Pakistani religiopolitical party leads Gaza protests outside US consulates, Islamabad embassy

Pakistani religiopolitical party leads Gaza protests outside US consulates, Islamabad embassy
Activists of Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party shout pro-Palestinian slogans as they hold placards and flags during a march to express their solidarity with the Palestinians, in Karachi on January 12, 2025. (AFP/File)
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Updated 21 March 2025
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Pakistani religiopolitical party leads Gaza protests outside US consulates, Islamabad embassy

Pakistani religiopolitical party leads Gaza protests outside US consulates, Islamabad embassy
  • Jamat-e-Islami chief urges Pakistani authorities to allow his party to hold “peaceful protest” outside US consulates, Islamabad embassy
  • JI issues call for protest after Israel’s fresh military action in Gaza killed over 500 people since Tuesday, threatening fragile Hamas ceasefire

ISLAMABAD: Prominent Pakistani religiopolitical party Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JI) is expected to hold a protest march outside the US embassy in Islamabad and its consulates in other parts of the country today, Friday, against Washington’s support for Israel’s fresh strikes in Gaza that have killedover 500 people this week and threatened to disrupt the fragile ceasefire in the enclave. 

Since Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes have killed 510 Palestinians, with more than half of them women and children, a health official in Gaza said. The Israeli military said on Thursday it had begun conducting ground activities in the northern Gaza Strip, along the coastal route in the area of Beit Lahia.

The latest escalation is a blow to the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas on Jan. 15 following more than a year of Israeli airstrikes that flattened much of Gaza’s infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and residential neighborhoods. Around 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza were killed during the 15-month war that began in October 2023. 

“We will march toward all American consulates and its embassy in Islamabad,” Naeem-ur-Rehman, the head of the party, said at a news conference on Thursday. “We will protest and our protest will be peaceful.”

He pointed out that protests outside consulates and embassies take place worldwide, wondering why authorities in Pakistan do not allow the same to take place. 

“It will be a peaceful [protest] from our side but it is the government’s responsibility to ensure the situation remains peaceful and it allows this peaceful protest to take place,” Rehman said. “So that just like the entire world is standing against oppressors, Pakistan can also contribute to it.”

This is not the first time that the JI has announced a rally outside the US embassy to protest Israel’s bombardment in Gaza. In May last year, Islamabad police prevented JI supporters from marching toward the US embassy in Islamabad to protest against Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza. 

Police used batons on the demonstrators, angering hundreds of rallygoers who briefly blocked a key road and later staged a sit-in near a high-security area where foreign embassies and the offices of president, prime minister and parliament are located.

JI students posted videos on social media, claiming they were beaten by police who did not allow them to go toward the American embassy for a peaceful rally. 

Pakistan does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and has frequently criticized it for its military operations in Gaza. 

Pakistan’s ambassador at the UN, Munir Akram, this week called for the resumption of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave and the need for a revival of negotiations leading to a two-state solution. 

He also called for an independent Palestinian state along pre-1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital.


Pakistan minister urges international probe of Kashmir attack

Pakistan minister urges international probe of Kashmir attack
Updated 4 sec ago
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Pakistan minister urges international probe of Kashmir attack

Pakistan minister urges international probe of Kashmir attack
  • India has said there were Pakistani elements to the attack that killed 26 men on Tuesday, Islamabad denies any involvement
  • Khawaja Asif says Pakistan is ‘ready to cooperate’ with ‘any investigation which is conducted by international inspectors’

Pakistan believes an international investigation is needed into the killing of 26 men at a tourist spot in Indian Kashmir this week and is willing to work with international investigators, the New York Times reported on Friday, quoting Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif.
Asif told the newspaper in an interview that Pakistan was “ready to cooperate” with “any investigation which is conducted by international inspectors.”
India has said there were Pakistani elements to the attack on Tuesday, but Islamabad has denied any involvement. The two countries both claim the mountainous region but each controls only part of it.
Since the attack, the nuclear-armed nations have unleashed a raft of measures against each other, with India putting the critical Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines.
Asif told the newspaper that India had used the aftermath of the militant attack as a pretext to suspend the water treaty and for domestic political purposes.
India, was taking steps to punish Pakistan “without any proof, without any investigation,” he added.
“We do not want this war to flare up, because flaring up of this war can cause disaster for this region,” Asif told the newspaper.
A little-known militant group, Kashmir Resistance, claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media message.
Indian security agencies say Kashmir Resistance, also known as The Resistance Front, is a front for Pakistan-based militant organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
Asif disputed that allegation in the interview. He said Lashkar-e-Taiba was “defunct” and had no ability to plan or conduct attacks from Pakistan-controlled territory.
“They don’t have any setup in Pakistan,” he said, according to the newspaper.
“Those people, whatever is left of them, they are contained. Some of them are under house arrest, some of them are in custody. They are not at all active,” the official said.


Pakistan finance chief urges faster payouts from climate loss and damage fund

Pakistan finance chief urges faster payouts from climate loss and damage fund
Updated 28 min 2 sec ago
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Pakistan finance chief urges faster payouts from climate loss and damage fund

Pakistan finance chief urges faster payouts from climate loss and damage fund
  • Muhammad Aurangzeb calls climate change an ‘existential threat’ to countries like his own
  • He says Pakistan has always been a strong proponent of the fund and calls for its swift use

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday urged the international community to ensure faster and simpler disbursements from a new global fund set up to help vulnerable countries respond to climate-related losses.

The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), established at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in 2022 before being officially operationalized by 198 countries, aims to help developing and least developed countries (LDCs) cope with both economic and non-economic impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events and slow-onset crises like sea-level rise and droughts.

Aurangzeb made the remarks while addressing a high-level dialogue over the issue, held on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings in Washington.

“Emphasizing that simplicity and agility should be the guiding principles, the finance minister urged the need for speedy disbursements under the fund, unlike the experience of LDCs and other vulnerable nations with existing climate finance mechanisms,” Pakistan’s finance ministry said in a statement circulated after the dialogue.

Aurangzeb also stressed the importance of “the integrity of the whole process with adequate checks and balances,” according to the statement.

He said Pakistan had been among the strongest proponents of the fund, warning that climate change represents an “existential threat” to countries like his own.

Pakistan has experienced increasingly erratic weather patterns in recent years, including heatwaves, droughts, cyclones and glacial melting.

In 2022, record monsoon rains triggered floods that killed over 1,700 people, affecting 30 million more and causing economic losses exceeding $30 billion.


Trump says India, Pakistan will resolve tensions ‘one way or another’

Trump says India, Pakistan will resolve tensions ‘one way or another’
Updated 25 April 2025
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Trump says India, Pakistan will resolve tensions ‘one way or another’

Trump says India, Pakistan will resolve tensions ‘one way or another’
  • The US president says there have always been tensions between the two countries
  • Trump declines to say if he would get in touch with Indian and Pakistani leaders

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: India and Pakistan will figure out relations between themselves, US President Donald Trump said on Friday as tensions soared between the two neighboring countries after an attack in India’s Kashmir region that was the worst in nearly two decades.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, cited historical conflict in the disputed border region and said he knew both countries’ leaders, but did not answer when asked whether he would contact them.
“They’ll get it figured out one way or the other,” he said as he traveled aboard his plane. “There’s great tension between Pakistan and India, but there always has been.”
On Tuesday, 26 men were killed at a tourist site in Kashmir, shot dead in a meadow. India has said there were Pakistani elements to the attack, a claim Islamabad denies.
Both India and Pakistan have claimed the region of Kashmir, and have fought two wars over the area.
Relations between the two South Asian nations have deteriorated in the days following the attack, with India setting aside a critical water sharing pact and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines. Their trade is also at risk.
On Friday, Indian stock markets fell on fears of fresh tensions as Indian authorities searched for militants in the region, before markets recovered some losses.


Pakistan confirms new polio case in northwest, bringing 2025 total to eight

Pakistan confirms new polio case in northwest, bringing 2025 total to eight
Updated 25 April 2025
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Pakistan confirms new polio case in northwest, bringing 2025 total to eight

Pakistan confirms new polio case in northwest, bringing 2025 total to eight
  • The country has launched a week-long anti-polio drive to immunize over 45 million children
  • Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two polio-endemic countries throughout the world

KARACHI: Pakistan’s polio eradication program confirmed a new case of the disease in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday, bringing the total count to eight as the nationwide drive to inoculate millions of children continues.
Pakistan launched a campaign earlier this week 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 Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health Islamabad has confirmed a polio case from District Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the lab said in a statement, adding this was the third case from the province this year.
It also urged parents to ensure that their children receive repeated doses of the polio vaccine to protect them from the disease.
On Wednesday, two security officials assigned to protect a polio vaccination team were killed in a gun attack in the Teri area of Mastung, in the southwestern Balochistan province.
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. Last week, gunmen attacked a vehicle and abducted two polio workers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
On April 21, a militant was killed when a police team escorting a polio team on the outskirts of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan district, responded to a gun attack.


Security forces kill six militants in Pakistan’s northwest

Security forces kill six militants in Pakistan’s northwest
Updated 25 April 2025
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Security forces kill six militants in Pakistan’s northwest

Security forces kill six militants in Pakistan’s northwest
  • Four other militants were injured in the intelligence-based operation carried out in Bannu district
  • Pakistan PM praises the security forces following the raid, acknowledging their professionalism

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security forces killed six militants during an intelligence-based operation in the northwestern district of Bannu, the military said on Friday, amid a spike in attacks in its western provinces bordering Afghanistan.
Authorities blame the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of various militant factions, for much of the violence directed against the civilians and security forces in the area.
Pakistani officials refer to TTP fighters as “khwarij,” a term rooted in early Islamic history used for an extremist sect that declared other Muslims apostates.
“On night 23/24 April 2025, Security Forces conducted an intelligence based operation in Bannu District on reported presence of Khwarij,” the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations, said in a statement.
“During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij location and after an intense fire exchange, six khwarij were sent to hell, while four khwarij got injured,” it added.
The statement informed a “sanitization operation” was underway to eliminate any remaining militants, adding that security forces were determined to eradicate militancy from the country.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised the security forces following the raid, acknowledging their professionalism and resolve.
“The nefarious designs of terrorists, who are enemies of humanity, will continue to be crushed,” he said in a separate statement circulated by his office, vowing that Pakistan’s fight against militancy would persist until it was completely eradicated.