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Tag: Pakistan

  • Death toll from Pakistan train collision rises to 62 Accident

    Death toll from Pakistan train collision rises to 62 Accident

    The death toll from a train collision in southern Pakistan rose to 62 on Tuesday after some of the casualties died of injuries sustained in the crash, local officials said.

    A train derailed in the town of Ghotki before dawn on Monday and another one coming from the opposite direction rammed into it, the reason for the initial derailment is not yet clear.

    “We fear more people may die. Some of the injured people are in a critical condition,’’ said Usman Abdullah, local administration chief in Ghotki.

    The operation to find survivors and bodies in the wreckage had been completed and the track would be reopened today, said Syed Ijazul Hassan, a spokesperson for the state-owned railway operator.

    The two trains were carrying more than 1,000 passengers.

    Deadly train accidents are common in Pakistan, where the tracks laid by former colonial power Britain around a century ago have hardly been upgraded.

    Bombings by Islamist militants and separatists targeting the lines, and weak safety and security systems also contribute to the high number of deaths on the trains every year.

    Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday ordered investigations into the railways safety fault lines.

  • 20 soldiers killed in 2 attacks

    At least 20 soldiers from the army and a paramilitary force were killed in two separate attacks in Pakistan, officials said on Thursday.

    “Six soldiers, including an officer were killed in an attack on a convoy of security forces, in the tribal district of North Waziristan,” the military’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations said in a statement.

    Terrorists used an improvised explosive device to target the convoy, the statement said.

    In the second incident, at least 14 soldiers were killed when gunmen attacked security forces in Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan province, Sajjad Hussain, a police spokesperson in Quetta said.

    The incident took place on the Makran Coastal highway in the Gwadar district of the south-western province, when unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy belonging to the paramilitary force Frontier Corps.

    Hussain said that two of the convoy’s three vehicles were destroyed after being hit by rocket launchers.

    Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and most volatile province that borders with both Afghanistan and Iran is being targeted by militants, sectarian groups and sub-nationalist rebels.

    Gwadar is a coastal region near the Iranian border where China has built a deep sea port as part of its multi-billion-dollar investment project in Pakistan, which is opposed by Baloch separatists.

    No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far.

    In 2019, gunmen wearing military uniforms ambushed a bus that was travelling to Gwadar from the provincial capital Quetta, killing 14 passengers, including officials from Pakistan’s navy.

  • JUST IN: Passenger plane with 107 aboard crashes in residential area

    JUST IN: Passenger plane with 107 aboard crashes in residential area

    A Pakistan International Airlines plane with107 people aboard crashed on Friday in a residential area near the airport in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, officials said.

    The plane, Flight 8303, an Airbus A320, was en route from the eastern city of Lahore to Karachi.

    No information about casualties was immediately available.

    Initial reports said the plane had skidded off the rooftops of several houses before bursting into flame. Thick plumes of smoke billowed up from the crash site.

    Officials said civil and military officials had begun a rescue operation.

    Indian television channels showed large crowds packed into the neighborhood near the crash site, with people rushing toward ambulances as black smoke clogged the sky. One man carried a young boy in his arms as he ran past journalists and emergency workers.

    The A320 typically has around 180 seats. An Airbus spokesman, Stefan Schaffrath, said the company was aware of reports about the crash but had no details.

    Muslims around the world are about to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, a holiday dedicated to the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. News channels said many of the passengers were traveling home to be with family for the holiday.

    Syed Shibli Faraz, the Pakistani information minister, said the crash was “a very tragic incident just before Eid.” Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was “shocked and saddened.”

  • JUST IN: Woman cuts off penis of man she accused of rape

    JUST IN: Woman cuts off penis of man she accused of rape

    A woman in Pakistan has cut off the penis of a man she accused of trying to rape her, police said on Tuesday.

    The 25-year-old woman used a knife to defend herself from the assault of the man who stormed her house in the central province of Punjab, police official Mohamed Ilyas said.

    The woman told the police she was alone at home when the man broke in and tried to overpower her.

    The woman then ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and then cut off his penis when he again tried to assault her, Ilyas said, citing the woman’s account.

    The 28-year-old man was being treated at the hospital in the city of Faisalabad and will be interrogated once his condition improves, Ilyas added.

    Hundreds of women are raped in Pakistan each year, but those who commit the assaults are rarely punished due to weak laws and complicated procedures for prosecution, according to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

    Rape victims are often blamed for their assaults, accused of socialising with men – something frowned upon in conservative Muslim societies – or of bringing the attack on themselves.

    Many women remain silent and decline to file a police report to avoid being named and shamed by Pakistan’s conservative society, advocacy group Aurat Foundation said.

    “It is a painful situation. Often victims are blamed both by the legal system and the society,” women’s rights activist Farzana Bari said.

  • Death toll in Pakistan quake rises to 32 as rain hampers rescue

    Death toll in Pakistan quake rises to 32 as rain hampers rescue

    The number of people killed in an earthquake in north-eastern Pakistan has risen to 32, officials said on Wednesday, as rescuers scrambled to reach victims in heavy rain.

    The strong earthquake hit parts of Pakistan, including parts of Kashmir under its control, on Tuesday afternoon, killing and wounding dozens and damaging houses, shops and roads.

    At least, a dozen people died of their wounds overnight in the worse-hit district of Mirpur in Pakistani Kashmir, bringing the death toll to 30 in that region alone, local Police Chief, Sardar Gulfraz Khan, said.

    At least two others, including a child, were killed in two different cities in the eastern province of Punjab, local rescue official, Jam Sajjad, said.

    More than 450 injured people are being treated at hospitals in Mirpur, Saeedur Rehman, a rescue official in the district said.

    Nearly 150 of them are in critical condition, he added, fearing the death toll could increase.

    Another two dozen people were wounded in the Pakistani city of Jehlum, where the epicentre was, Sajjad said.

    Pakistan’s meteorological department put the magnitude of the quake at 5.8, while the U.S. Geological Survey said it was 5.2.

    Pakistan began rescue efforts and mobilised the aviation and engineering wings of the military on Tuesday but their operations were being hampered by heavy rain on Wednesday, Police Officer Khan said.

    “We believe some people may still be trapped but we can’t reach them because roads are damaged and rain is heavy,’’ Rehman said.

    The metrological department in Islamabad had predicted torrential rains in the region for the next four days.

  • Pakistan arrests accused mastermind of Mumbai attacks

    Pakistan authorities on Wednesday arrested Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of a four-day militant attack on Mumbai in 2008, on terror finance charges, a spokesman for the chief minister of Punjab said.
    The move came days before a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has vowed to crack down on militant groups operating in Pakistan.
    Saeed, designated a terrorist by the U. S., is the founder of Lashkar e Taiba (LeT), or Army of the Pure, a militant group.
    The LeT was blamed by the United States and India for the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 people.
    Saeed has denied any involvement and said his network, which includes 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services, has no ties to militant groups.
    A spokesman for Punjab Governor Shahbaz Gill said Saeed was arrested near the town of Gujranwala in central Pakistan.
    “The main charge is that he is gathering funds for banned outfits, which is illegal,” the spokesman said.
    Pakistan, which is included on the so called “gray list” of the Financial Action Task Force, a money laundering and terror finance watchdog, has been under increasing pressure to stop the financing of militant groups.
    The United States has offered a 10 million dollars reward for information leading to Saeed’s conviction over the Mumbai attacks.

  • Police kills wanted militant on the run for 10 years

    Police kills wanted militant on the run for 10 years

    One of Pakistan’s most wanted militants Hafeez Brohi has been killed with an accomplice in a shootout with Police after being on the run for nearly 10 years, Police said on Friday.

    Police said Brohi had been involved in as many as a dozen attacks against minority Shi’ites in southeastern Sindh province, including masterminding an attack at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in which more than 100 people were killed in 2017.

    Security agencies suspected he had fled to Afghanistan, but received a tip-off that he was back in his home town of Shikarpur and eventually spotted him riding a motorcycle on Thursday.

    Brohi and close aide Abdullah Brohi suffered fatal injuries in the ensuing shootout, Farooq Amjad, the assistant superintendent of police, told Reuters.

    Police recovered a hand grenade and pistols from them.

    Hundreds of people have been killed in attacks on Pakistan’s small Shi’ite community, heightening fears in the Sunni-dominated country of an escalation in sectarian bloodshed that has been a persistent threat for decades.

  • FLASH: Islamic Republic of Pakistan enters partnership with Nigerian Army

    The Nigerian Army has expressed readiness to collaborate with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on training, intelligence, radio communication and logistics support for its personnel.
    The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, spoke on Thursday when he received the High Commissioner of Pakistan to Nigeria, retired Maj.-Gen. Wagar Kingravi, at the army headquarters, Abuja.
    Buratai recalled that both countries had enjoyed military collaborations, ranging from exchange of training at junior and senior staff courses at the National Defence College (NDC).
    The army chief expressed readiness to continue to partner the Pakistani’s army in order to tap from its wealth of experience, especially on counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency.
    He noted the role played by the Pakistani armed forces in assisting the Nigerian Army with radio communication equipment in the fight against insurgency.
    Earlier, Kingravi said he was proud of the relationship that exists between the two countries, especially in military cooperation.
    He said that Nigeria and his country shared similar challenges, noting that the cooperation would go a long way in helping both countries to tackle them.
    The high commissioner commended the Nigerian Army under the leadership of Buratai, for successes recorded in the fight against terrorism.
    He said his country’s army has the capacity to train a battalion of Special Forces of the Nigerian Army.
     

  • Pakistan closes 2 border crossings with Afghanistan for elections

    Pakistan on Tuesday closed two major border points with Afghanistan for
    its efforts to maintain security during the July 25 elections, officials said.

    The Embassy of Pakistan in the Afghan capital Kabul has announced that the Chaman border in southwestern
    Balochistan and Kharlachi in the Kurram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will remain closed on
    Tuesday and Wednesday due to parliamentary elections in Pakistan.

    However, officials said the major border crossing at Torkham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will remain open as usual.

    Meanwhile the Afghan consulate in Peshawar has advised all Afghans to avoid unnecessary movement in view
    of the elections in Pakistan.

    According to the UN refugee agency, Pakistan still hosts around 2.4 million Afghan refugees.

    On July 17, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had assured Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Nasir-ul-Mulk and
    Army Chief Gen. Qamar Bajwa that his government will take measures on the Afghan side of the border
    for security during the elections.

    Pakistan has deployed 800,000 security personnel for the security of elections of the National Assembly,
    lower house of the parliament, and provincial assemblies.

    NAM reports that as campaigning steps up for the general elections on Wednesday, bombings across Pakistan
    have stoked fears of more violence in the country of 208 million, where political rallies can draw
    tens of thousands of people.

    Violence in Pakistan has ebbed since the military began major operations against militants along the
    tumultuous border with Afghanistan following a shocking 2014 attack on a Peshawar school that killed
    149 people, most of them children.

  • 6 killed, 10 injured in firing at political rally in Pakistan’s Punjab

    Authorities said six people were killed and 10 others injured on Monday
    evening in a firing at a political gathering in Chakwal district of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province.

    General elections are scheduled to be held in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the members of the National
    Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies of Pakistan.

    The incident took place when a person opened fire with his automatic gun at the participants of a political
    rally in Torote area of Talagang region of Chakwal district.

    Police and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and injured to the hospital.

    The assailant committed suicide with his gun soon after spraying bullets at the crowd.

    Police said that the attacker was an insane person who opened fire after getting infuriated by the rally
    of a party he did not support.

    NAN reports that on July 16, officials said 140 people were killed at an election rally in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan, putting it among the deadliest attacks in the south Asian nation’s history.

    The attack at a rally for the Baluchistan Awami Party (BAP) outside the town of Mastung was claimed by militant group Islamic State. Among the dead was the party’s provincial candidate, Siraj Raisani.

    A video clip showed Raisani beginning his speech just before the attack, greeting crowds seated on the ground under a large tent before the blast hit and the image cut off.

    Provincial government officials said they were not told about the rally and so had not provided security to Raisani, beyond the bodyguards in his security detail.

    Many of the wounded remain in critical condition at hospitals in Mastung, the provincial capital of Quetta and in the southern city of Karachi. Officials expect the death toll to rise.

    Until the attack, Pakistan’s election campaign had been relatively peaceful, compared with frequent Pakistani Taliban attacks during the 2013 election, when 170 people were killed, figures from the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies show.