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Dawn - 09:32 Feb 17, 2026
KARACHI: The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said on Tuesday it conducted a raid in the city’s Shah Latif Town, as a result of which four suspected terrorists died while two cops sustained injuries. According to information provided by CTD Deputy Inspector General Ghulam Azfar Mahesar, the encounter began when CTD personnel surrounded a house in Shah Latif Town based on the identification of previously arrested suspects. The men inside opened fire, leading to an exchange of gunfire, the CTD said. Additional police contingents were then called to the scene. The four alleged terrorists were injured by firing “from their own accomplices” during the crossfire and later died at a hospital, CTD claimed. Three of the suspects were identified as Jaleel alias Farid, Niaz alias King and Hamdan alias Farid, while efforts were underway to determine the identity of the fourth. A Kalashnikov and a hand grenade were recovered from the possession of one of the suspected terrorists. Two CTD officials — Head Constable Muham... -
Dawn - 09:25 Feb 17, 2026
A terrorist attack, involving an explosive-laden vehicle, on a checkpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district martyred 11 security personnel, the military’s media wing said on Tuesday. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), “On February 16, a cowardly terrorist attack was attempted on security forces and law enforcement agencies’ joint check Post in Bajaur District by Khwarij belonging to Indian Proxy, Fitna al Khwarij”. Fitna-al-Khawarij is a term that the state uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. The statement added that 12 terrorists were eliminated after security forces retaliated and “engaged the fleeing khwarij with precision”. “In their desperation, the attackers rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall. Due to the blast impact infrastructure at check post collapsed resultantly eleven brave sons of soil, rendered the ultimate sacrifice and [embracing] martyrdom.” ISPR elaborated that the blast affected residential buildings in the area as well, “leading... -
Dawn - 07:50 Feb 17, 2026
LAHORE: A suspected serial killer, accused of kidnapping and murdering at least four people, was reportedly killed by gunfire from his own accomplices during an alleged encounter with the Gujranwala police on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the Gujranwala police said that the suspect, who was caught while attempting to flee from Lahore to Karachi via train, had been in the custody of the Gujranwala police on physical remand. He claimed that the police team was taking the suspect to an area he had identified to recover the murder weapon, when unidentified armed accomplices of the suspect intercepted the police party. The police spokesperson further claimed that four armed accomplices opened fire on the police in an attempt to free the suspect from custody. “However, the suspect was killed by gunfire from his own accomplices while trying to flee,” the spokesperson added. The attackers fled the scene shortly afterward, he said. The police later moved the suspect’s body to the Gujranwala District Headquarters Hospita... -
Dawn - 04:51 Feb 17, 2026
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would be involved “indirectly” in high-stakes talks between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear program set for Tuesday in Geneva, adding he believed Tehran wanted to make a deal. “I’ll be involved in those talks, indirectly. And they’ll be very important,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. Tensions are soaring ahead of the talks, with the US deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East. The US military is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, US officials have told Reuters. Asked about the prospects for a deal, Trump said Iran has long sought a tough posture in negotiations but learned the consequences of that approach last summer when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites. Trump suggested Tehran was motivated this time to negotiate. “I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” Trump said. Washington pushes Tehran to forego enrichment Prior to the US strikes in June, U... -
Dawn - 04:23 Feb 17, 2026
French President Emmanuel Macron begins a three-day visit to India on Tuesday, with talks focused on artificial intelligence cooperation and a potential multibillion-dollar Dassault Rafale fighter jet deal. France is seeking to expand its military partnership with New Delhi, with discussions expected on a potential contract for 114 additional French fighter jets. Macron and his wife Brigitte arrived around midnight on Monday in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, for his fourth visit to India since taking office in 2017. He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi later on Tuesday. Macron will then travel to New Delhi for an artificial intelligence summit on Wednesday and Thursday. The visit follows New Delhi’s confirmation last week that it intends to place a major order for Rafale jets, as well as the signing of a landmark free trade agreement between India and the European Union in January. ‘Contract of the century’ New Delhi has sought over the past decade to reduce its dependence on Russia, its t... -
Dawn - 18:57 Feb 16, 2026
Pakistan and Austria on Monday agreed to further strengthen bilateral ties as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Chancellor Christian Stocker in Vienna. PM Shehbaz arrived in Vienna a day earlier on a two-day visit, with the Foreign Office (FO) noting that it marked the first visit by a Pakistani prime minister to Austria since 1992. PM Shehbaz and Stocker held a “restricted meeting” at the Federal Chancellery today, which was followed by delegation-level talks, a press release issued by PID said. The delegation talks included Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi, and Foreign Secretary Ambassador Amna Baloch. The statement read: “Both leaders recalled the friendly and historic ties between the two countries and committed to work together more closely to further strengthen the bilateral relationship in diverse fields, including economic cooperation, trade and investment, tourism, hospitality, education, IT, healthcare and human reso... -
Dawn - 18:49 Feb 16, 2026
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi apologised to the people of his province on Monday, saying that PTI workers had taken to the streets of their own accord. His statement comes against the backdrop of protests at multiple places by PTI activists in KP. The party workers have blocked entry and exit points to the province, resulting in inconveniences for the people and KP being cut off from the rest of the country. The protests began on Friday, simultaneously with sit-ins by opposition parliamentarians and Tehreek Tahafuz-i-Ayeen Pakistan leaders in Islamabad, over PTI founder Imran Khan’s health. When KP CM was asked today about what would be the next line of action for PTI workers, he said: “We have not given any line of action to the workers. The workers have come out on their own. Our strategy was just for the parliamentarians.” He said the plan devised for parliamentarians was to stage a “peaceful sit-in” outside the Parliament in Islamabad. “But, unfortunately, some of us were stopped at the ... -
Dawn - 18:30 Feb 16, 2026
Iran said on Monday that the United States’s position on Iran’s nuclear programme “has moved towards a more realistic one”, a day ahead of a second round of US-Iranian talks in Geneva. Tehran’s foreign minister arrived in Geneva for the new round of indirect negotiations with the US, as the Revolutionary Guards began military drills in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for oil and gas. The two sides recently resumed indirect talks, mediated by Oman, after US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened military action against Iran over a deadly crackdown on protesters last month. A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites. “A cautious assessment is that, from the discussions that have taken place in Muscat to date, at least what we have been told is that the US position on the Iranian nuclear issue has moved towards a more realistic one,” said foreign ministry spokesma... -
Dawn - 17:44 Feb 16, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The opposition decided on Monday to extend its sit-in at the Parliament House till Tuesday — one of the two court-mandated days for meeting incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan — to “see the government’s response” to their call for allowing access to the former premier. Imran’s family and associates had been barred from visiting him for several weeks until the Supreme Court’s intervention last week led to PTI lawyer Salman Safdar being allowed to visit him. Following his visit, he submitted a report to the SC, which said only 15 per cent vision was left in the PTI founder’s right eye. This prompted a strong response from opposition alliance Tehreek Tahafuz-i-Ayeen Pakistan (TTAP), which began a sit-in at the Parliament House for the fulfilment of its demands for Imran’s treatment and examination. The protest, which began on Friday, entered its fourth day today, with TTAP Spokesperson Akhunzada Hussain Ahmed Yousafzai saying that it would continue till Tuesday. He shared this information with Dawn ho... -
Dawn - 17:41 Feb 16, 2026
Sri Lanka’s Pathum Nissanka scored the first century of the 2026 T20 World Cup on Monday to put his side into the Super Eights and leave Australia on the brink of elimination. Nissanka scored 100 not out off 52 balls with five sixes and 10 fours as Sri Lanka, chasing Australia’s 181, reached 184-2 with two overs to spare in Kandy to win by eight wickets. A victory by Zimbabwe over Ireland in Group B on Tuesday, or against Sri Lanka on Thursday, would eliminate the 2021 champions. If Zimbabwe lose both, Australia will need to beat Oman in their final match on Friday by a big margin to get through on net run rate. Nissanka was involved in a 97-run stand off 66 balls with Kusal Mendis for the second wicket with the wicketkeeper-batsman posting his third fifty in the competition. Nissanka became the first Sri Lankan to score two hundreds in T20 internationals. After Mendis’s dismissal, Nissanka and Pavan Rathnayake put on 76 off 34 balls to see Sri Lanka to victory. Nissanka played some glorious cover drives off ... -
Dawn - 17:22 Feb 16, 2026
Israeli police said on Monday that they would deploy in force around the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramazan, which begins this week, as Palestinian officials accused Israel of imposing restrictions at the compound. Over the course of the month of fasting and prayer, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians traditionally attend prayers at Al-Aqsa — Islam’s third-holiest site, located in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed. Arad Braverman, a senior Jerusalem police officer, said forces would be deployed “day and night” across the compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and in the surrounding area. He said thousands of police personnel would also be on duty for Friday prayers, which draw the largest crowds of worshippers. Braverman said police had recommended issuing 10,000 permits for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, who require special permission to enter Jerusalem. He did not say whether age limits would apply, adding that the final number of people would be... -
Dawn - 15:56 Feb 16, 2026
Service was restored to Elon Musk-owned social network X on Monday afternoon after it had failed to show posts to users in many countries. The site was displaying content, allowing users to post and otherwise functioning normally again around 1530 GMT, after the Downdetector tracking website reported a spike in outage reports around two hours before. Downdector showed that reports of issues peaked in Pakistan at 6:54pm, with 275 users flagging problems, before slowly tapering down to 8 by 7:54pm. X had appeared to be suffering “international outages,” connectivity monitor Netblocks posted on the open-source social network Mastodon during the disruption. The breakdown was “not related to country-level internet disruptions or filtering”, added Netblocks, which regularly flags technical issues with popular online services and sites as well as interference by national governments. Its most recent posts about similar outages for X came on February 9, the day after the Super Bowl in the US, and February 1. AFP jour... -
Dawn - 15:44 Feb 16, 2026
PPP central spokesperson Shazia Marri criticised the federal government on Monday for dropping a “petrol bomb” on the public close to Ramazan, terming the latest hike in petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) prices “unjust” and “highly unfair”. The government increased petrol and HSD prices by Rs5 and Rs7.32 per litre, respectively, on Sunday night. The ex-depot price of petrol now stands at Rs258.17 per litre and of HSD at Rs275.70 per litre. The government said the new prices will continue till the end of February, owing to movement in international market prices. A statement on the PPP’s website said Marri strongly rejected the federal government’s decision to increase the prices of petroleum products, terming it “unjust and ill-advised” ahead Ramazan. According to the statement, Marri said that raising the price of petrol and diesel just days before Ramazan “is a highly unfair and unwise move”. She described the increase as a “petrol bomb” dropped on the public at a time when people were already struggling ... -
Dawn - 15:41 Feb 16, 2026
KARACHI: No casualties were reported as a huge fire that erupted in the bushes near the University of Karachi (KU) on Monday was brought under control, according to officials. Mobina Town police said that the fire broke out in the bushes near the university. Rescue 1122 Spokesperson Hassaanul Haseeb Khan told Dawn that the rescue service received information about blaze around 4:00pm. “Initially, two fire tenders were sent. However, due to heavy winds and dry bushes, the fire spread rapidly, engulfing a plant nursery near the varsity,” the rescue spokesperson said. He said that due to the gravity of the situation, four more fire tenders were dispatched, which managed to extinguish the fire. He said the bushes were at a distance; therefore, no casualties were reported. He said that the Rescue 1122 recently “rehabilitated” one fire tender at the university and advised them to utilise it in emergency cases to prevent the spread of flames. Khan recalled that a few months earlier, a huge fire had erupted in the vi... -
Dawn - 15:29 Feb 16, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Monday assured the Supreme Court (SC) that PTI founder Imran Khan had been allowed to speak to his children, adding that the medical examination of the ex-premier was also carried out by an expert team. Last week, a two-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi had instructed the government to form a medical team to examine incarcerated PTI chief Imran Khan after a report submitted by his lawyer, Salman Safdar, revealed that the former prime minister had lost 85 per cent of the vision in his right eye. The court had also asked authorities to arrange calls between Imran and his children. On Monday, the government, through Deputy Attorney General Raja Muhammad Shafqat Abbasi, filed a fresh application in the SC. The government said it was placing on record the report prepared by the Adiala jail superintendent to highlight the SC’s earlier directions, issued on Aug 24, 2023, in exercise of powers under Article 184 of the Constitution (a provision n... -
Dawn - 15:18 Feb 16, 2026
ISLAMABAD: In a meeting with a delegation from Pakistan on Monday, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake appreciated Islamabad’s support during “difficult times”. The Sri Lankan president shared photos of the meeting held in Colombo on social media platform X, saying that he had met Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Chaudhry Salik Hussain. “We reaffirmed our enduring friendship [and] appreciated Pakistan’s support to Sri Lanka during difficult times,” the post by Dissanayake said. He further stated that the “Pakistan delegation conveyed special thanks from Pakistan’s president and prime minister for Sri Lanka’s timely intervention when Pakistan’s participation in the T20 [World Cup] was uncertain”. Days ahead of the ongoing T20 global showpiece, the Pakistan government had decided that the country’s cricket team would not play against India in the group-stage match. The decision had come after Bangladesh were replaced by Scotland in the ... -
Dawn - 14:51 Feb 16, 2026
PTI founder Imran Khan — who is suffering from an eye ailment leading to loss of vision in his right eye — was examined by a team of doctors at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail on Sunday. The party had rejected the inspection conducted in the absence of his family and personal physicians, terming it “malicious”. On Monday, the law minister allayed concerns Imran’s vision loss, saying that there was “nothing as such to worry about”. Meanwhile, the doctors who examined the former premier in jail released a two-page report on Monday. According to the report, a copy of which is available with Dawn, a medical board comprising the following eye specialists examined Imran on February 15; Dr Prof Nadeem Qureshi, the head of the vitreoretinal department at the Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital in Rawalpindi, and Dr Prof Dr M Arif, the head of the opthalmology department at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in Islamabad. The report stated that unaided, Imran’s right eye had 6/24 partial vision and 6/9 in the left. It... -
Dawn - 13:37 Feb 16, 2026
A global artificial intelligence summit kicked off in New Delhi on Monday with big issues on the agenda, from job disruption to child safety, although some attendees warned the broad focus could make concrete commitments from world leaders less likely. While frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for many tech companies, anxiety is growing over the risks that it poses to society and the environment. The five-day AI Impact Summit aims to declare a “shared roadmap for global AI governance and collaboration”. It is the fourth annual gathering addressing the problems and opportunities posed by AI, after previous international meetings in Paris, Seoul and Britain’s wartime code-breaking hub Bletchley. Touted as the biggest edition yet, the Indian government is expecting tens of thousands of visitors from across the sector. That includes 20 national leaders and 45 ministerial-level delegations, who will rub shoulders with tech CEOs, including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Google’s Sundar Pichai. “The... -
Dawn - 13:16 Feb 16, 2026
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday said that the people of PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were living in the stone age, critising the province’s government for not taking steps for development in the age of technology. Addressing a laptop distribution scheme at a Gujrat university, CM Maryam highlighted that students in Punjab had access to Honhaar scholarships, laptop schemes, Parwaz Card, green buses and technical training programmes. “So there is Honhaar here, and incitement there, but this is nothing to rejoice about,” she said, adding that she was extremely upset that the “people of KP were still living in the stone age”. Maryam stated: “They do not know what development is. They do not realise that Honhaar scholarships also exist if one does not have the resources for their child’s studies. “They do not know that you must have a gadget or a laptop or an iPad or a computer in your hands if you are to meet global standards in today’s age.” Indirectly noting that the PTI had been in power in KP for t... -
Dawn - 12:39 Feb 16, 2026
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar on Monday allayed concerns over PTI founder Imran Khan’s vision loss, saying that there was “nothing as such to worry about”. The statement comes days after the Supreme Court (SC) was informed that Imran had only 15pc vision left in his right eye, prompting the apex court to form a medical team to examine him before February 16 (today). Subsequently, a team of five doctors arrived at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail on Sunday, where the ex-premier is incarcerated, and carried out a detailed eye examination, took blood samples and checked his blood pressure. However, the PTI rejected the check-up conducted without his family and personal physicians. Addressing Bar Association Ferozewala in Punjab’s Shahdara on Monday, Tarar referred to the “latest report that had to be submitted” regarding Imran’s health. The minister added that he discussed it with Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan and the “relevant” individuals before coming to the bar association. Tarar stated: “T...
7934 items