Dawn
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Dawn - 16:22 Jan 09, 2026
KARACHI: A woman was allegedly shot dead by her husband, a serving police official, over ‘honour’ in Karachi’s Shadman Town on Friday, according to police. A police spokesperson said in a statement that the 40-year-old woman was shot and injured by her husband in their home. During the initial probe, it transpired that the incident occurred over a “domestic dispute”. “After receiving information [about the incident], the police rushed to the spot and shifted the injured woman to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where she expired,” Senior Superintendent of Police (Central) Zeeshan Shafiq Siddiqi said. Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told Dawn that the body bore “two gunshot injuries to [the] torso, through and through”. The SSP, meanwhile, added that the suspect — who fled the scene — is a serving police inspector posted with the Special Investigation Unit (SIU). SSP Siddiqi said it was the victim’s second marriage. “The suspect had doubts that his wife was still in ‘contact’ with her former husband,” he said. “CCTV f... -
Dawn - 16:01 Jan 09, 2026
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will leave on Friday night for Saudi Arabia to attend an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers, scheduled for Saturday. The meeting will discuss the implications of Israel’s recognition of Somaliland. “The session will address the implications of Israel’s recognition of the so-called Somaliland region of the Federal Republic of Somalia,” read a statement issued by the Foreign Office (FO) on Friday. It said the deputy prime minister will share Pakistan’s position on the issue of Somaliland. On the sidelines, Dar will also hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from OIC member states to discuss further cooperation on regional and international issues, added the FO. Somaliland enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own currency, passport and army, but has struggled to win international recognition, amid fears of provoking Somalia and encouraging other separatist movements... -
Dawn - 15:39 Jan 09, 2026
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Friday slammed the PTI for its stance towards the banned TTP and claimed the party has extended an “olive branch” towards the group. “The spokespersons of the political party are afraid of talking about the terrorist group, as they have taken exemption from it by extending an ‘olive branch’ to them,” said Tarar while addressing a press conference alongside former ANP senator Zahid Khan. The information minister also accused the PTI of initiating “confidence-building measures with the TTP” and added that they were afraid of being attacked by the TTP, so they didn’t call them terrorists. Tarar made this statement after playing a clip from a Hum News program in which the host openly called the TTP a terrorist group. However, Shafiullah Jan, an adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, insisted that there are “groups within the TTP,” adding that those who are “against the state are terrorists.” “They are afraid of saying anything regarding the TTP,” said Tarar, citi... -
Dawn - 14:00 Jan 09, 2026
Pakistan’s squash sensation Noor Zaman gave former world champion Mohamed Elshorbagy a run for his money as he took the Englishman to five intense games at the Karachi Open quarterfinals before being defeated and ending Pakistan’s streak at the international tournament. Noor had a shaky start in the first game against the former world number one, who wowed the crowd with exceptional shots that the 21-year-old Pakistani couldn’t keep up with, winning 11-2. But Noor had the advantage of a home crowd that was cheering him on for every handful of points he won, finding his footing in the second game that Elshorbagy took 11-8. It was in the third game that Noor finally found his momentum and defeated Elshorbagy 11-6 to stay in the running for a spot in the semifinals. He exited the court to “shabash Noor!” from the crowd of sports enthusiasts and former athletes in Creek Club’s glass court. Noor had begun loosening Elshorbagy’s grip on what otherwise seemed like a sure-shot, three-game victory for the current worl... -
Dawn - 12:46 Jan 09, 2026
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok on Friday turned off its image creation feature for non-paying users of X following backlash over its use in creating sexualised deepfakes of women and children. Owned by Elon Musk and developed by xAI, Grok’s image-generation and editing tools have faced backlash on the social media platform X after netizens raised concerns about the chatbot generating nude images of women and children. Musk has also been threatened with fines, and several countries have recently pushed back publicly against the tool over its creation of sexually explicit imagery. Replying to users on Musk’s social media platform X, Grok posted: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features.” The change means many users of the tool can no longer generate or edit images using the AI. Paying customers must provide the platform with their credit card information and personal details. The European Commission this week said the photos of undressed ... -
Dawn - 12:37 Jan 09, 2026
Russia fired a powerful hypersonic missile at Ukraine near the EU border overnight, in what Kyiv called a new threat to European security that demanded a global response. Moscow said it had fired the Oreshnik missile in response to what it has described as an attempted drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences last month, which Ukraine has denied and the United States has said did not happen. It was only the second time Russia has fired the Oreshnik at Ukraine, and came amid a night of air attacks that Ukrainian authorities said also killed four people in Kyiv, knocked out power in the capital and damaged the Qatari embassy there. The Oreshnik, designed to project power across Europe and which Moscow says is impossible to intercept, is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, although there was no suggestion it had done so. Rescuers work at the site of the apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine on January 9. — Reuters “Such a strike close to [the] EU and Nato border ... -
Dawn - 06:42 Jan 09, 2026
WASHINGTON: Pakistan has called for the launch of a high-level economic dialogue with the United States at the earliest and urged a shift in bilateral engagement from geopolitics to geoeconomics during a series of meetings between the country’s envoy Rizwan Saeed Sheikh and senior members of Congress. Meeting House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US said 2026 should be treated as a “year of action” to translate shared intentions into concrete economic cooperation. “Our focus is shifting from geopolitics to geoeconomics,” he said, according to one of two handouts issued after the meeting, and stressed the need for institutionalised engagement in sectors such as energy, defence, minerals, information technology and artificial intelligence. Ambassador Sheikh said Pakistan’s low-cost, high-quality manufacturing base positioned it well to meet growing US market needs, highlighting surgical instruments, textiles and ... -
Dawn - 05:46 Jan 09, 2026
The visa sections of three Bangladesh missions in India have been closed temporarily on security grounds, Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain said on Friday. “What I have done is that I have asked our three missions to keep their visa sections closed for the time being. It’s a security issue,” he told reporters at the foreign ministry, responding to a question on whether Bangladesh missions in India had restricted tourist visas for Indians. He did not name the missions. However, diplomatic sources said the visa sections of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, the Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, and the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala have been closed. The visa sections at Bangladesh missions in Chennai and Mumbai, however, remain operational, sources said. Over the past few weeks, protests have taken place near Bangladesh missions in India. Following the ouster of the Awami League regime, the Indian High Commission restricted tourist visas to Bangladeshis, citing security concer... -
Dawn - 04:50 Jan 09, 2026
A 5.8-magnitude earthquake jolted parts of the country early on Friday. According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck at a depth of 159km in the Tajikistan- Xinjiang border region at 2am. The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), which reports magnitude using the Moment Magnitude scale, said the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.3 and struck Tajikistan at a depth of 140km. The United States Geological Survey said Pakistan, Tajikistan, China and Afghanistan were among the affected countries. According to media reports, the tremors were felt in Islamabad and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There were no immediate reports of any casualties. Pakistan falls on three major tectonic plates — the Arabian, Euro-Asian and Indian — which create five seismic zones under the country. The intersection of multiple fault lines means that tectonic movements remain a frequent occurrence in the region. In October 2025, a 3.2-magnitude earthquake was recorded in Karachi. ... -
Dawn - 04:29 Jan 09, 2026
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that land strikes against drug cartels were on the way following maritime attacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, without providing further details. “We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico,” Trump told broadcaster Sean Hannity in an interview on Fox News that aired on Thursday night. Trump’s comments come after the brazen abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro last weekend, the culmination of months of mounting US military and economic pressure on the leftist leader. As part of that campaign, the United States has killed more than 100 people in strikes on alleged drug boats since September, and Trump has also said that the US forces conducted a land strike on a docking area for such vessels in Venezuela. But strikes on cartels in Mexico would mark a significant US military escalation. The left-wing interim government in Caracas has condemned US strikes on Venezuela as a threat to regio... -
Dawn - 03:44 Jan 09, 2026
PESHAWAR: In what is being interpreted as a tacit acknowledgement of Pakistan’s grouse with Kabul, the leader of a notorious terrorist outfit has reportedly urged his ‘commanders’ to avoid recruiting and deploying foreign fighters — most notably Afghans — to fight in Pakistan, warning of serious consequences if his instructions are violated. The instruction was relayed by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who heads the so-called Ittehadul Mujahideen Pakistan, in an audio message released to his cadres a few days ago, The Khorasan Diary reported. This also seems to fly in the face of Kabul’s stance that the terrorist threat plaguing Pakistan is “an internal problem”. The issue of Afghan soil and fighters being used to stage terrorist attacks in Pakistan has remained a critical bone of contention between Islamabad and Afghanistan, escalating into border skirmishes and leading to the eventual closure of the Pak-Afghan border in October last year. In recent months, Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership has mainta... -
Dawn - 02:24 Jan 09, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The International Crisis Group (ICG) says Pakistan is the worst-affected country by the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Afghanistan, noting that even though a ceasefire holds for now, Islamabad is likely to strike again if militant violence persists. The Brussels-based independent and non-profit think tank, founded by prominent statesmen, says in a new report that relations between the two countries have tanked, mainly because of the Afghan Taliban’s refusal to crack down on the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Since 2022, violence in Pakistan has spiralled. In 2025 alone, militants killed more than 600 Pakistani soldiers and police, mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, the two provinces bordering Afghanistan. Islamabad blames the banned TTP for these attacks, along with Baloch insurgent groups, which it believes with evidence, are backed by arch-rival India. Brussels-based think tank says Islamabad may strike Afghanistan again if militant attacks continue “UN monitors assert that the TTP en... -
Dawn - 02:21 Jan 09, 2026
US President Donald Trump said “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the status quo, according to an interview the New York Times published on Thursday. “He (Xi) considers it to be a part of China, and that‘s up to him what he’s going to be doing,” Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. “But I‘ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he‘ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that.” Trump made the comments in the context of an exchange about what lessons Xi might take away from Trump‘s audacious military operation in Venezuela and the abduction of the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro. The Republican president said he did not view the situations as analogous because Taiwan did not pose the same type of threat to China that he has said the government of Maduro posed to the United States. He also repeated his belief that Xi would not make a move against Taiwan during his presidency, which end... -
Dawn - 02:09 Jan 09, 2026
A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement. The Portland shooting unfolded on Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponise” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away. Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident. Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clini... -
Dawn - 18:49 Jan 08, 2026
Two new franchises were added to the Pakistan Super League (PSL) as OZ Developers put forward a massive Rs1.85bn bid to win Sialkot, moments after the FKS Group secured Hyderabad for Rs1.75bn at the league’s auction on Thursday. OZ Developers were in a bidding war with software company i2c as they went head-to-head in the second round of the auction taking place at the Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad. I2c’s final bid was Rs1.82bn before OZ Developers upped the ante and ended the night at Rs1.85bn, the highest ever bid for a PSL franchise. The first round of the auction was won by FKS, which was also in a bidding war with i2c, whose final bid was Rs1.7bn. The base price for the first franchise — the seventh team being added to PSL — was set at Rs1.1bn, while the base price for the eighth team was Rs1.7bn. This will be Hyderabad and Sialkot’s first appearance since the league’s inception in 2015, with this year’s league set for March 26-May 3. The cities up for potential franchise allocation included Fais... -
Dawn - 18:46 Jan 08, 2026
Fighting intensified on Thursday between Syrian government troops and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, with a fierce exchange of fire extending into the night and rescue workers scrambling to put out fires ignited by the shelling. Plumes of smoke rose above the city skyline at dusk and the boom of artillery could be heard across Aleppo as the Kurdish fighters tried to repel the troops’ advance and cling to neighbourhoods under their control. The fighting, which erupted on Tuesday, has driven more than 140,000 people from their homes and left at least seven civilians dead, according to Syrian authorities. The deadly stand-off between Damascus and Kurdish authorities, who have resisted integrating into the central government, is a major challenge for Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has pledged to unite the country after 14 years of civil war. Stalled talks on ceasefire Syria’s army gave a window on Thursday for residents to evacuate the neighbourhoods held by Kurdish forces in Aleppo befor... -
Dawn - 18:21 Jan 08, 2026
Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai on Thursday urged political leaders and workers to take to the streets and observe a complete shutter-down and wheel-jam strike, while talking to reporters outside Imran’s Zaman Park residence. A TTAP delegation, led by Achakzai, departed from Islamabad to Lahore earlier today as part of the opposition’s “street movement” to hold political and social gatherings in the provincial capital. “Slogans alone will not help release PTI founder Imran Khan from jail, but people rising up on February 8 and bringing the country to a standstill will,” he said. The TTAP chief — flanked by Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas and Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Moeen Riaz Qureshi — was speaking to the media after the arrival of the opposition alliance’s caravan in Lahore. They faced obstacles such as interference by law enforcement agencies, vandalism of vehicles belonging to party leaders and supporters, and even arrests. ... -
Dawn - 17:33 Jan 08, 2026
Pakistan and a wide selection of Muslim countries issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning a visit by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to Somaliland earlier this week. On Tuesday, Saar arrived in Somaliland for a high-profile visit, condemned by Somalia as an “unauthorised incursion”, after Israel recognised the breakaway region in the Horn of Africa. The joint statement, issued by the Foreign Office (FO) today, was issued on behalf of the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Nigeria, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Türkiye and Yemen, as well as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. It recalled the earlier statement condemning Israeli recognition and “expressed strong condemnation” of the Israeli FM’s visit. “The said visit constitutes a clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia, and undermines established international nor... -
Dawn - 16:48 Jan 08, 2026
KARACHI: A young couple was gunned down over ‘honour’ in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth area on Thursday, according to police and rescue services officials. They stated that a 30-year-old man and his 28-year-old wife were found dead inside a home in Lasi Goth with gunshot wounds. Sohrab Goth Station House Officer Gul Baig told Dawn that the double murder appeared to be an ‘honour’ killing and said that the victims got married in Larkana district around six months ago. “They moved to Karachi and were living in a rented house, where the girl’s relatives traced and allegedly shot them dead,” SHO Baig said. “The police called the Crime Scene Unit to collect evidence [and] the bodies were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities.” Meanwhile, Sindh Inspector General of Police (IG) Javed Alam Odho took notice of the double murder in Sohrab Goth, spokesperson Syed Saad Ali said. “The IG sought details of the incident from the DIG (Deputy Inspector General) East,” Ali said. “He also ordered the immediate arrest o... -
Dawn - 16:25 Jan 08, 2026
PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said on Thursday that negotiations with the federal government would not take place if party founder Imran Khan is not present. Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’, Raja said that the party’s stance on talks is very clear: “You cannot come into our house, attack us, loot us and then invite us for negotiations. “Give us an agenda, tell us what topics will be discussed,” he added. “We cannot negotiate in Imran Khan’s absence. You cannot expect to put him in a black hole while everyone else talks and the PM eats biscuits. It will not happen like that.” Raja continued, recounting that between December 2024 and January 2025, they wanted to meet Imran and have him present at the talks, but that was not authorised. He added that judicial probes into the riots on May 9, 2023, and the PTI’s Islamabad march on November 26, 2024, were also denied. “The plan seems to be an effort to bury the attack on voters on February 8, 2024, and move on from it,” the party official cl...
8064 items