Pakistan begins emergency training for Hajj support staff ahead of pilgrimage
Pakistan begins emergency training for Hajj support staff ahead of pilgrimage/node/2597409/pakistan
Pakistan begins emergency training for Hajj support staff ahead of pilgrimage
Trainers from Rescue 1122 (center) provide emergency training for Hajj support staff in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 17, 2025. (Pakistan's Religious Affairs Ministry)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs said on Thursday it had launched an emergency response training program for Hajj support staff called Moavineen to equip them with first aid and civil defense skills ahead of this year’s pilgrimage.
The sessions, underway at Islamabad’s Haji Camp, include hands-on instruction in CPR, crowd management and life-saving techniques.
The initiative is part of broader preparations for Hajj 2025, when nearly 90,000 Pakistanis are expected to travel to Saudi Arabia under the government scheme.
“Expert trainers from Rescue 1122 Islamabad are conducting the sessions, providing hands-on instruction and practical demonstrations to the participants,” the ministry said in a statement.
“All selected Moavineen for this year’s Hajj operations are undergoing the training,” it continued. “The program is designed to equip them with essential life-saving skills and emergency response techniques to ensure the safety and well-being of Pakistani pilgrims during their stay in Saudi Arabia.”
The ministry said the training aims to strengthen the capacity of Moavineen to respond to medical emergencies and other challenges that may arise during the annual pilgrimage, including heat-related illness and large crowd movement.
Pakistan has been allocated a quota of 179,210 pilgrims for Hajj 2025, with the first government-arranged flight to Saudi Arabia scheduled to depart on April 29.
The Hajj rituals are expected to take place between June 4 and June 9, subject to moon sighting.
Authorities have also launched mandatory pre-departure workshops across the country to educate pilgrims on health precautions and Saudi laws and customs during their stay.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United States (US) have reaffirmed their commitment to deepening economic ties, the Pakistani commerce ministry said on Tuesday, following a series of high-level meetings in Islamabad aimed at enhancing bilateral trade and investment.
The statement came after a delegation of the US Chamber of Commerce and the US-Pakistan Business Council (USPBC), led by Charles Freeman, met with Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan in Islamabad. The delegation was accompanied by US Charge d’Affaires Natalie A. Baker.
Khan welcomed the visit and described it as a step forward in strengthening economic relations between the two nations, acknowledging the USPBC’s pivotal role over the past two decades in fostering commercial engagement between the two sides.
“Pakistan values the United States as its largest export destination and deeply appreciates this strategic trade relationship,” he said. “Efforts are underway to address trade deficit and market access issues through a comprehensive strategy involving relevant stakeholders.”
He noted the recent 90-day pause in reciprocal tariffs, announced last month, between the two countries offered a significant opportunity for “constructive” dialogue and the formulation of a sustainable, mutually beneficial trade roadmap.
US President Donald Trump has imposed a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports to the US and higher duties on dozens of other countries. Pakistan faces a 29 percent tariff due to a trade surplus with the US of about $3 billion.
US goods exports to Pakistan were $2.1 billion in 2024, up 4.4 percent ($90.9 million) from 2023, according to US government data. The import of goods from Pakistan to the US totaled $5.1 billion in 2024, up 4.9 percent ($238.7 million) from 2023.
During the meeting, US Charge d’Affaires Baker praised positive developments in bilateral agricultural trade, particularly the resumption of US soybean exports to Pakistan.
“Enhanced cooperation in the cotton sector is also a key area for mutual growth, given Pakistan’s textile industry’s demand for high-quality cotton and the US’s position to meet this demand,” she was quoted as saying.
Kamal assured the US delegation of Pakistan’s commitment to maintaining a predictable, transparent and fair trade environment for American businesses and investors. He reiterated that his government remains dedicated to fostering a strong working relationship with the US on both bilateral and multilateral platforms.
Freeman, the US Chamber of Commerce’s senior vice president, appreciated the Pakistani government’s commitment to facilitating businesses and said they looked forward to continued dialogue and technical cooperation to support economic growth and job creation in both countries.
The visit of the US delegation came at a time when Pakistan is striving to boost trade and foreign investment as it slowly recovers from a prolonged economic meltdown. The South Asian country has pursued aggressive economic diplomacy in recent years, signing several agreements and memoranda of understanding with countries in Central Asia and the Middle East and beyond.
The US delegates later held a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who appreciated the USPBC’s role in advancing economic ties between Pakistan and the US.
“My government looks forward to a constructive partnership with the US government, businesses, investors and industrialists to increase bilateral trade and investment in goods and services, especially in the IT sector,” Sharif said, adding that Pakistan’s market was ripe for investment.
“The government of Pakistan is in touch with the US administration on the tariff issue and I hope that a mutually beneficial solution will be found.”
The delegates expressed their “keen interest” in investing in various Pakistani sectors and to benefit from existing opportunities, Sharif’s office said.
KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has canceled all flights for the next 12 hours, a spokesperson announced on Wednesday, as tensions escalated sharply with neighboring India following missile strikes.
The move comes as Pakistan’s military said at least 26 civilians had been killed and 46 injured in Indian attacks on six locations inside Pakistani territory.
India said its forces had launched “Operation Sindoor,” targeting sites it claimed were linked to a recent attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir which it blamed on Pakistan despite Islamabad’s repeated denials.
Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the Pakistani military had downed five Indian jets in retaliation for the late-night strikes.
“PIA has currently canceled flights for next 12 hours. Passengers are requested to keep in contact with PIA,” Abdullah Khan, the PIA spokesperson, told Arab News.
He added that flights already airborne had been diverted to Karachi while all ground operations were put on hold.
Despite the cancelations, a source within the Pakistan Airport Authority (PAA) told Arab News the country’s airspace remained open.
“The latest NOTAM cancels previous NOTAM which has closed airspace,” the source said, sharing the latest Notice to Airmen.
Meanwhile, several Asian airlines said they were rerouting or canceling flights to and from Europe because of fighting between India and Pakistan, according to Reuters.
Taiwan’s EVA Air said it would adjust its Europe-bound flights to avoid airspace affected by the conflict.
One flight from Vienna was diverted back, while a Taipei–Milan flight was rerouted to Vienna for refueling before continuing to its destination, the airline said in a statement to Reuters.
Korean Air began rerouting its Seoul Incheon-Dubai flights on Wednesday, opting for a southern route over Myanmar, Bangladesh and India instead of Pakistani airspace.
Thai Airways said flights to Europe and South Asia would be rerouted from early Wednesday morning, warning of potential delays.
Taiwan’s China Airlines also said it had activated its contingency plan and taken measures to ensure passenger and crew safety, though it did not elaborate.
-With Input from Reuters
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Wednesday it had downed five Indian fighter jets in a major escalation between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, a claim partly corroborated by Indian government sources who confirmed at least three, as the international community urged both countries to exercise restraint and avoid further conflict.
The military confrontation follows a missile attack by India on Tuesday, when the Indian armed forces said they had struck nine Pakistani sites described as “terrorist infrastructure” allegedly linked to an April 22 militant assault in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
According to Pakistan’s military, six locations across its territory, including Ahmedpur East, Muridke, Sialkot, Shakargarh, Kotli and Muzaffarabad, were targeted, resulting in the deaths of 26 civilians and injuries to at least 46 others.
Pakistan said it had also responded to the Indian strikes, though details were a bit murky initially.
“The aggression they committed has been responded to by Pakistan many times over,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said in a televised statement on Wednesday.
“Not only were five of their jets shot down, but a drone was also brought down,” he added. “We also targeted their posts along the Line of Control. Their posts were destroyed, and they were forced to wave the white flag.”
According to Reuters, local government sources on the Indian side of Jammu and Kashmir said three of their fighter jets had “crashed” in the region. Pakistan’s military also told the news agency it had shot down five Indian aircraft, though the Indian authorities have not officially confirmed any planes were brought down by hostile fire.
In New Delhi, the Indian defense ministry maintained that its strikes had targeted militant infrastructure and avoided civilian or military installations.
The escalation prompted immediate international concern. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was closely monitoring the situation and echoed President Donald Trump’s earlier remarks hoping the conflict would end quickly.
“I will continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership toward a peaceful resolution,” he said.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged both nations to exercise “maximum military restraint,” warning that the world could not afford a broader military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed countries.
China’s foreign ministry also called on both sides to de-escalate and said it regretted India’s military action while expressing concern about the rising tensions.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) during the day to finalize Islamabad’s response and review military preparedness.
Authorities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province declared an emergency, placed hospitals and security forces on high alert and ordered schools to remain closed.
The latest crisis was triggered by the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Indian-administered Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed. India accused Pakistan of orchestrating the attack but provided no public evidence.
Pakistan, in response, denied any involvement and called for an international investigation.
Kashmir has remained a flashpoint between the two countries since 1947. Both nations claim the region in full but administer separate portions. They have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory, and tensions have remained high, particularly since India revoked the special semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
India accuses Pakistan of supporting militant groups that have waged an insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir since 1989, a charge Islamabad denies, saying it provides only moral and diplomatic support for the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination.
The current confrontation recalls the last major military standoff between the two nations in 2019, when an Indian airstrike in Balakot was followed by Pakistani retaliatory action, including the downing of an Indian fighter jet and the capture of its pilot, who was later released in a gesture of goodwill.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan military spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Wednesday eight civilians had been killed and 33 injured as India launched missile attacks at six locations in a sharp escalation of hostility between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
The development comes amid heightened tensions between the longstanding enemies in the aftermath of an attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month in which 26 men were killed. India, without providing evidence publicly, has accused Pakistan of involvement in the assault in the hill station of Pahalgam and vowed to respond. Pakistan has denied involvement, and several top officials have spoken since of intelligence that India was planning to launch retaliatory attacks.
Kashmir has been disputed between India and Pakistan since 1947. Both rule it in part and claim it in full and have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants involved in a separatist insurgency in its part of Kashmir since 1989, which Islamabad denies, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination.
Local residents and members of the media examine a building damaged by a suspected Indian missile attack near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Kashmir on May 7, 2025. (AP)
“Total of six locations in Pakistan were hit,” Chaudhry said in televised remarks, saying the attacks were carried out using “different weapons.”
“Eight Pakistanis were martyred, 35 are injured and two are missing.”
An Indian government statement said its armed forces had launched "Operation Sindoor," hitting nine sites in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir from where it said the Pahalgam attack of April 22 had been “planned and directed.”
No Pakistani military facilities had been targeted, the statement added.
Detailing the casualties, the Pakistan army spokesman said a 3-year-old child, two men and two women had been killed in Ahmedpur East, a city in the eastern province of Punjab, while 31 people were injured.
One man was killed in Muridke, also in Punjab, while two teenagers had died in Kotli in Azad Kashmir, which is a part of the disputed Himalayan region governed by Pakistan. Other places that were struck were Muzaffarabad, also in Azad Kashmir, and Sialkot and Shakargarh in Punjab, but no casualties were reported there.
“The Pakistan Armed Forces, with the full support of the Pakistani nation, are giving and will continue to give a strong response to this cowardly and unprovoked attack,” Chaudhry said, without giving details on the nature of Pakistan’s retaliation.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told BBC Pakistan had shot down three Indian planes while Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Bloomberg TV Pakistan has downed five Indian planes and captured some Indian soldiers also.
The claims could not be independently verified by Arab News.
When asked if he feared a further escalation of the conflict, Tarar told Sky News Pakistan had offered to be part of an investigation into the Pahalgam attack but India had acted as “the aggressor without evidence.”
A city view of Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir on May 7, 2025. (REUTERS)
Pakistan's foreign ministry said while the Indian air force had remained within Indian airspace, it “violated Pakistan's sovereignty using standoff weapons.” “MAXIMUM RESTRAINT”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has meanwhile convened a meeting of the National Security Committee at 10am to finalize Pakistan’s response to the Indian actions while the ministry of defense in New Delhi said it would provide a “detailed briefing” on the operation later in the day.
A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “very concerned” about the Indian military operations and had called for “maximum military restraint” from both countries.
"The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” the statement said.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, US President Donald Trump said he had just heard about the intensification of hostilities that had occurred in recent hours.
"It's a shame … I hope it ends very quickly," he said.
After the Pahalgam attack, India and Pakistan unleashed a raft of punitive measures against each other, with Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines, and India suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty that regulates water-sharing from the Indus River and its tributaries.
Diplomatic relations between Pakistan and India were weak even before the latest conflict as Pakistan had expelled India’s envoy and not posted its own ambassador in New Delhi after India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir in 2019.
The last military confrontation between the rivals occurred in 2019 when India conducted air strikes on what it said was a militant training camp near the northwestern Pakistani town of Balakot in response to a suicide car bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir's Pulwama area.
Pakistan, which said the planes had bombed an empty hillside and not a camp, launched a retaliatory incursion into Indian airspace that led to a dogfight between the two air forces, leading to the capture of an Indian pilot.
The situation cooled after he was released days later.
On Wednesday morning, Indian police said two women had been injured in Indian-administered Kashmir in shelling by Pakistani troops. One of them was in critical condition, they added. There was no comment from the Pakistani military.
In Pakistan, an emergency has been declared in the country’s largest and most populous province of Punjab, the provincial chief minister said, with hospitals and security forces on high alert. Schools will also remain closed on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Pakistan International Airlines said flights already airborne had been diverted to Karachi, while flights on the ground had been put on hold.
Qatar Airways said on X it had temporarily suspended flights to Pakistan due to Pakistani airspace closure. With inputs from Reuters
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), a body of Pakistani clerics and religious scholars, urges Pakistani Hajj pilgrims to comply with the Hajj code of conduct and not to engage in any violation of rules during the annual pilgrimage, it said on Tuesday.
This year’s annual pilgrimage will take place in June, with nearly 89,000 Pakistanis expected to travel to Saudi Arabia under the government scheme and 23,620 Pakistanis through private tour operators. The total quota granted to Pakistan was 179,210, which could not be met.
The Hajj code of conduct urges pilgrims to refrain from disputes, and embody dignity and humility throughout the pilgrimage, according to the PUC. It highlights the sacredness of the Hajj period and the significance of sincere intention solely for the pleasure of Allah.
“Every Pakistani leaving for Hajj should comply [with] Saudi Arabia’s code of conduct and relevant instructions, and stay away from violating the requirements and regulations of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior,” PUC Chairman Tahir Ashrafi said in a statement, following his meeting with Pakistani Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yusuf.
In the last few years, some Pakistani nationals have been found to be involved in violations of the code, including chanting political slogans. In 2022, the Madinah police had arrested at least five Pakistani nationals for “abusing and insulting” then Pakistani information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb and minister for narcotics control Shahzain Bugti at the Prophet’s Mosque in the city.
Religious Affairs Minister Yusuf was due to leave for Saudi Arabia later on Tuesday to inspect arrangements for Pakistani pilgrims.
“Serving the pilgrims is our goal,” he was quoted as saying by the PUC.
More than 17,000 Pakistani Hajj pilgrims have reached the Saudi holy city of Madinah via over 70 flights on their way to perform the annual pilgrimage, according to the Pakistani religious affairs ministry.
Pakistan launched its Hajj flight operation on April 29 which will continue till May 31. Pilgrims will continue to leave for Madinah during the first 15 days of the operation and afterwards, they will land in Jeddah and travel directly to Makkah.
