Dawn
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Dawn - 18:39 Sep 28, 2025
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Sunday told a US delegation in Kabul that American citizen Amir Amiri had been released from prison, the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement. United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy for hostage response, Adam Boehler, welcomed the decision to release the American citizen and called it a good moment for him, the statement read. Muttaqi was quoted as saying, “The Afghan government does not view the issues of its citizens from a political angle and makes it clear that ways can be found to resolve the issues through diplomacy.” He added that the step taken by his government to release the American citizen was a positive development and thanked the government of Qatar for its role in facilitating the release of the prisoner. According to the statement, Boehler described the previous round of talks between Kabul and Washington as “constructive” and expressed hope that talks on the remaining issues would continue. This was the second visit to Kabul by... -
Dawn - 17:57 Sep 28, 2025
A 12-year-old girl, who had been married to her 10-year-old cousin for six months, was found dead under “suspicious circumstances” on Sunday in the Damorai area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district, according to a police official. Ali Hussain, station house officer (SHO) at Olandar police station, said that the incident occurred within the limits of Olandar police station in Damorai. According to the SHO, the boy was the girl’s mother’s nephew. “My team and I visited the girl’s home, where her mother was reluctant to hand over the body to police for an autopsy,” SHO Hussain said. “We took the body to the Alpuri district headquarters hospital and conducted an autopsy. The SHO added that the cause of her death would be determined once the medical report is received. “We have confirmed that both the deceased and her spouse were underage,” SHO Hussain said. “The deceased was 12 years old and her husband was only 10. “The marriage was illegal and the girl’s death is also suspicious.” Police launched an inquiry... -
Dawn - 17:41 Sep 28, 2025
Anchorperson Imtiaz Mir, who was shot and wounded last week in Karachi’s Malir area, succumbed to his injuries on Sunday, according to his family and police. Mir, an anchorperson for private TV channel Metro 1 News, was headed home in a car driven by his older brother, Mohammed Salih, when six suspects riding two motorcycles began firing on their vehicle in Malir. Mir and his brother were both injured and admitted to Liaquat National Hospital. His brother, Riaz Ali, who is the complainant in the case, told Dawn.com on Sunday night that his brother had succumbed during treatment. Saudabad police Station House Officer (SHO) Ateequr Rehman also confirmed the death of the journalist, as the incident took place in his jurisdiction. “Police have registered a case against a man and his sons over the attack on the journalist,” the SHO said. “The incident was motivated by a land dispute in the town of Thul in Jacobabad. A hitherto little-known group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it lacked credibility.” Me... -
Dawn - 16:51 Sep 28, 2025
A constable of Mithadar police in Karachi has been suspended over allegations of sexually assaulting a female polio worker, South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza told Dawn.com on Sunday. DIG Raza has directed the South senior superintendent of police to conduct a “transparent inquiry” of the case. “The girl is an orphan and a polio worker,” the DIG said. “The suspended policeman was a part of the polio team.” In her complaint, the victim stated that she is a divorcee and the mother of two children. She alleged that the suspect took her phone number from the team’s WhatsApp group and started sending her messages saying that he loves her and wants to marry her. She alleged in the complaint that the suspect took advantage of her and took her to a guest house, where he sexually assaulted her. The victim added that she has become pregnant with the policeman’s child, but now he is refusing to marry her. Earlier this week, the body of a seven-year-old boy who went missing was found in the Landhi area, ... -
Dawn - 15:09 Sep 28, 2025
Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early on Sunday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens, in one of the most sustained attacks on the capital since the full-scale war began. Neighbouring Poland closed its airspace near two southeastern cities and its air force scrambled jets in response until the danger had passed. Ukraine’s military said that Russia launched 595 drones and 48 missiles overnight and its air defences shot down 568 drones and 43 missiles. It noted that the main target of the strike was the capital Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack, which lasted more than 12 hours, damaged a cardiology clinic, factories and residential buildings. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday it had carried out a “massive” attack on Ukraine using long-range air and sea-based weapons and drones to target military infrastructure, including airfields. Moscow has denied targeting civilians in its war against Ukraine, although thousands have been ... -
Dawn - 14:39 Sep 28, 2025
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed on Sunday the hope for “encouraging” outcomes of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Muslim leaders in Washington earlier this week where the American head of the state presented his plan to end Israel’s invasion of Gaza. “We fully participated in the meeting on Gaza, and God willing, its encouraging results will come out soon,” he said, flanked by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar while addressing overseas Pakistanis at the High Commission in London. According to state broadcaster Radio Pakistan, he also said that Pakistan was also part of Trump-led efforts to bring peace to Palestine and end oppression against the people of Gaza. The premier also expressed distress over the situation in Gaza, which has been subjected to Israeli onslaught since October 2023, and prayed that the cruelty and barbarity being witnessed there ends soon. Trump’s meeting with Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York had brought together leaders fro... -
Dawn - 13:34 Sep 28, 2025
The United Nations has reinstated an arms embargo and other sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme following a process triggered by European powers that Tehran has warned will be met with a harsh response. Britain, France and Germany initiated the return of sanctions on Iran at the UN Security Council over accusations it had violated a 2015 deal that aimed to stop it from developing a nuclear bomb. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons. The end of the decade-long nuclear deal originally agreed by Iran, Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Russia and China is likely to exacerbate tensions in the Middle East, just months after Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites. UN sanctions imposed by the Security Council in resolutions adopted between 2006 and 2010 were reinstated at 8pm EDT on Saturday. Attempts to delay the return of all sanctions on Iran failed on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN this week. “We urge Iran and all states to abide fully by these resoluti... -
Dawn - 13:00 Sep 28, 2025
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday said it had foiled an attempt to send citizens abroad for hefty bribes and arrested two of its own personnel posted at Islamabad International Airport. According to an FIA statement, the action was taken on the instructions of the director of the agency’s Islamabad Zone during a surprise inspection of the immigration staff under the supervision of Deputy Director (Immigration) Salman Liaquat. The statement read that an assistant sub-inspector and a constable were taken into custody while on duty “after they were found using mobile phones”, which the immigration staff are prohibited from carrying during duty. Their phones were searched on suspicion, and “important evidence related to illegal immigration” was recovered. The FIA reported that according to initial investigation, the two men were in “contact with passengers and agents” and “charging Rs50,000 per person to send citizens to the Philippines and Uzbekistan”. Records of transactions amounting to “million... -
Dawn - 12:36 Sep 28, 2025
Pakistan has called India a “regional bully” at the United Nations General Assembly after an Indian diplomat referred to the country as “terroristan,” the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported on Sunday. Ties between Pakistan and India have long been fraught, with four wars fought since independence. Earlier this year, a brief but intense military escalation erupted after India launched air strikes in Pakistan over the Pehalgam attack in occupied Kashmir, which killed more than two dozen people. Pakistan denied involvement, and the crisis eased following US intervention. Since then, relations have become exceedingly sour between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The spat unfolded during the fifth day (Sept. 27) of the 80th UNGA session in New York, where exchanges turned heated in the absence of the usual prime ministerial face-off. The sharpest blows came in the Right of Reply, with Indian representative Rentala Srinivas branding Pakistan a terrorist state, declaring: “No arguments or untruths can ever... -
Dawn - 12:05 Sep 28, 2025
Vietnam closed airports and evacuated thousands of people in areas under storm threat on Sunday, as intensifying Typhoon Bualoi barrelled towards the country, days after causing at least 10 deaths and widespread flooding in the Philippines. The typhoon was generating winds of up to 133 km/h (83 mph) as of 1000 GMT (3pm PKT) and is forecast to make landfall in central Vietnam around 0100 on Monday, slowing as it nears the coast, state-run Thanh Nien newspaper reported. “This is a rapidly moving storm - nearly twice the average speed - with strong intensity and a broad area of impact,” the national weather forecast agency said. “It is capable of triggering multiple natural disasters simultaneously, including powerful winds, heavy rainfall, flooding, flash floods, landslides, and coastal inundation.” Northern and central provinces may see up to 600 mm of rain through October 1, with rivers rising by 9 meters and risks of flooding and landslides, it said. Authorities in the central province of Ha Tinh have starte... -
Dawn - 12:05 Sep 28, 2025
The controversy surrounding the supposed inclusion of columnist and social media activist Shama Junejo in Pakistan’s delegation to the United Nations this week took a new turn on Sunday when she claimed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had included her among the delegates as an adviser. The controversy had surfaced when photos from Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s address at a UN Security Council session on artificial intelligence (AI) spread like wildfire on social media platform X, with users pointing to Junejo sitting in the background. Several of them also shared screenshots from her Twitter (now X) timeline from several years ago, expressing support for Israel — a position sharply at odds with Pakistan’s longstanding pro-Palestinian stance. After social media furore, Asif said on X that only the Foreign Office could explain Junejo’s presence at the session. Later, the FO clarified that she had not been part of Pakistan’s accredited delegation. Following that, Asif also spoke about the matter on Geo News... -
Dawn - 11:56 Sep 28, 2025
Former domestic player and administrator Mithun Manhas was unanimously elected on Sunday as president of India’s cricket board, the sport’s most powerful national body. Manhas was the only nominee to be chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and was appointed after the board’s annual general meeting in Mumbai. Rajeev Shukla was elected as vice-president, while Devajit Saikia will stay on as secretary, the BCCI said in a statement. Manhas, 45, never played for India but turned to the game’s administration after his first-class playing career ended. He replaces India’s former World Cup-winner Roger Binny, who quit in August after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Cricket’s massive popularity in India has helped the BCCI become by far the wealthiest of all of the sport’s boards, netting massive money from sponsorship and TV deals. Manhas’ rise has apparently been backed by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was chosen at a key meeting in New Delhi last week that was als... -
Dawn - 10:59 Sep 28, 2025
Afghanistan’s Taliban government has welcomed the recent stance by Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan against the establishment of foreign military bases in and around Afghanistan. This position was affirmed in a joint statement released after foreign ministers from the four countries met on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York. They emphasised respect for Afghanistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and said re-establishment of foreign military bases is “not conducive to regional peace and security.” According to Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for the Taliban government, his country not only welcomed the stance of the four countries but said that “Afghanistan will not allow its territory to be used against other countries, nor permit armed groups to operate from its soil.” While the joint statement did not refer to any specific country seeking bases in Afghanistan, it follows one by US President Donald Trump where he said Washington was trying to get... -
Dawn - 10:47 Sep 28, 2025
China’s former minister for agriculture and rural affairs was sentenced to death with reprieve for bribery at a court in Jilin province on Sunday, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. Tang took bribes, including cash and property worth over 268 million yuan ($37.6 million) in various positions held from 2007 to 2024, Xinhua said. The Changchun Intermediate People’s Court suspended his death sentence for two years, noting he had confessed to his crimes, it added. China’s Communist Party expelled Tang in November 2024, six months after he was placed under investigation by the anti-graft watchdog and removed from his post. Tang’s investigation was unusually swift and followed similar investigations into Defence Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe. President Xi Jinping started a campaign of purges of China’s domestic security apparatus in 2020, seeking to ensure police, prosecutors, and judges are “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable”. Tang was governor of the western pr... -
Dawn - 09:13 Sep 28, 2025
A team of female health workers was attacked on Saturday while administering vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in Punjab’s Mandi Bahauddin district, the second such incident in three days. The HPV vaccine, first launched in Pakistan in 2022, has now been rolled out nationwide as part of the routine immunisation programme to protect adolescent girls against cervical cancer. However, vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan remains a major public health challenge, driven by a mix of misinformation, safety concerns, and mistrust of authorities. In the latest incident yesterday, the HPV vaccination team was performing its duty in a non-formal education school in the village of Ratuwal, within the limits of Kathian Sheikhan police station, when a 55-year-old resident of the village entered the school and attempted to attack a female health supervisor. According to Kathian Sheikhan’s Station House Officer Sabir Iqbal Sindhu, the suspect “tried to attack the supervisor with a stick and by lifting a chair, threate... -
Dawn - 08:34 Sep 28, 2025
A stampede that killed dozens at a south Indian political rally happened after a crowd of thousands waited hours in baking heat without sufficient safeguards, officials and witnesses said on Sunday. Some 27,000 people thronged a public road in Tamil Nadu state in hopes of seeing popular actor-turned-politician Vijay on Saturday, but panic broke out and 39 were killed, authorities said. Witnesses cited hours of delays, insufficient police presence, and people falling from a tree branch onto the audience as contributing to the tragedy. Tamil Nadu police have registered a criminal case against leaders of Vijay’s political party. Senior police official V Selvaraj told Reuters that the filing of the case was the first step toward potential charges, “against TVK party senior leaders Bussy Anand, Nirmal Kumar and VP Mathiyalagan, and the investigation is under way”. “TVK originally sought permission for a gathering of 10,000 people, but the actual crowd was more than double,” he said. Deadly crowd incidents happen r... -
Dawn - 07:22 Sep 28, 2025
In a game that had turned into a virtual semi-final, a transformation was nearing its completion. It had taken time but the necessary trust had been gained — a tottering Pakistan were pinning hopes on Shaheen Shah Afridi to dig them out of a hole and, for a change, with the bat. Bangladesh had reduced Salman Ali Agha’s men to 58-5 in their 2025 Asia Cup Super Four clash and Pakistan were searching for some inspiration when the transformed Shaheen hoicked Tanzim Hasan Saqib to the top tier of the Dubai International Cricket Stadium for the first six of the match. Taskin Ahmed, Bangladesh’s most successful bowler of the night, was then clubbed for another in the next over to pave way for Pakistan to post a respectable 135-8; the defence of which he would later spearhead with the ball. There is a viral video from the 2024 T20 World Cup in which Shaheen jokingly complains to the ICC crew for putting ‘bowler’ next to his name instead of ‘all-rounder’. Only days later, his unbeaten 16-ball 23 not out helped Pakista... -
Dawn - 07:15 Sep 28, 2025
The article was first published in December 2019 and has been replugged for DawnMedia’s upcoming air pollution conference in Lahore. In an unprecedented move, schools in Lahore were officially closed for a couple of days this month because of heavy smog that has noticeably settled in every crevice of the city. Not only has the city’s air quality touched hazardous levels with zero visibility to go along, there also seems to be an acrid smell of burnt garbage in the air. The all-too-familiar phenomenon has now become the ‘fifth climate’ of Lahore. Currently, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 285, the state of Lahore’s air has moved from ‘hazardous’ to ‘very unhealthy’, where it remains the most polluted urban centre in Pakistan in terms of air quality. But this isn’t the first year of Lahore’s suffering. For the past several years, the onset of the cooler months of October and November has been bringing with it choking smog to the city that heralds in respiratory illnesses, eye diseases, and particulate matter...
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Dawn - 05:39 Sep 28, 2025
• TTP terrorists targeted in intelligence-based operation • Four civilians killed in Bajaur blast, caused by old explosive device • State minister warns militants to be met with bullets if talks fail • Says 80pc attackers are Afghans; urges political unity to tackle challenge LAKKI MARWAT/ BAJAUR: Seventeen militants were killed in an intelligence-based operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak district on Friday night, while four civilians fell victim to an explosion in the Bajaur district on Saturday. Three security personnel were also injured in the operation conducted in the Darshakhel area of Karak. The operation was conducted “on the reported presence of khwarij belonging to Indian proxy Fitna al Khwarij,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. “During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij location and, resultantly, 17 Indian-sponsored khwarij were sent to hell,” it added. Karak District Police Officer Shahbaz Elahi said that the police and security... -
Dawn - 04:34 Sep 28, 2025
KARACHI: The female camel brutally ‘punished’ for straying into a landlord’s field recently underwent a major two-hour surgery on Friday at a shelter home in the metropolis, officials said on Saturday. Sources said that the procedure was successfully performed by experts of the livestock and fisheries department — a second such procedure in recent months. The experts included Dr Shalla Hayat, Dr Muhammad Ali Ayaz, Dr Javed Khoso, Dr Zulfiqar Haider Otto and Dr Muhammad Ali Gopang. The disease investigation was carried out by Dr Abdul Manan Khokhar, who is also the government focal person. The 18-month-old camel — now affectionately named Chandni — is currently being kept under 24-hour observation at the Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS) shelter home, located in the Murad Memon goth. A separate unit has been created at the facility to meet her intensive health needs. Officials say Chandni is recovering. Female camel’s right hind leg surgically removed ‘to prevent infection’ Sources said her post-...
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