Pakistan police book separatist BLA’s leadership for suicide attack targeting Chinese nationals 

Pakistan police book separatist BLA’s leadership for suicide attack targeting Chinese nationals 
Firefighters work on the site of an explosion which occured near Karachi airport in Karachi, on late October 6, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 09 October 2024
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Pakistan police book separatist BLA’s leadership for suicide attack targeting Chinese nationals 

Pakistan police book separatist BLA’s leadership for suicide attack targeting Chinese nationals 
  • BLA claimed responsibility for Karachi blast that killed three, including two Chinese nationals, on Sunday night
  • BLA leadership planned attack to damage Pakistan’s ties with China, harm national security, says complaint 

KARACHI: Pakistani police this week registered a case against the leadership of the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militant group for being involved in a suicide attack that targeting Chinese nationals in Karachi, saying that the attack was intended to damage Islamabad’s ties with Beijing. 
Three people, including two Chinese nationals, were killed while 10 others were injured on Sunday night in a blast near the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi. The BLA had claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had used a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) to target the Chinese citizens. 
According to a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) filed by Inspector Kaleem Khan Moosa of the Airport Police Station, police said BLA chief Bashir Ahmed Baloch and other leaders of the outfit had planned the attack to undermine Pakistan’s ties with China. The complaint confirmed that a VBIED was used to target the Chinese nationals. 
“An unidentified terrorist brought his Toyota Hilux vehicle very close to the convoy,” the copy of the FIR obtained by Arab News on Wednesday, said. 
“He detonated his vehicle in a suicide attack, resulting in the destruction of the convoy vehicles carrying foreign Chinese and other security officials, including Rangers, police, and other nearby vehicles, leading to casualties and injuries.”
Multiple sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act, Explosive Substance Act and Pakistan Penal Code were included in the FIR. It said the BLA leaders had planned the attack with help from accomplices with “the intent of instigating terrorism in the country.” 
“They allegedly brainwashed the unknown suicide bomber,” the FIR said, adding that the group had possibly obtained the “assistance of a foreign enemy intelligence agency.”
“Their goal was to undermine the relations between Pakistan and China, affect national security through economic disruption, and achieve financial benefits for their banned organization while instilling a sense of insecurity among the public and diminishing the morale of national security institutions,” it said. 
The complaint said that the suicide bomber was driving a vehicle with the number plate KW0375. As per the Excise and Taxation department’s records seen by Arab News, the vehicle is registered under the name of Shah Fahad, who the BLA claimed was responsible for carrying out the attack.
BLA ATTACKS ON CHINESE NATIONALS
Sunday night’s attack was the latest by the BLA, the most prominent of a number of separatist groups fighting for independence for Pakistan’s gas-and-mineral-rich Balochistan province, where a low-lying insurgency has been ongoing for the past two decades. 
Baloch militants blame Pakistan’s state for exploiting the province’s resources, a charge the Pakistani state denies. The BLA also accuses Beijing of helping Islamabad exploit the province and has attacked Chinese interests and projects in the past, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. It has previously killed Chinese citizens working in the region and attacked Beijing’s consulate in Karachi. 
China is a major ally and investor in Pakistan, having pledged over $65 billion in road, infrastructure, and development projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. 

BLA carried out its first suicide attack on a convoy of Chinese engineers in Dalbandin on August 11, 2018, by its suicide bomber Rehan Aslam Baloch.
In March this year, a suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver in northwestern Pakistan as they headed to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in the country. In 2022, three Chinese educators and their Pakistani driver were killed when an explosion ripped through a van at the University of Karachi.
Sunday’s airport attack followed a deadly day of coordinated attacks in August, most claimed by the BLA, that killed more than 50 people in Balochistan and which Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other leaders had said sought to harm Chinese-funded investment and development projects.


Clashes between India and Pakistan upend lives in a Kashmiri village

Clashes between India and Pakistan upend lives in a Kashmiri village
Updated 17 May 2025
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Clashes between India and Pakistan upend lives in a Kashmiri village

Clashes between India and Pakistan upend lives in a Kashmiri village
  • Following May 10 truce, residents of Gingal returned to assess the damage
  • Those with intact or livable houses sheltered neighbors who had lost theirs

GINGAL: Mohammad Younis Khan was among 40 residents seeking shelter in a cowshed when shelling began in Gingal, a scenic mountain village in north Kashmir on the Indian-administered side of the de facto border with Pakistan. Men, women and children sought refuge in the 3-meter-by-4.2 meter (10-feet-by-14 feet) space, which they felt offered greater safety than their brick and cement homes.

Huddled together, they heard the swoosh and thunder of the projectiles being fired from both sides of the border. When they heard a very loud sound from just outside the shelter, they held their breath and expected the worst. But the projectile had landed on soft earth and detonated a couple of feet below the ground sparing them.

Younis, who could tell the outgoing projectiles from the incoming ones by the sound they made, described the impact outside “as if a lightning bolt had struck the ground.” They all feared that India and Pakistan were at war and they would not survive the night.

“We were so scared that we didn’t dare go out to a water tap just four feet away from the door even when the children were crying of thirst,” Younis told The Associated Press.

Mohammad Shafi and four family members were having dinner in their kitchen when they heard explosions and ran outside. They had just managed to reach the road when they saw a blast damage the kitchen they had been dining in. They ran down a slope and hid among trees.

It was the night of May 8, and the shelling had intensified from the previous evening. Nasreena Begum rushed out, leaving her special-needs son behind as he was too heavy to be carried. She was tormented but was relieved to find him safe at home the following morning.

Most residents left Gingal for the town of Baramulla about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south, where some saw their homes destroyed on TV or social media.

Naseer Ahmad, a Jammu & Kashmir police officer posted in south Kashmir, learned via Facebook that shelling damaged his Paranpillan home, instantly recognizable by the surprisingly intact large walnut tree beside it.

Following the May 10 ceasefire, residents of Gingal returned to assess the damage, finding their homes riddled with shrapnel. Those with intact or livable houses sheltered neighbors who had lost theirs.

About 160 kilometers (100 miles) south, the usually bustling tourist spot of Pahalgam is now quiet, its residents facing a different challenge. It was here when, on April 22, militants killed 26 tourists in the worst assault in years targeting civilians in the restive region.

Pahalgam, usually lively with May holidaymakers, is now deserted. Businesses are shuttered and tourist attractions within a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius of the assault site are closed to locals and visitors alike.

Back in Gingal, Younis prays for peace.

“Where will we go if the clashes continue? Drones can reach anywhere,” he said. “Those who want war have never experienced it.”


Gunmen kill four paramilitary troops in attack on security post in Pakistan’s southwest

Gunmen kill four paramilitary troops in attack on security post in Pakistan’s southwest
Updated 17 May 2025
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Gunmen kill four paramilitary troops in attack on security post in Pakistan’s southwest

Gunmen kill four paramilitary troops in attack on security post in Pakistan’s southwest
  • No group immediately claims responsibility for the assault in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district
  • Local official says security forces have surrounded the area and a hunt is on for the assailants

QUETTA: Unidentified gunmen targeted a security check post and killed four members of the Levies paramilitary force in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The attack targeted the Samand post located some 20 kilometers from Khuzdar city in wee hours of Saturday, according to Deputy Commissioner Yasir Iqbal Dashti. Four Levies men were killed as a result of an intense exchange of gunfire.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault but suspicion is likely to fall on Baloch separatists who have intensified their attacks in the province over the last one year.

“The attackers managed to flee by taking advantage of the dark and the bodies of the slain troops were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital Khuzdar,” Dashti told Arab News.

“Security forces have surrounded the area and a hunt for the attackers is underway.”

Balochistan, Pakistan’s most impoverished province, has been the site of a decades-old insurgency, where separatist militants often target security forces, police, foreigners and ethnic Punjabi commuters and workers, who they see as “outsiders,” by wresting control of highways and remote towns.

In Jan., dozens of fighters of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group launched a brazen attack on Khuzdar’s Zehri town and seized control of its main market for hours. The militants had set government buildings ablaze and snatched Levies’ vehicles and weapons.

This month, gunmen killed three people, including two barbers from the eastern Punjab province, and set a police vehicle ablaze in Balochistan’s Lasbela district, officials said.

The separatists accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources, such as gold and copper, and accuse foreigners and people from other province of backing the Pakistani state. Successive Pakistani governments have denied the allegations and said they only worked for the uplift of the region and its people.


Lammy says UK, US working to ensure India-Pakistan ceasefire holds

Lammy says UK, US working to ensure India-Pakistan ceasefire holds
Updated 10 min 8 sec ago
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Lammy says UK, US working to ensure India-Pakistan ceasefire holds

Lammy says UK, US working to ensure India-Pakistan ceasefire holds
  • Last week’s hostilities raised alarm among world powers about a full-blown war in South Asia
  • David Lammy arrived in Islamabad on first official visit days after the US brokered the truce

ISLAMABAD: Britain is working with the United States (US) to ensure a ceasefire between India and Pakistan endures and that “confidence-building measures” and dialogue take place between the nuclear-armed neighbors, Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Saturday.

The nuclear-armed South Asian arch rivals agreed on May 10 to a ceasefire, brokered by the US, in their worst fighting in nearly three decades, which followed a deadly attack on tourists that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad. Pakistan denies involvement.

Last week’s hostilities between Pakistan and India raised alarm among world powers about a full-blown war in South Asia. Britain was among several countries that called for restraint, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying the UK was “urgently engaging” with both sides.

“We will continue to work with the United States to ensure that we get an enduring ceasefire, to ensure that dialogue is happening and to work through with Pakistan and India how we can get to confidence and confidence-building measures between the two sides,” Lammy told Reuters in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad at the end of a two-day visit.

Asked about India’s suspension of the Indus Water Treaty, potentially squeezing Pakistan’s water supply, Lammy said: “We would urge all sides to meet their treaty obligations.”

India announced suspending the 1960 World Bank-brokered treaty, which ensures water for 80 percent of Pakistani farms, a day after the April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 tourists.

Pakistan has said Britain and other countries, in addition to the United States, played a major role in de-escalating the fighting. Diplomats and analysts say the ceasefire remains fragile.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed his desire for peace in South Asia despite a recent military standoff with India, Sharif’s office said on Saturday, following his meeting with Foreign Secretary Lammy.

“The UK Foreign Secretary congratulated the Prime Minister on the ceasefire understanding and said the UK would continue to play a constructive role for promotion of peace and stability in the region,” Sharif’s office said.

Fighting erupted last week when India launched strikes on what it said were “terrorist camps” in Pakistan following a deadly April attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people. New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing the militants behind the assault, an allegation Pakistan denies.

Four days of drone, missile and artillery exchanges followed, killing around 70 people, including dozens of civilians, on both sides of the border. The conflict raised fears of a broader war before a ceasefire was announced by US President Donald Trump.

This was Lammy’s first official visit to Pakistan, which came just days after one of the most serious military confrontations between Pakistan and India in decades.

The visit underscored the “robust and multifaceted partnership” between the two nations and their commitment to regional and international peace, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.

With input from Reuters


Elephants undergoing medical treatment in Karachi show signs of recovery — wildlife expert

Elephants undergoing medical treatment in Karachi show signs of recovery — wildlife expert
Updated 17 May 2025
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Elephants undergoing medical treatment in Karachi show signs of recovery — wildlife expert

Elephants undergoing medical treatment in Karachi show signs of recovery — wildlife expert
  • Safari Park elephants Madhubala and Malika were diagnosed with tuberculosis earlier this month
  • Authorities brought in a Sri Lankan wildlife health specialist to oversee the elephants’ treatment

KARACHI: Medical experts treating two elephants diagnosed with tuberculosis at Karachi’s Safari Park said on Friday the animals were responding well to treatment and remained under constant observation as part of a long-term recovery plan.

The update was shared at a news briefing by Dr. Budhika Bhandara, a wildlife health specialist from Sri Lanka, who was on a 17-day visit in Karachi to supervise the treatment of elephants Madhubala and Malika.

The two elephants were diagnosed with TB earlier this month, prompting the park to launch an intensive treatment program under international protocols.

“We are treating them very well,” Dr. Bhandara told reporters. “The elephants are showing clinical signs, but they are not weak. We have started with a two-month initial phase of daily doses, followed by a continuation phase as per the standard operating procedures.”

Under the treatment plan, the elephants will receive continuous medication and monitoring for ten months after the initial phase.

The animals are being kept under round-the-clock supervision, and park officials have restricted access to the enclosure for one year to minimize stress and prevent any risk of disease transmission.

Dr. Bhandara, who has previously treated 15 elephants for TB, expressed optimism that Madhubala and Malika would recover.

He noted that both elephants are closely monitored and undergo health evaluations every two months, with full medical screenings scheduled every six months. Their most recent dose was administered 13 days ago.

Visitors to the Safari Park are currently only allowed to view the elephants from designated buses or a safe distance, as part of efforts to ensure a stress-free environment during their recovery.

The cautious approach follows years of concern raised by international animal welfare organizations over the treatment of elephants in Karachi.

In 2021, the global group Four Paws assessed the city’s African elephants and called for urgent medical care, improved nutrition and enriched environments to support their wellbeing.

The issue gained further attention after the deaths of two elephants — Noor Jehan in 2023 at the Karachi Zoo and Sonia in late 2024 — both of which highlighted systemic gaps in animal care.

Since then, local authorities have taken steps to improve conditions, including the formation of a technical committee and increased collaboration with foreign veterinary experts.


PM Sharif invites India to open dialogue, says past wars failed to resolve key issues

PM Sharif invites India to open dialogue, says past wars failed to resolve key issues
Updated 17 May 2025
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PM Sharif invites India to open dialogue, says past wars failed to resolve key issues

PM Sharif invites India to open dialogue, says past wars failed to resolve key issues
  • The prime minister says Pakistan and India are neighbors and must choose between being peaceful or unruly
  • He thanks Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries for helping de-escalate the recent conflict

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday called for renewed dialogue with India, saying the two nuclear-armed neighbors had fought three wars since independence without resolving their disputes while emphasizing the need to engage in talks to address outstanding issues.

Sharif made these remarks during a ceremony in Islamabad commemorating the “Day of Gratitude,” held to honor Pakistan’s military response to Indian strikes inside its territory last week. The event was attended by the chiefs of the armed forces, senior officials and dignitaries. The event featured a flypast and national songs.

The recent India-Pakistan standoff was triggered by an attack in Pahalgam, a tourist hotspot in Indian-administered Kashmir, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people. India accused Pakistan of involvement, an allegation Islamabad denied while seeking an impartial international probe. The situation escalated into missile and drone exchanges before a ceasefire was announced on May 10.

“Whether we like it or not, we are there forever as neighbors,” the prime minister said, referring to India and Pakistan. “It’s up to us whether we want to be unruly neighbors or peaceful ones.”

“We have fought three wars that solved nothing,” he continued. “Rather, they brought more poverty, unemployment and other problems on both sides. So the lesson is that we have to sit down at the table like peaceful neighbors and settle our outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.”

Sharif reiterated that Pakistan had no involvement in the Pahalgam incident and expressed gratitude to countries that assisted in de-escalating the conflict.

“I’m extremely grateful to all those friendly countries who have been very helpful in promoting peace and ceasefire in this part of the world... particularly Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Türkiye, China and others,” he added.

Sharif extended special thanks to US President Donald Trump for his role in mediating the ceasefire.

“Above all, I would like to mention and thank President Trump for his very brave leadership and his vision that peace must be restored in South Asia sooner rather than later,” he said. “His path-breaking and strategic leadership... averted a very lethal looming war in this part of the world,” he said.

The prime minister emphasized the importance of resolving key issues to ensure lasting peace in the region.

“Without resolving these issues, I don’t think we will have peace in this part of the world on a long-term basis,” he said. “If we want permanent peace, then we need permanent solutions of Jammu and Kashmir and water distribution.”