preparedness and resolve to safeguard national interests is absolute.”
Munir lauded the high morale, combat proficiency and warfighting spirit of Pakistan’s officers and troops at the firing ranges, terming them the “embodiment of Pakistan Army’s operational excellence.”
The military said that the exercise was designed to validate combat readiness, battlefield synergy and operational integration of cutting-edge weapon systems under near-battlefield conditions.
“A diverse array of advanced capabilities, including multirole fighter aircraft, combat aviation assets, long-range precision artillery and next-generation field engineering techniques were employed to simulate conventional battlefield scenarios,” it said.
RUBIO CALLS FOR DE-ESCALATION
Separately, US Secretary of State spoke to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday to discuss the regional situation. As per the US State Department, Rubio urged Islamabad to cooperate in the attack’s investigation and de-escalate the situation.
“The Secretary urged Pakistani officials’ cooperation in investigating this unconscionable attack,” the State Department said. “He also encouraged Pakistan to work with India to de-escalate tensions, re-establish direct communications, and maintain peace and security in South Asia.”
According to Sharif’s office, the Pakistani premier asked Washington to impress upon India to “act responsibly” and “dial down the rhetoric.”
“He [Sharif] categorically rejected Indian attempts to link Pakistan to the incident and pointed to his call for a transparent, credible, and neutral investigation to bring out the facts,” the PMO said.
Rubio also spoke to India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday, expressing sorrow for the loss of lives in the Apr. 22 attack. He also encouraged India to work with Pakistan to de-escalate tensions and maintain peace and security in South Asia, the State Department said.
India poses serious threats to regional peace, Pakistan tells OIC envoys
- Tensions surged after India blamed Pakistan for deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on Apr. 22
- Several countries such as US, UK, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, UAE and others have called on both sides to show restraint
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Ambassador Asim Iftikhar briefed the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Group of Ambassadors about Islamabad’s ongoing tensions with New Delhi on Thursday, state-run media reported, informing them that New Delhi poses serious threats to regional peace and security.
Tensions have surged between the two countries following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on Apr. 22 that New Delhi has said Pakistan was involved in. Islamabad denies the charges and has said it will participate in any credible and transparent investigation of the assault.
Several countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, UK, US and others have called upon both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and avoid a military confrontation. Pakistan has vowed to give a “strong” response to any aggression after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the military freedom to respond to the Kashmir attack during a closed-door meeting earlier this week.
“He informed the participants that India, through its politically motivated, irresponsible and highly provocative behavior, has posed serious threats to regional peace and stability,” Radio Pakistan said on Thursday.
The state-run media said OIC members expressed full support and solidarity with Pakistan, calling for “de-escalation through diplomatic engagement” and urging the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN Security Council and OIC resolutions.
India and Pakistan both claim the entire disputed Kashmir region but administer only parts of it. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of funding militants in the valley which Islamabad denies.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a phone call to impress upon New Delhi to “act responsibly” amid fears of a military confrontation breaking out between nuclear-armed neighbors.
Pakistani state media had also reported that a “timely” response by the Pakistan Air Force on Wednesday had “forced” four Indian Rafale jets to retreat after payrolling near the two nations’ de facto border.
