At least two killed in attack on aid convoy in sectarian clashes-hit Pakistani district

At least two killed in attack on aid convoy in sectarian clashes-hit Pakistani district
Police personnel fire tear gas shells to disperse Shiite Muslim protesters during a demonstration in Karachi on December 31, 2024, to condemn sectarian clashes in Pakistan's Kurram district, bordering Afghanistan. (AFP/File)
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Updated 17 February 2025
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At least two killed in attack on aid convoy in sectarian clashes-hit Pakistani district

At least two killed in attack on aid convoy in sectarian clashes-hit Pakistani district
  • This was third such attack targeting aid convoys sent to the restive Kurram district in Pakistan’s northwest
  • The attack came as authorities announced March 23 as deadline to dismantle all bunkers used by rival tribes

ISLAMABAD: At least two people were killed in an attack on a convoy carrying essential supplies to a volatile district in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province which has been the site of sectarian and tribal clashes over the last three months, police and health officials said on Monday.
Kurram, a tribal district of around 600,000 where federal and provincial authorities have traditionally exerted limited control, has frequently witnessed violence between its Sunni and Shiite communities over land and power. Travelers to and from the area often ride in convoys escorted by security officials.
Fresh feuding began on Nov. 21 when gunmen ambushed a convoy and killed 52 people, mostly Shiites. The assault triggered road closures and other measures that have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education and work and created a humanitarian crisis in the area, where authorities say at least 150 people have been killed in nearly three months of clashes.
Monday’s ambush was the third such assault in Kurram since January, in which unidentified men attacked vehicles carrying relief goods near Charkhel Ochat, Bagan and Mindori areas when they were en route to Parachinar, the main town of the district, according to Kurram police official Yaqoob Khan.
“Two persons have been killed and five others are confirmed injured,” Dr. Rahim Gul, medical superintendent at the Sadda tehsil headquarters hospital, told Arab News.
Police official Khan said the number of the wounded could be higher than reported as the areas where the convoy was attacked is a remote and inaccessible region.
Previous attacks on aid convoys and crossfire between rival tribes have injured two senior administration officials and a number of security men as well as drivers of vehicles carrying supplies.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet has taken strict notice of the attack on a convoy in Kurram,” KP government spokesman Muhammad Ali Saif said in a statement.
“Some miscreants are making nefarious attempts to disrupt peace. Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has directed to take strict action against the miscreants.”
The attack came as the KP government announced March 23 as the deadline to dismantle all bunkers in the Kurram district. It followed a provincial cabinet meeting, presided over by KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, during which officials briefed participants about various measures taken by them to restore peace to the volatile district, including the demolition of bunkers used by rival tribes to attack each other.
“So far, 151 bunkers have been demolished,” KP CM’s office quoted officials as telling the cabinet members. “The deadline for demolishing all bunkers in the area has been set for March 23.”
The warring tribes had agreed on the demolition of bunkers and handover of heavy weapons as part of a peace agreement reached on Jan. 1, but sporadic violence has continued and both sides have occasionally engaged in battles with machine guns and heavy weapons that have isolated the remote, mountainous region.
Shiite Muslims dominate parts of Kurram, although they are a minority in the rest of Pakistan, which is majority Sunni. The main road connecting Parachinar, the main town in Kurram, to the provincial capital of Peshawar has been blocked since sectarian fighting began in November.
Authorities have also been evacuating the injured and ailing from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters since last month.
“So far, 153 flights have been conducted by two provincial government helicopters to Kurram and around 4,000 people have been provided air transport facility through these flights,” officials told the provincial cabinet.
“To overcome the shortage of essential medicines, 19 thousand kilograms of medicines have been delivered to Kurram so far.”


Pakistan says tensions with India escalating into nuclear conflict a ‘far-fetched analysis’

Pakistan says tensions with India escalating into nuclear conflict a ‘far-fetched analysis’
Updated 27 April 2025
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Pakistan says tensions with India escalating into nuclear conflict a ‘far-fetched analysis’

Pakistan says tensions with India escalating into nuclear conflict a ‘far-fetched analysis’
  • Defense Minister Khawaja Asif says presence of nuclear weapons guarantees India won’t commit any “irresponsible” adventure
  • Tensions between India and Pakistan have spiked after Apr. 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists

ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said this week that the possibility of Pakistan’s tensions with India escalating into a nuclear conflict is a “far-fetched analysis,” saying that both countries are aware of the consequences of such a scenario.

Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors spiked this week after gunmen killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on Apr. 22. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for being involved in the attack and downgraded ties with Pakistan. Islamabad denies New Delhi’s allegations.

Troops from both sides have traded fire along the disputed Kashmir territory for three nights in a row, raising fears of an all-out war breaking out between the two nations who both possess nuclear weapons. 

When asked about the possibility of a “nuclear standoff” between the two countries, Asif told Russia Today channel on Saturday:

“I don’t think so, that’s a very far-fetched analysis that this will ultimately result in a nuclear conflict. I don’t think so, the countries know the consequences of a nuclear conflict.”

The minister said that the presence of nuclear weapons guarantees Pakistan that India will not escalate military tensions. 

“Knowing that we are nuclear powers gives us some sort of security against an irresponsible adventure by India,” he said, describing it as the “only hostile country around us.”

Asif said Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has offered cooperation to India in holding an international inquiry with the support of several countries into the attack that triggered tensions between the two countries. 

“We are ready to welcome any commission or committee formed to investigate this incident,” the minister said. 

Asif condemned India’s move to release additional flow of water into Pakistan on Saturday, which prompted the government in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to warn residents about potential flooding in its river Jhelum.

The Jhelum river flows from Indian-administered Kashmir into Azad Kashmir and then Pakistan’s Punjab province. India had announced this week it was suspending the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty, which regulates the flow of the six rivers of the Indus Basin between the two nations. 
Suspension of the treaty means India can stop sharing crucial information and data on the release of water from barrages/dams or on flooding.
“I would call it water terrorism,” he said. “Without any warning. So low-lying areas in Pakistan would be flooded, there will be destruction of crops, there will be destruction of populated areas,” he added.

As per the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan has rights to the western rivers— Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab— for irrigation, drinking, and non-consumptive uses like hydropower. India controls the eastern rivers— Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej— for unrestricted use but must not significantly alter their flow.

India can use the western rivers for limited purposes such as power generation and irrigation, without storing or diverting large volumes. Experts, like Hassaan F. Khan from Tufts University, argue that India lacks the infrastructure to divert large amounts of Indus waters.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday warned attempts to reduce or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty would be “responded to with full force.”


Pakistan’s interior minister assures foreign investors of protection amid surging militancy

Pakistan’s interior minister assures foreign investors of protection amid surging militancy
Updated 27 April 2025
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Pakistan’s interior minister assures foreign investors of protection amid surging militancy

Pakistan’s interior minister assures foreign investors of protection amid surging militancy
  • Mohsin Naqvi meets delegation of foreign investors in Islamabad to discuss security measures
  • Militants have targeted foreign investors, particularly Chinese interests, in Pakistan recently

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Sunday assured a delegation of foreign investors that the government would provide them protection, the interior ministry said, amid surging militant attacks in the country. 

Pakistan has been worried by a spike in militancy, especially in its western provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan bordering Afghanistan, in recent months. Separatist militants have often targeted Chinese interests in Balochistan and the southern port city of Karachi. 

Naqvi met a delegation of foreign investors on Sunday, the interior ministry said, in a meeting where both sides discussed measures taken to ensure investors’ protection and to secure their investments.

“Pakistan is a safe country for all kinds of investment,” the statement said. “The protection of investors investing in Pakistan is the top priority of our government.”

The interior ministry said Naqvi noted the delegation’s suggestions and assured them of all possible cooperation.

“We have taken serious notice of attacks by certain miscreants, and legal action is being taken against the culprits,” the statement said. 

Naqvi said the government has prepared a strategy to prevent such incidents in the future, Mohsin Naqvi.

The statement said that the delegation thanked Naqvi for his assurances in resolving their concerns.

Pakistan has increasingly attempted to woo foreign investors in recent months as it aims to escape a prolonged economic crisis that has drained the country’s financial resources and triggered a balance of payment crisis. 

Islamabad hosted a minerals summit earlier this month inviting hundreds of foreign investors to tap into Pakistan’s natural resources. 

Pakistan also formed the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) in June 2023 to attract foreign investment in priority sectors such as defense, mining and minerals, energy, livestock, agriculture, tourism and others.


Motorway police book popular Pakistani YouTuber ‘Ducky Bhai’ for driving with his feet

Motorway police book popular Pakistani YouTuber ‘Ducky Bhai’ for driving with his feet
Updated 27 April 2025
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Motorway police book popular Pakistani YouTuber ‘Ducky Bhai’ for driving with his feet

Motorway police book popular Pakistani YouTuber ‘Ducky Bhai’ for driving with his feet
  • Saadur Rehman, aka Ducky Bhai, violated traffic rules, endangering his life and that of others, say police
  • Rehman is one of Pakistan’s most prominent YouTubers, having amassed over 8.38 million subscribers 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s motorway police have booked popular YouTuber Saadur Rehman, more commonly known as “Ducky Bhai,” for performing dangerous stunts while driving a car, state-run media reported this week. 

As per a first information report (FIR) registered at the Chakri police station in Pakistan’s eastern city of Rawalpindi on Apr. 19, Rehman uploaded a video from his social media account weeks earlier in which he can be seen driving on the motorway, with his feet resting on the steering wheel while his eyes were closed. 

“The National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) on Saturday initiated legal action against popular YouTuber Saadur Rehman–popularly known as Ducky Bhai–for performing dangerous stunts while driving on the motorway,” state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported. 

As per the FIR, a case against Rehman has been registered under Article 67 (driving recklessly or dangerously) of the National Highway Safety Ordinance (NHSO) 2000, and Section 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

APP said the motorway police registered a case against Rehman after his video went viral on social media, drawing “heavy criticism” from users who condemned his “reckless behavior.”

“The video in question clearly shows a driver violating traffic rules and endangering not only his own life but also that of others,” a motorway police spokesperson was quoted as saying by the APP. 

“We have taken serious notice of this violation and are proceeding with legal action.”

The spokesperson added that the video had been geo-located and verified and that appropriate sections of the law were being invoked in the FIR.

Rehman is one of Pakistan’s most popular YouTubers. He has uploaded over 750 videos on the video-sharing platform and has amassed over 8.38 million subscribers.


Pakistan says 44 million vaccinated in ongoing anti-polio nationwide campaign

Pakistan says 44 million vaccinated in ongoing anti-polio nationwide campaign
Updated 27 April 2025
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Pakistan says 44 million vaccinated in ongoing anti-polio nationwide campaign

Pakistan says 44 million vaccinated in ongoing anti-polio nationwide campaign
  • Pakistan launched this year’s second nationwide polio vaccination campaign from Apr. 21-27
  • Vaccination coverage reaches 97 percent in Punjab and Sindh, 99 percent in KP and Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have administered polio drops to over 44 million children in the country’s ongoing nationwide vaccination drive, state-run media reported this week. 

Pakistan launched a nationwide campaign from Apr. 21-27 to vaccinate over 45 million children against polio. The country reported 74 cases in 2024 and has planned three major vaccination drives in the first half of this year.

The current campaign is the second of 2025, with a third set to begin from May 26 to June 1.

“The government has successfully administered anti-polio drops to over 44 million children across Pakistan in five days during ongoing vaccination drive,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported on Saturday. 

Pakistan’s National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said the ongoing polio vaccination campaign is being conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The APP report said the ongoing vaccination coverage has reached 97 percent in Punjab and Sindh provinces and 99 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces. 
“In the federal capital Islamabad, 99 percent of the target has been achieved while Azad Jammu and Kashmir reported 100 percent coverage, and Gilgit-Baltistan achieved 99 percent,” it added. 
The report said the NEOC expected another one million children to be vaccinated by Apr. 27. 
“Parents have been urged to fully cooperate with polio workers and ensure that all children under the age of five receive polio drops during every campaign,” the APP said. 
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the last polio-endemic countries in the world. In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually, but by 2018, the number had dropped to eight. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Pakistan’s polio eradication program, launched in 1994, has faced persistent challenges, including vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners who claim immunization is a foreign conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western espionage.

Militant groups have also repeatedly targeted and killed polio vaccination workers.


No handshake at muted India-Pakistan border ceremony

No handshake at muted India-Pakistan border ceremony
Updated 27 April 2025
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No handshake at muted India-Pakistan border ceremony

No handshake at muted India-Pakistan border ceremony
  • Relations between Pakistan, India have soured after Apr. 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir
  • For years, Attari-Wagah border in Punjab separating India from Pakistan has been a hugely popular tourist attraction

ATTARI: With swaggering soldiers giving high kicks set to booming patriotic music cheered on by crowds, it was the usual daily border ceremony between nuclear-armed arch-rivals India and Pakistan.

But there was one key thing at the show that was missing — the usual symbol of cooperation, a handshake between the opposing soldiers, did not take place.

Relations have plummeted after New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing an attack targeting tourists on April 22 — the deadliest attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir for years.

Islamabad rejects the claims, and the countries have since exchanged gunfire, diplomatic barbs, expelled citizens — and ordered the border to be shut.

The iron gates that separate the two sides remain locked.

“It just fills you with passion and patriotic pride,” said Simarjeet Singh, 17, from the nearby Indian city of Amritsar, his face painted with the national tricolor flag.

Many fear the risk of a military escalation in the coming days.

For years, the Attari-Wagah border in Punjab has been a hugely popular tourist attraction.

Visitors from both sides come to cheer on soldiers goose-stepping in a chest-puffing theatrical show of pageantry.

Numbers were muted at the sunset show on Saturday, but thousands of Indians still came to show their loyalty to their nation.

“There were people from all over who looked and dressed different but were cheering and screaming at the same time — for our country and the soldiers,” Singh said, who came with his friends from college.

Cheering crowds still filled the stadium-like space around the gates with noise, at least on the Indian side, where on Saturday some 5,000 people — about a fifth of full capacity — watched.

There was only a small fraction of the support on the Pakistani side.

Enthusiastic spectators sang in chorus, waving flags and chanting “India Zindabad,” or “Long live India.”

The frontier was a colonial creation at the violent end of British rule in 1947 which sliced the sub-continent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

The daily border ritual has largely endured over the decades, surviving innumerable diplomatic flare-ups and military skirmishes.

Reena Devi, 54, and PK Nath, 70, tourists from Tezpur in India’s northeastern state of Assam, are part of a tour of the country.

“We are just so excited to be here,” Devi said. “We just wanted to see this ceremony and experience being at the border with Pakistan.”

Nath said she and her group planned to visit a Hindu site in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Some of us are now a little apprehensive about the security there,” she said.

Nath said he “totally supported” New Delhi’s decision to expel Pakistani citizens and to shut down the border.

“You can’t send people to kill here and still not expect any response,” Nath said.

“We don’t know what will happen next but we are sure that the government would do the right thing,” he added.

As the energetic masters of the ceremony goaded the crowd, the Indian soldiers in red-fanned hats stomped up to the locked gate, kicking their legs up — with Pakistanis doing the same on the other side.

Aside from the ceremony, Indian and Pakistani citizens have been crossing the border since both sides canceled visas before India’s April 29 deadline to leave — tearing apart families with relations in both nations.

“There is obvious anxiety right now,” said Harpal Singh, an Amritsar-based taxi driver who regularly brings visitors to the ceremony, insisting the spectacle was still worth coming to see.

“There was no one who didn’t come back impressed and excited,” he said.

KT Ramesh, 57, from Kozhikode in the southern state of Kerala, said that even the scaled-down ceremony “was worth it.”

“There was no shortage of passion among our people,” Ramesh said.

He said that he’d “seen anger” about the attack in Kashmir “in whoever I spoke with, from our hotel staff to the taxi driver and other tourists here.”

“Everyone was talking about it,” he said. “We don’t like a war but this time we must teach them a lesson.”