ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday condemned an attack on a United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) convoy in Beirut, calling it a “flagrant” violation of international law.
Lebanon has faced unrest this week after a government decision to block Iranian flights from landing in Beirut, with the UN peacekeeper convoy attacked during protests by supporters of Hezbollah, which on Sunday urged the government to reverse the move.
Pakistan has been one of the main troops and police contributors to the UN peace operations since 1960, with more than 200,000 Pakistani men and women sent to 46 UN missions. As of 2024, the South Asian country was contributing over 4,000 troops to various international operations carried out by the UN and has lost 172 soldiers in total to UN peace missions.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the attack on a UNIFIL convoy in Beirut that injured several peacekeepers. Such attacks on blue helmets are flagrant violations of international law for which there must be accountability,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
“Pakistan stands in solidarity with UNIFIL and affirms its unwavering support for UN peacekeeping operations.”
The development came amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah group, which has been in effect since Nov. 27 after more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war.
Under the ceasefire deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period.
Hezbollah was also to pull back north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south. The withdrawal period was extended to February 18.
On Sunday, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli forces opened fire toward the southern border town of Hula “after residents entered,” killing a woman. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident.
Islamabad condemns attack on UN peacekeepers in Beirut, calls it violation of international law
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Islamabad condemns attack on UN peacekeepers in Beirut, calls it violation of international law
- Lebanon has faced unrest this week after a government decision to block Iranian flights from landing in Beirut
- The UN convoy was attacked during protests by supporters of Hezbollah, which urged government to reverse move
Magnitude 5.9 earthquake jolts northern Pakistan with no reports of casualties
- Pakistan’s seismic monitoring center says quake’s epicenter was Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region
- Tremors felt in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Abbottabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s various cities
ISLAMABAD: A magnitude 5.9 earthquake jolted several cities in northern Pakistan on Saturday morning, state-run media reported, with no reported casualties or damages.
As per the National Seismic Monitoring Center, the earthquake’s epicenter was the border region between Afghanistan and Tajikistan and was measured at a depth of 94 kilometers.
“The National Seismic Monitoring Center reported that the earthquake’s tremors were felt in numerous cities at 11:48 a.m. including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Sheikhupura, Abbottabad, Attock, Haripur, Mansehra, Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, Haripur, Swat, Chitral, Shangla, Malakand, Muzaffarabad and several other cities,” state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said.
As per the APP, alarmed citizens ran out of their homes and started reciting verses from the Qur’an after feeling the tremors.
“No loss of life and property was reported from any part of the country so far,” it added.
Pakistan sits on the boundary of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates and is prone to seismic activity.
The country’s northern and western regions are home to mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Karakoram.
Among the most devastating earthquakes in Pakistan’s history was the 2005 Kashmir quake, which measured 7.6 in magnitude and killed more than 86,000 people.
In 2013, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Balochistan, killing over 800 people and flattening entire villages.
Pakistan concludes ‘team spirit’ military exercise featuring 20 nations, including Gulf countries
- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China, US, Turkiye, Bahrain and others participate in five-day exercise
- Exercise aimed at enhancing combat skills through sharing of ideas/experiences, says army
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan concluded its five-day 8th International Pakistan Army Team Spirit Exercise 2025 this week featuring 20 nations, among them Gulf countries, the military’s media wing said on Saturday.
The 60-hours-long ‘patrolling exercise’ began on Monday, aiming to enhance military-to-military cooperation, and ended on Friday.
Seven teams from the Pakistan Army along with a team from the Pakistan Navy and fifteen teams from friendly countries including Bahrain, Belarus, China, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Morocco, Nepal, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Türkiye, the United States and Uzbekistan participated in the exercise, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
Representatives from Bangladesh, Egypt, Germany, Kenya, Myanmar and Thailand witnessed the exercise as observers.
“The 60 hours-long rigorous patrolling exercise was aimed at enhancing combat skills through the sharing of innovative ideas/experiences by the participants of the forum,” the ISPR added.
The army said the exercise was carried out in the semi-mountainous terrain of Punjab. It said that the exercise has gained much prominence as a “very competitive professional military activity” for the friendly countries over the past couple of years.
Pakistan Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir was the chief guest at the closing ceremony. He lauded participating teams for their professionalism, physical and mental endurance, and high morale.
Munir distributed individual and team awards to participants at the closing ceremony, which was also attended by international observers and defense attachés of participating countries.
Pakistan deputy PM arrives in Kabul to discuss security, trade with Afghanistan
- Ishaq Dar’s visit comes at a time when Pakistan has blamed Afghan officials for ‘facilitating’ cross-border militancy
- Dar to meet Afghanistan’s Prime Minister Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund, Acting deputy PM during day-long visit
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar arrived in Kabul on Saturday for a day-long visit to discuss Islamabad’s security concerns, trade and investment opportunities with Afghanistan amid strained ties between the neighbors.
His visit takes place amid surging militancy in Pakistan, which Islamabad blames on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant outfit. Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban of providing them sanctuaries, allegations that Kabul has repeatedly denied.
Dar’s visit to Kabul also takes place as Pakistan intensifies its campaign to deport what it says are “illegal immigrants,” mostly Afghan nationals, which it has blamed without evidence for being involved in suicide attacks and militancy in the country. Pakistan’s deportation drive has further soured ties between the two nations.
“At the invitation of Acting Afghan Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50, arrived in Kabul today for a day-long visit,” Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.
Dar was welcomed upon his arrival by Dr. Mohammad Naeem, Afghanistan’s deputy minister for finance and administration, Mufti Noor Ahmad, the director-general of Afghanistan’s foreign ministry, Chief of State Protocol Faisal Jalali and officials of the Pakistan mission in Afghanistan.
The deputy prime minister will meet Afghanistan’s Prime Minister Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund, Acting Deputy Prime Minister for Administrative Affairs, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi and hold in-depth talks with Muttaqi, the Pakistani foreign office said.
Speaking to the state-run Pakistan Television before leaving for Kabul, Dar acknowledged there has been “coldness” in Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s ties in recent years.
“I believe the security of Pakistan, its people, their lives and properties, is very important,” Dar said. “So one of our concerns is regarding terrorism, which we will discuss.”
He said there is also immense potential for economic, trade and investment opportunities between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Our connection with Central Asian states can be established through rail links but that’s not possible unless Afghanistan becomes a partner in this,” he said.
Dar’s visit is seen as a continuation of Pakistan’s efforts to engage with Afghanistan despite frosty ties, and its aim to address mutual concerns and explore avenues for cooperation with the country.
Italian court upholds life sentence for parents of Pakistani woman killed by family
- Court awarded death sentence to couple for killing Pakistani teen daughter in 2021 for refusing arranged marriage
- So-called honor killings are common in Pakistan, where family members kill women who don’t follow traditions
ROME: An Italian appeals court Friday upheld life sentences for a Pakistani couple convicted of murdering their 18-year-old daughter in a so-called honor killing after she refused an arranged marriage.
The case shocked many Italians and became a symbol of the brutal mistreatment of immigrant women who rebel against inflexible family rules.
The appeals court in the northern city of Bologna said that Saman Abbas, whose body was found at a farmhouse in 2022, 18 months after she disappeared, was killed with the participation of the whole family.
The court upheld a life sentence for both the teenager’s father, Shabbir Abbas, and her mother, Nazia Shaheen. It also sentenced to life in prison two cousins who had been previously cleared by a lower court.
Saman’s uncle, Danish Hasnain, was also sentenced to 22 years in prison for his involvement in the murder. He had been previously given a 14-year sentence.
The court case, in Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, became the most high-profile of several criminal investigations in Italy in recent years dealing with the slaying or mistreatment of immigrant women or girls who rebelled against their family’s insistence that they marry someone chosen for them.
So-called honor killings are common in Pakistan, where family members and relatives sometimes kill women who don’t follow local traditions and culture or decide to marry someone of their own choice.
Saman Abbas’ body was dug up in November 2022 in an abandoned farmhouse near the fields where her father worked in northern Italy. Italian prosecutors contend the woman was murdered by her family on May 1, 2021.
A few days later, her parents flew from Milan to Pakistan.
Saman Abbas’ father was later arrested in Pakistan and extradited to Italy for prosecution. Her mother was convicted in absentia but was arrested in May last year after three years on the run.
Abbas’ uncle, two cousins, her father and her mother went on trial first in February 2023. All the defendants have denied wrongdoing.
Saman Abbas had emigrated as a teenager from Pakistan to the farm town of Novellara in Italy’s northern region of Emilia-Romagna. She quickly embraced Western ways, including shedding her headscarf and dating a young man of her choice. In one social media post, she and her Pakistani boyfriend were shown kissing on a street in the regional capital, Bologna.
According to Italian investigators, that kiss enraged Abbas’ parents, who wanted her to marry a cousin in Pakistan.
The young woman was last seen alive on April 30, 2021 a few hundred meters (yards) away from where her body was discovered in surveillance camera video as she walked with her parents on the watermelon farm where her father worked.
Abbas had reportedly told her boyfriend that she feared for her life because of her refusal to marry an older man in her homeland.
An autopsy revealed a broken neck bone, possibly caused by strangulation.
In 2019, Italy made coercing an Italian citizen or resident into marriage, even abroad, a crime covered under domestic violence laws.
Following Abbas’ disappearance, Italy’s union of Islamic communities issued a religious ruling rejecting forced marriages.
Key Pakistan ruling coalition ally threatens to withdraw government support over canals issue
- Federal government’s move to construct new canals on River Indus has triggered protests in Sindh
- Pakistan Peoples Party chairman says canals project threatens people of Sindh with “death by thirst”
KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a key member of the ruling coalition government, this week threatened to withdraw its support for the government if Islamabad did not back down from its controversial decision to construct new canals on the Indus River, amid fears of the project triggering water shortages in the country’s southern Sindh province.
Pakistan’s federal government has launched an ambitious project that aims to build canals across the country’s four provinces, which it says will help irrigate millions of acres of barren land and prevent food insecurity in the country. The move has triggered protests in Sindh where nationalist parties believe the initiative would cause water shortages, while critics say the project was planned without consent from stakeholders.
The PPP emerged as the second-largest political party after the controversial 2024 general election in Pakistan. It helped Shehbaz Sharif get elected as Pakistan’s prime minister for a second time and settled for the presidency and the governorship in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces, areas where it performed poorly in the national polls. If the PPP withdraws its support, Sharif’s coalition government would no longer have the majority in parliament.
“Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has taken a resolute stance, emphatically calling on the federal government to immediately abandon its controversial plan to construct six new canals on the Indus River,” the party’s media cell said in a statement on Friday.
“He warned that if the project is not abandoned, it will no longer be possible for the PPP to continue supporting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government,” the statement added.
Bhutto Zardari was speaking at a rally organized by the PPP in Sindh’s Hyderabad city. Speaking to charged supporters of the party, Bhutto Zardari said he would stand with the people “if I am ever forced to choose between the government and the people.”
The PPP chairman said his party does not believe in “opposition for the sake of opposition” and it is opposing the controversial canal project because it poses a threat to the federation.
He said that at a time when militant organizations were increasing attacks in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and southwestern Balochistan provinces, the government has stirred a matter that threatens people with “death by thirst.”
Bhutto Zardari criticized Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party and its governments, calling their policies anti-farmer and anti-agriculture. He questioned the logic to build more water canals in the country when Pakistan was already suffering from a water crisis.
“Let the government stop this canals plan, and we will present a 50-year roadmap for agricultural development,” he said. “Why would I not want to see progress in Tharparkar and Cholistan? But I will never compromise on the River Indus.”
The PPP chairman said the party would hold a protest rally in Sindh’s Sukkur city on Apr. 25 against the controversial project.
