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Tag: Pakistan

  • Pakistan, India agree to immediate ceasefire

    Pakistan, India agree to immediate ceasefire

    The Pakistani and Indian governments said on Saturday that they had agreed to a ceasefire, echoing a post from U.S. President Donald Trump just minutes before saying the parties had agreed to stop attacking each other.

    “Pakistan and India have agreed to a ceasefire with immediate effect,” Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar wrote on X.

    “Pakistan has always strived for peace and security in the region, without compromising on its sovereignty and territorial integrity!”

    His Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who is known as S Jaishakar, confirmed the cessation of hostilities on X as well.

    “India and Pakistan have today worked out an understanding on stoppage of firing and military action,” he wrote.

    Trump had announced that the U.S. had mediated a ceasefire between the nuclear-armed rivals.

    The two have traded missile strikes and heavy cross-border fire, including drones and shelling, for days.

    US Secretary State Marco Rubio had spoken earlier to his Indian and Pakistani counterparts.

    Pakistan reported more civilian deaths on Saturday, while each side claimed to have struck military targets overnight.

    It was impossible to immediately verify the claims of both sides.

    The trigger for the latest tensions was militant attack on April 22 in Indian-administered Kashmir, which killed 26 people, mostly Indian tourists.

    New Delhi pointed the finger at Islamabad, accusing it of supporting militants, and then launched attacks on both Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the early hours of Wednesday, igniting fears the region was on the brink of all-out war.

    Pakistan denied having any role in the attack on the holidaymakers and is calling for an independent investigation.

    The roots of the conflict between the two nations date back to the colonial era.

    In 1947, the British granted independence to the Indian subcontinent and partitioned it.

    This violent partition created the new state of Pakistan for Muslims alongside predominantly Hindu India.

    The partition continues to fuel a bitter rivalry to this day. Since their independence, the two countries have fought three wars, two of them over the border region of Kashmir.

  • RETALIATION! Pakistan launches massive attacks on India

    RETALIATION! Pakistan launches massive attacks on India

    The Indian army has said that Pakistan’s armed forces launched “multiple attacks” along its western border on Thursday night and the early hours of Friday, using drones and other munitions.

    The retaliatory attacks have escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, the Indian military authority said, according to Reuters.

    The multiple attacks followed India’s strikes on several locations in Pakistan on Wednesday, which New Delhi described as “terrorist camps,” retaliating for a deadly attack last month on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir.

    But Pakistan denied any involvement in the Kashmir attack.

    Both countries have since exchanged cross-border fire, shelling, and drone incursions, with nearly four dozen people reported dead in the latest bout of violence.

    The current fighting marks the deadliest confrontation since the 1999 Kargil conflict.

    Notably, India’s targeting of cities in Pakistan’s mainland provinces, beyond Pakistani-administered Kashmir, is the first such escalation since the full-scale war of 1971.

    The Indian army reportedly accused Pakistani troops of engaging in “numerous ceasefire violations” along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

    “The drone attacks were effectively repulsed and befitting reply was given to the CFVs (ceasefire violations),” the army stated, vowing that all “nefarious designs” would be countered with “force.”

    However, Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar dismissed the Indian claims as “baseless and misleading.”

    He insisted that Pakistan had not undertaken any “offensive actions” targeting areas within Indian Kashmir or beyond.

    Islamabad previously denied attacking India’s Pathankot city in Punjab, Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley, and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, labelling the accusations “unfounded” and “politically motivated.”

    India’s Border Security Force reported that a “major infiltration bid” was “foiled” in Kashmir’s Samba region on Thursday night.

    Meanwhile, heavy artillery shelling continued in the Uri sector on Friday, according to a security official who declined to be named.

    “Several houses caught fire and were damaged in the shelling in the Uri sector… one woman was killed and three people were injured in overnight shelling,” the official said.

    In India’s border city of Amritsar, sirens blared for more than two hours on Friday, prompting authorities to urge residents to stay indoors.

    Hotels reported a sharp decline in occupancy as tourists fled by road following the closure of the airport.

    Other border areas also ramped up precautions. In Bhuj, Gujarat, authorities kept tourist buses on standby to evacuate residents near the Pakistan border.

    Schools and coaching centres were closed in Rajasthan’s Bikaner region, where residents near the border were advised to relocate temporarily, either with relatives or to government-arranged shelters.

    Ansab, a student at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture, Science and Technology in Jammu, described hearing overnight blasts.

    “The explosions were more violent and louder around 4 a.m. (2230 GMT Thursday),” she said.

    “For two to three minutes it became very loud, windows started shaking as if they will break,” she added, noting that the air was later “smoggy,” a mix of smoke and fog.

    World powers have urged restraint. U.S. Vice President JD Vance reiterated calls for calm on Thursday.

    India and Pakistan have shared a bitter rivalry since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

    The Kashmir region, claimed in full by both but divided between them, has been at the heart of their enmity, fueling two of the three wars they have fought.

  • Donald Trump reacts as India, Pakistan exchange airstrikes

    Donald Trump reacts as India, Pakistan exchange airstrikes

    American President Donald Trump has said he hoped tensions between India and Pakistan would de-escalate quickly, following Indian attacks on targets inside Pakistan.

    “They’ve been fighting for many, many decades,” Trump said at a White House event.

    “I just hope it ends very quickly.”

    “People knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past,” he added.

    TheNewsGuru reports that India launched military strikes on Pakistan on Wednesday claiming to be targeting the hideouts of militant groups behind a late April attack in the disputed region of Kashmir in which at least 26 civilians were killed, and Pakistan claimed it shot down five Indian Air Force jets, in an escalation that has pushed the two nations to the brink of a wider conflict

    Meanwhile, at least three civilians were killed by Pakistani shelling in the Indian-controlled part of the disputed Kashmir region, according to Indian reports.

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he was monitoring the situation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

    “I echo (Trump’s) comments earlier today that this hopefully ends quickly and will continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution,” Rubio said on social media platform X.

  • UK set to help curb conflict between India, Pakistan

    UK set to help curb conflict between India, Pakistan

    The UK is ready to support India and Pakistan to de-escalate tensions following an exchange of fire over Kashmir, a Cabinet minister has said.

    Officials said at least 19 people have been killed and 38 wounded after India fired missiles across the border into Pakistani-controlled territory in at least six locations overnight.

    Pakistani forces were reported to have shelled Indian-controlled Kashmir.

    The escalation in the conflict between the two nuclear-armed powers follows last month’s massacre of tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.

    New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for the attack, which killed 22 people, but Islamabad has denied responsibility.

    On Wednesday, Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said his Cabinet colleague David Lammy had reached out to both nations in an effort to avoid further escalation, as U.S. and European figures.

    Reynolds told the BBC the situation in Kashmir was “hugely worrying, our message will be that we are a friend, a partner to both countries.

    “We stand ready to support both countries.

    “Both have a huge interest in regional stability, in dialogue, in de-escalation and anything we can do to support that, we are here and willing to do.”

    Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for the region, warning against all travel within 10 kilometres of the India-Pakistan border, 10 miles of the Line of Control.

    The de facto border divides disputed Kashmir between the two countries and the Balochistan province of Pakistan.

    Pakistan had also closed its airspace, with the Foreign Office advising affected Britons to contact their airline for further information.

    Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney and Labour MP Stella Creasy said they were deeply concerned by the escalation in violence, while former Conservative minister Tariq Ahmad warned the “potential for war tonight is real.”

    Pakistani officials said the strikes hit at least two sites previously tied to banned militant groups.

    One hit the Subhan Mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, killing 13 people including a child, according to Zohaib Ahmed, a doctor at a nearby hospital.

  • India strikes Pakistan after massacre of 26 tourists

    India strikes Pakistan after massacre of 26 tourists

    India launched military strikes on Pakistan on Wednesday and Pakistan claimed it shot down five Indian Air Force jets, in an escalation that has pushed the two nations to the brink of a wider conflict.

    The escalation puts India and Pakistan, two neighbors with a long history of conflict, in dangerous territory, with Islamabad vowing to retaliate against India’s strikes and the international community calling for restraint.

    New Delhi said the strikes are in response to the massacre of 26 people – mostly Indian tourists – who died in April when gunmen stormed a scenic mountain spot in the India-administered part of Kashmir, a disputed border region.

    India has blamed Pakistan for the attack, which Islamabad denies.

    What happened with India’s strikes?

    India launched “Operation Sindoor” in the early hours of Wednesday morning local time (Tuesday night ET) in both Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

    Indian officials said nine sites were targeted, but claimed no Pakistani civilian, economic or military sites were struck.

    They said the 25-minute operation targeted “terrorist infrastructure” belonging to two militant groups – Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

    The name ‘Sindoor’ appears to be a reference to the red vermilion, or powder, many Hindu women wear on their foreheads after marriage. The April tourist massacre – which singled out men as victims – left several Indian women widowed.

    But Pakistan is painting a different picture of the strikes – saying civilians were killed and mosques were hit. CNN has yet to verify those claims.

    A Pakistani military spokesperson said six locations were hit with 24 strikes. Some of those strikes hit the densely populated province of Punjab, Pakistan’s military said, and were the deepest India has struck inside Pakistan since 1971, when the two countries fought one of their four wars.

    How did Pakistan respond?

    Pakistani security sources claimed they had shot down five Indian Air Force jets and one drone during India’s attack.

    They did not say exactly where, or how, the jets were downed – but said three Rafale jets were among those planes. India’s Rafale fighter jets are prized military assets that it bought from France only a few years ago.

    India has not confirmed any planes were lost. CNN has not been able to verify the claim and has reached out to India’s government and military for comment.

    An eyewitness and local government official said an unidentified aircraft crashed in the village of Wuyan in Indian-administered Kashmir. Photos published by the AFP news agency showed aircraft wreckage lying in a field next to a red-brick building.

    It was not immediately clear from the photos who the aircraft belonged to.

    Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday the country “has every right” to respond, calling India’s actions an “act of war.”

    Casualties

    At least 26 civilians were killed and 46 injured by India’s strikes, a Pakistan military spokesperson said, according to the news agency Reuters.

    Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s military, said those killed include teenagers and children – the youngest of whom was three years old.

    Eight civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir were also killed by shelling by Pakistani troops from across the border, a senior Indian defense source told CNN.

  • Father kills U.S.-born teenage daughter over TikTok videos

    Father kills U.S.-born teenage daughter over TikTok videos

    Afather in Pakistan killed his teenage daughter after she uploaded what he considered to be inappropriate videos on the social media app TikTok, police said on Thursday.

    The man, said to be in his 50s, recently brought his family back from the U.S. to settle in the South-Western Pakistani city of Quetta, local police chief, Babar Baloch, said.

    The father, now in custody, confessed to having shot his daughter earlier this week after she refused to be dressing more modestly and stop uploading what the family considered to be “indecent” videos on TikTok, Baloch said.

    Police are treating the incident as a case of so-called honour killing.

    Around 1,000 women are killed in Pakistan by close relatives, fathers, brothers and sons on the pretext of saving family honour, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

    The killers in most cases escape punishment because of a controversial Islamic clause in laws that allows relatives of the victim to pardon the perpetrator, rights body Amnesty International said.

    Pakistan approved a law in 2016 to partially do away with the controversial clause, but that has not proved enough to stop the practice, according to the HRCP.

  • UN: No fewer than 20 children killed in Pakistan airstrikes

    UN: No fewer than 20 children killed in Pakistan airstrikes

    The United Nations in Afghanistan on Thursday confirmed  that it received credible reports that dozens of civilians, including women and children, were killed in Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan’s Paktika province.

    The UN statement said Tuesday’s airstrikes were a violation of international law and called for an investigation.

    “International law obliges military forces to take necessary precautions to prevent civilian harm, including distinguishing between civilians and combatants in operations,” the UN statement added.

    The UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF) said that at least 20 children were killed in the attack.

    “Children are not and must never be a target,” UNICEF South Asia Director Sanjay Wijesekera said on X.

    Afghan authorities reported that at least 46 civilians were killed in the airstrikes. The victims were said to be refugees from the Waziristan region in Pakistan. Afghanistan had summoned Pakistan’s top diplomat in Kabul to protest the attack.

    The Pakistani diplomat was handed a “serious protest note” informing Pakistan that the protection of Afghanistan’s territory is “a red line” and that such “irresponsible actions” will have consequences, the Afghan foreign ministry said.

    Pakistan claims that the airstrikes targeted suspected Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant hideouts. The TTP is a militant group that has been responsible for numerous attacks in Pakistan. Islamabad claims that the TTP is hiding on Afghan soil, a claim that Kabul denies.

  • Bombing at campaign office kills 12 ahead of Pakistan vote

    Bombing at campaign office kills 12 ahead of Pakistan vote

    A bomb on Wednesday exploded outside the campaign office of a political candidate in south-western, killing at least 12 people ahead of Thursday voting, officials said.

    The bombing in the town of Pishin in the volatile province of Balochistan targeted the candidate a day ahead of the national elections in Pakistan, local official Jamal Uddin said.

    More than 30 people were wounded and were being treated at a local hospital, Doctor Habib Khan told a local television channel.

    It wasn’t immediately known if it was suicide bombing or a planted device went off, Uddin added.

    It is also not known if the candidate for the local constituency, Asfandyar Kakar, was at the office at the time of bombing, Uddin said.

    Violence by Islamist militants has surged in Pakistan in recent months ahead of the vote scheduled for Thursday.

    The north-western provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which both share a border with Afghanistan, have seen a rise in violence since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

  • Viral video of nine-year-old “maid” tortured to death sparks outrage

    Viral video of nine-year-old “maid” tortured to death sparks outrage

    The tragic death of a nine-year-old maid, allegedly subjected to severe abuse and violence by her employer, has sparked a campaign against child labour.

    A viral video purportedly captured the girl identified as Fatima Fariro, writhing in pain after an assault, prompting widespread calls for justice with the hashtag #JusticeforFatima trending on social media platforms.

    The alleged murder occurred in Ranipur, near the city of Khairpur in Sindh province, Pakistan, after Fatima was sent by her impoverished parents to work as a maid for Pir Asad Shah Jilani, the primary suspect in the case.

    Jilani, however, denied the accusations, insisting that he had been providing medical treatment to the girl at home for a stomach ailment and that her death occurred during treatment.

    Although some reports indicated Fatima’s age as 10, popular Pakistani actress and child protection activist Nadia Jamil, clarified that she was, in fact, nine years old.

    Jamil also shared a statement from Fatima’s mother, alleging that Jilani’s father had coerced her into claiming her daughter had an illness at the time of her death, despite signs of abuse on the girl’s body.

    The actress said Fatima’s mother also accused Jilani’s wife of burning Fatima’s back with a hot iron and forcibly pulling out the child’s hair, leaving bald patches on her head.

    In the video believed to be from a CCTV camera in one of Mr. Jilani’s rooms which has widely circulated online, Fatima’s body was covered in torture marks as she lay motionless on the ground.

    A woman, suspected as Jilani’s wife stood beside her, while another woman, possibly another household maid, entered and checked on Fatima, reacting in shock upon realizing the girl had died.

    Senior Superintendent of Police in Khairpur Mir Rohal Khoso, confirmed the arrest of the suspect and plans for a post-mortem and exhumation.

    Khoso stressed that the Sindh police remained committed to combating child abuse and protecting human rights.

    Meanwhile, the incident has triggered demands for justice and an end to child labour, which Fatima’s mother echoed during her TV appearance, confirming her daughter had indeed shown signs of torture.

    The Sindhi Association of North America joined the call for an investigation into Fatima’s death which it described as a case of child labour.

    Despite Pakistan’s ratification of international child labour conventions and the prohibition of employment for those below 14 to 15 years of age, child labour continues to persist in various forms, with reports of exploitation and torture frequently emerging in the media.

    According to reports, Fatima was one of approximately 100 teenage girls who were serving as “maids” for the family of the Pir of Ranipur, in a situation akin to captivity.

    Earlier this month, police in the capital, Islamabad, arrested a judge’s wife on allegations of severely torturing her teenage maid, who had to be hospitalized for severe injuries, as reported by local media outlets.

  • Angry mob attacks churches over allegations of blasphemy

    Angry mob attacks churches over allegations of blasphemy

    An enraged mob in Pakistan vandalised churches in a Christian neighbourhood over allegations of blasphemy, officials said on Wednesday.

    Hundreds of people rioted in a Christian neighbourhood in the city of Jaranwala in Punjab province, security sources said.

    According to the sources, the violence was sparked by two Christian men accused by the rioters of having desecrated the Koran.

    “The situation is tense and we are trying to defuse it,” said an official familiar with the incident.

    Videos shared on social media showed hundreds of men gathered in front of a church and chanting slogans against the community.

    Pakistan’s Bishop Azad Marshall called on the police to act.

    “As I write this message, a church building is being burned down,” Marshall wrote on the online platform X, previously known as Twitter.

    “Bibles have been desecrated and Christians have been tortured and harassed because they were falsely accused of violating the Holy Quran.”,he said.

    Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Pakistan, with those accused often targeted by extremist Muslim groups.

    In some cases, people have been gunned down, burned alive or bludgeoned to death.

    In one of such incidents in 2020, a Pakistani-U.S. citizen was shot and killed inside a courtroom during his trial.

    In 2021, a Sri Lankan national was tortured to death over blasphemy allegations.