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Dawn - 17:41 Nov 25, 2025
The Foreign Office (FO) on Tuesday issued a statement condemning a flag raising at the Ram Temple in India’s Ayodhya — built on the site of the demolished Babri Masjid — and warned of a threat to religious minorities and Muslim cultural heritage by Hindu extremists. Devout Hindus believe that Ram was born in Ayodhya around 7,000 years ago, but that during the rule of the Mughal Empire, the Babri Masjid mosque was built on top of his birthplace in the 16th century. Thousands of Hindu activists, led by politicians of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demolished the mosque in 1992. The Ram Temple was built at the site of the destroyed mosque and was inaugurated last January. The FO condemned the flag hoisting at the site and stated that judicial processes allowing the construction of the temple over the mosque “speak volumes about the Indian state’s discriminatory approach towards minorities”. “This reflected a broader pattern of pressure on religious minorities in India and deliberate attempts... -
Dawn - 16:52 Nov 25, 2025
The Australian government on Tuesday announced that visa applicants can apply through the Australian Immi App, which allows them to directly submit facial biometric and passport information through their phone. In a post on X, Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Tim Kane wrote that applying for a visa from Pakistan “just got easier”, attaching a link to the Australian Department of Home Affairs website. The website states that the Immi App, available on both Android and iOS, is available for eligible applicants to provide their passport details and a facial image. “To provide your identity information using the Australian Immi App, you need to have a Requirement to provide personal identifiers (biometrics) letter with a Visa Lodgement Number (VLN) commencing with AUI or AUH [and a] valid passport,” the Australian home department said. It added that the applicant’s mobile device requires location access and near-field communication to be enabled, with permission for the Immi App to use the phone’s camera... -
Dawn - 16:23 Nov 25, 2025
Heavy rain caused flooding in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, swamping the tents of thousands of homeless Palestinians facing the prospect of harsh winter storms without sturdy shelter. The large majority of Gaza’s two million people were forced from their homes during Israel’s two-year ground and air onslaught in the small, crowded enclave triggered by Hamas’ October 2023 attack, with many now living in tents and other basic shelters. A ceasefire has broadly held since mid-October, but the conflict demolished much of heavily built-up Gaza, including basic infrastructure, leaving grim living conditions for most people. “This suffering, this rain — and the low-pressure weather systems haven’t even started yet. It’s only the beginning of winter, and we’re already flooded and humiliated,” Um Ahmed Aowdah said outside her tent as rain pelted down on Tuesday. “We haven’t received new tents or tarps. Our tarp is two years old and our tent is two years old — they’re completely worn out.” Displaced Palestinians shelter at... -
Dawn - 16:10 Nov 25, 2025
Ali Khan Tareen bowed out as owner of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Multan Sultans on Tuesday after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) did not extend him a renewal offer. The development comes as all five remaining franchises have renewed their agreements with the league for the next 10 years over the past two days, with Islamabad United and Karachi Kings being the latest to do so. Tareen announced his departure in a note posted on X, describing the decision as a difficult but unavoidable conclusion to an increasingly strained relationship with the PCB. “Despite the financial losses year after year, I never once thought about walking away,” he wrote. “The Sultans have always meant more to me than just numbers. And I have always been willing to go as far as needed to protect it.” Acknowledging that his forthright views had not always been well received, Tareen said he had “always spoken his mind”, even when it put him at odds with the league’s management. “I never learned how to play it safe or just ... -
Dawn - 16:09 Nov 25, 2025
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Bahrain from November 26-67 in a visit aimed at deepening linkages with the gulf country, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Tuesday. In a press release issued today, the FO said: “The visit is expected to reinforce the traditionally warm and cordial ties, identify new avenues of partnership, and deepen people-to-people linkages, contributing to mutually beneficial cooperation. “This official visit underscores Pakistan’s continued engagement with the Kingdom of Bahrain, aimed at fostering a results-oriented and strategic partnership between the two countries.” It added the visit reaffirmed the “longstanding and multifaceted relationship” between the two countries. The FO said PM Shehbaz will hold high-level engagements with Bahrain’s leadership to further enhance bilateral cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, energy, technology, education, and culture. He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq D... -
Dawn - 15:51 Nov 25, 2025
The Pakistan Navy on Tuesday conducted a successful test of an indigenously developed ship-launched anti-ship ballistic missile, according to the military’s media affairs wing. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the weapon system is capable of engaging targets both at sea and on land “with high precision”. “The system is equipped with state-of-the-art guidance and advanced manoeuvrability features,” the ISPR said in a statement. “The flight test was witnessed by Admiral Naveed Ashraf, Chief of the Naval Staff, senior scientists and engineers.” The ISPR deemed the successful test launch “a testimony to Pakistan’s technological prowess and Pakistan Navy’s unwavering commitment to safeguard national interests”. View this post on Instagram According to the statement, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Shamshad Mirza and service chiefs congratulated the participating u... -
Dawn - 15:50 Nov 25, 2025
United States Army Secretary Dan Driscoll held talks late on Monday and Tuesday with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi as part of an intense new push by President Donald Trump’s administration to end the war in Ukraine, Driscoll’s spokesperson said. US and Ukrainian officials are trying to narrow the gaps between them over a peace plan, with core issues still unresolved and Ukraine wary of being strong-armed into accepting a deal largely on the Kremlin’s terms. “Late Monday and throughout Tuesday, Secretary Driscoll and team have been in discussions with the Russian delegation to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine. The talks are going well and we remain optimistic. Secretary Driscoll is closely synchronised with the White House … as these talks progress,” said US Army Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Tolbert, a spokesperson for Driscoll. The exact nature of the discussions was not immediately clear, and it was not known who was in the Russian delegation. A US official said that Driscoll, who has emerged as a point man fo... -
Dawn - 15:12 Nov 25, 2025
Pakistan’s atmosphere is “almost clear” of the ash plume from a volcanic eruption in Ethiopia, Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) spokesperson Anjum Nazeer Zaighum said on Tuesday, adding that the ash cloud was now present over parts of India. The Hayli Gubbi volcano, located in Ethiopia’s Afar region about 800 kilometres northeast of Addis Ababa near the Eritrean border, erupted for several hours two days ago. The eruption sent a column of ash and smoke rising nearly 45,000 feet into the atmosphere. The dangerous ash plume from the eruption had drifted across the Red Sea and disrupted operations on one of the world’s busiest air routes. By Monday, the plume had spread east over Yemen and Oman and was tracking toward the airspace of Pakistan and India, forcing airlines to cancel flights or fly costly detours. The Met Office spokesperson said the ash plume was first detected in Pakistan about 60 nautical miles south of Gwadar around 10am on Monday. Zaigham said the ash plume remained over areas in Pakist... -
Dawn - 15:02 Nov 25, 2025
Alphabet’s Google and venture capital firm Accel will partner to fund at least 10 early-stage Indian AI startups, marking the US technology giant’s first such funding partnership, top executives at the companies said on Thursday. The move comes as several US tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon and OpenAI make a beeline for the world’s most populous nation, seen as a critical growth market where nearly a billion users access the internet. Under the partnership, Google’s AI Futures Fund and Accel will co-invest up to $2 million in each startup, Prayank Swaroop, partner at Accel, told Reuters in an interview, with the investments focused on the wide areas of entertainment, creativity, work and coding. The announcement comes after Google in October said it would invest $15 billion over five years to set up an AI data centre in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, its biggest-ever investment in the country. Its AI Futures Fund, launched six months ago, has funded over 30 companies, including Indian webtoon s... -
Dawn - 14:29 Nov 25, 2025
Outgoing Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Sahir Shamshad Mirza paid a farewell visit to Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir at General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, the military’s media wing said on Tuesday. During the meeting, the army chief commended General Mirza for his “exemplary leadership, strategic foresight, and dedicated service to the Pakistan Armed Forces”, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). “He (COAS) lauded the CJCSC’s pivotal role in enhancing tri-services synergy, strengthening joint operational preparedness, and advancing Pakistan’s national security objectives at the strategic level,” ISPR said. Furthermore, Field Marshal Munir also highlighted General Mirza’s contributions towards regional stability, military diplomacy, and the strengthening of Pakistan’s partnerships with friendly countries, as per ISPR’s statement. “General [Mirza] expressed gratitude to the COAS and the armed forces for the support extended during his c... -
Dawn - 14:19 Nov 25, 2025
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday strongly objected to recent legislations aimed at reducing domestic violence, protecting children from child marriages, and safeguarding transgender community’s rights. On November 13, the National Assembly also passed a bill — awaiting the Senate’s approval — to protect people against domestic violence in Islamabad. A day later, the Balochistan Assembly adopted a bill to ban child marriages with a majority, amidst a protest by opposition lawmakers, including JUI-F’s Younis Zehri. In September, the Balochistan cabinet approved the province’s first-ever transgender policy to ensure the community’s social and economic inclusion. Addressing the media in Islamabad today, the JUI-F chief said, “Some legislation has been enacted regarding the marriage of children below the age of 18 years, regarding transgenders, and regarding domestic violence.” View this post on Instagram The Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill 2025 aims to es... -
Dawn - 13:48 Nov 25, 2025
The forties may have gained a reputation for being the age when bad things happen to a woman’s body, but there is no magic to this number. Every woman goes through these physiological changes in their own time. The 40s is, however, the age when perimenopause is most likely to hit women, and it is good to know what changes to expect and how to combat them. Perimenopause can be loosely defined as the prep time that a female body takes to transition into menopause, and it is here that hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone start to destabilise. The most notable changes a woman faces physically at this time are weight gain, a deteriorating skin texture, and exhaustion. Doctors have noted that this particular weight gain is not just visible on the scale — it settles distinctly on the hips, giving the body a more rotund look. The loss of oestrogen and progesterone is directly responsible for saggy and more dehydrated skin, fine lines and the loss of skin suppleness due to decreasing collagen. Dr Kazi Azmiri Ho... -
Dawn - 13:12 Nov 25, 2025
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police (IG) Zulfiqar Hameed on Tuesday said the perpetrators of yesterday’s suicide attack on the Federal Constabulary (FC) Headquarters in Peshawar were likely Afghan citizens. Investigators and intelligence agencies are hunting for facilitators and support networks behind the attack, which saw three personnel embrace martyrdom and 12 sustain injuries. The attack, which began after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance, was swiftly repulsed as personnel engaged and shot his two accomplices dead before they could enter the installation to inflict any major damage. Questioned about the progress of the investigation and whether any evidence had come to the fore about the assailants being Afghan citizens, IG Hameed said: “We are saying this because, based on the evidence so far, when someone does not have a citizenship record, they are assumed to be Afghan or something similar.” He confirmed that authorities had identified the location where the terrorists spen... -
Dawn - 13:00 Nov 25, 2025
Badruddin Umar, who died in Dhaka on September 7, 2025, at the age of 93, was often introduced as a Marxist theorist and a figure of the Bangladeshi left. That label never captured the real centre of gravity of his life’s work. His lasting contribution was scholarly. Umar left behind a meticulous body of English-language writing and translated work that gave international readers an empirically grounded view of East Bengal’s history, culture and class formation. The best of his English books and essays are neither slogans nor memoirs; they are archives in prose — dense with references, patient with evidence and consciously written to carry Bangladesh’s history beyond the limits of a single language community. For students of South Asia who read him first in English, Umar appears primarily as a historian of structures, a cartographer of class conflict and a translator who understood translation as an intellectual act. In the notice of his passing, Bangladeshi outlets described him as a public intellectual, res... -
Dawn - 12:51 Nov 25, 2025
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry refuted allegations by the Afghan Taliban on Tuesday that Pakistan had conducted overnight strikes in Afghanistan, state media reported. The statement by the head of the military’s media wing came hours after the Afghan Taliban spokesperson accused Pakistan of attacks in Khost, Kunar and Paktika provinces. According to state broadcaster Pakistan TV, the military spokesperson refuted the claims of conducting strikes inside Afghanistan. “Pakistan Army has not attacked civilians inside Afghanistan,” it quoted him as saying. “Whenever Pakistan attacks someone, it announces it,” he said, according to local media. “In our view, there are no good and bad Taliban,” he said, adding that there was “no distinction” between terrorists. “The Taliban government should make decisions as a state, not as non-state actors,” said Gen Chaudhry. He also wondered how long the current set-up in Afghanistan would remain an interim o... -
Dawn - 12:00 Nov 25, 2025
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday said banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) chief Noor Wali Mehsud planned the November 11 suicide blast outside Islamabad’s Judicial Complex. The attack killed 12 people and injured 35 others, with the government saying days later that it had arrested four terrorists belonging to the TTP. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad today, Tarar detailed the correspondence between these four facilitators and TTP commanders in Afghanistan. Displaying their pictures, Tarar identified them as the suicide bomber’s handler Sajidullah alias Sheena, Kamran Khan, Muhammad Zali and Shah Munir. The minister said Mehsud “planned this attack through his commander Daadullah”, whom Sajidullah met in 2023, 2024 and in August 2025 as well. He added that Daadullah and Sajidullah “remained in touch through an app”. Tarar identified Daadullah as a resident of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur, adding that he was currently in Afghanistan. He also played a video statement of the man he ... -
Dawn - 10:50 Nov 25, 2025
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar met Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on Tuesday, with the two sides reaffirming their commitment to “enhancing cooperation on regional and international issues of mutual interest”, according to the Foreign Office (FO). The two also agreed to “deepening bilateral ties in diverse areas” between Islamabad and Tehran, the FO posted on social media platform X. Larijani reached Pakistan on Monday and is expected to meet Pakistan’s political and military leadership during the visit. His trip follows Speaker of Iranian Parliament Bagher Ghalibaf’s visit to Islamabad last month, marking the second high-level Iranian delegation to Pakistan in weeks. In a post on X before landing in Pakistan, Larijani said: “Iran and Pakistan are two important and influential countries in ensuring lasting security in the region, and we always pay close attention to the brotherly relations between the countries of the region.” He also said that “Iranians wil... -
Dawn - 10:04 Nov 25, 2025
Zabiullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, claimed on Tuesday that Pakistan had carried out overnight strikes in the neighbouring country. In a post on social media platform X, he said that Pakistan had “bombed” Khost province, and carried out air strikes in Kunar and Paktika provinces. No official statement has been issued by Pakistan thus far. The strike was reported the same day a deadly suicide attack on the Federal Constabulary headquarters saw three personnel embrace martyrdom and 12 sustain injuries. Pakistan’s bilateral relations with Afghanistan have come under strain in recent times as the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains the main point of contention between the two countries. Pakistan has demanded that the rulers in Kabul take action to stop cross-border terrorism, but the Afghan Taliban deny Islamabad’s allegations of terrorists being allowed to use Afghan soil to carry out attacks in Pakistan. During a process of dialogue, which followed border clashes bet... -
Dawn - 08:52 Nov 25, 2025
The counsel appointed by the court for lawyer and rights activist Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Advocate Hadi Ali Chattha, in a case pertaining to controversial social media posts refused to cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses on Tuesday, saying that he could not “ask questions dictated” to him. He also alleged that he was not given enough time to prepare for the case, which was registered by the National Cybercrime Investigation Agency (NCCIA). Mazari and Chattha have been accused of attempting to incite divisions on linguistic grounds through social media posts and of creating the impression that the armed forces were engaged in terrorism within the country in the case. Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammed Afzal Majoka resumed proceedings in the case in Islamabad today, where court-appointed defence counsel Advocate Shakeel Jatt alleged he was approached at around 4pm yesterday to represent Imaan and Chattha. He said that he had not been provided the case file to prepare in tim... -
Dawn - 08:29 Nov 25, 2025
India has issued a demarche to China after a woman from Arunachal Pradesh alleged that she was detained at the Shanghai airport by immigration officials for 18 hours, who “mocked” her and said that the territory was not part of India, according to Indian media. China says Arunachal Pradesh is a part of South Tibet — a claim India has repeatedly dismissed. Beijing has renamed places in the northeastern Himalayan state multiple times, prompting strong reactions from New Delhi. The woman, named Pema Wangjom Thongdok, said in yesterday’s interview to ANI that she was an Indian citizen residing in the United Kingdom for about 14 years. Thongdok said she was travelling from London to Japan’s Osaka via Shanghai on November 21, when Chinese authorities held her back for 18 hours. Detailing her “very long ordeal”, Thongdok alleged that Chinese immigration officials at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport declared her visa as “not acceptable” and her Indian passport as invalid. She further said the officials “mock...
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