Peshawar | Pakistan

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Tuesday said that the Peshawar corps commander visited the CM Secretariat earlier to “congratulate” him. The CM shared this information while speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court, where he was also asked what the two had discussed during the meeting. “He came to congratulate me, and it was not an official [exchange]. The conversation was unofficial. And our stance is the same [everywhere], what we say inside is what we say outside,” Afridi replied. Responding to a follow-up question, he further explained that he was the chief executive of a province and even the inspector general of police and the chief secretary had visited his office. Similarly, he continued, “the corps commander will also come there, and the officers of all of our security institutions will also come. We will discuss matters pertaining to the province with them.” Apparently referring to security officials, he said they should visit the chief ministers and the prime minister’s of...

Lost merit? University of Peshawar fails to attract students

The Peshawar police on Tuesday filed a case over the alleged abduction of PTI activist Sanam Javed near the Civil Officers’ mess in the provincial capital. The first information report (FIR), seen by Dawn.com, was filed by Javed’s friend Hira Babar at Peshawar’s Sharqi police station in the early hours of Tuesday. Babar claimed in the FIR that she and the PTI activist were heading back after having dinner together on Monday during the latter’s visit to the city when the “abduction” took place. “Around 10:40pm, we were blocked by a green Vigo while we were heading back after having a dinner outside. We tried to turn back but a white car appeared from behind to intercept us,” she told the police. “Five men got out and attempted to force Sanam into their car. At this point, we started shouting for help, but the people in the surroundings, which included officers and security personnel, did not intervene,” she said. “The car took her towards the Red Zone,” Babar claimed. The FIR was filed under Section 365 (kidna...

PESHAWAR - Four police personnel were injured when an improvised explosive device hit their vehicle near in Bhanah Mari police station’s jurisdiction, Peshawar, on Thursday.

At least nine people, including four law enforcement personnel, were injured in a blast near Peshawar’s Bani Mara area on Thursday, police said. Statements issued by Peshawar Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Dr Mian Saeed’s office confirmed these details. He separately told Dawn.com that police were targeted in the incident. “Initial investigation shows that the device that caused the blast was planted on the route of a police mobile,” he added. The CCPO added that the condition of one of the injured was serious. Rescue services shifted the injured to a nearby medical facility after the attack. He said police were investigation whether the the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device or not. Following the blast, a large contingent of security forces reached the incident site and cordoned off the area. Separately, the city’s Senior Superintendent of Police Operation Masood Bangash told Dawn.com that law enforcers were investigating the incident and evidence from the site of the blast was being coll...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who is a senior PTI leader, asserted on Saturday that his provincial government did not support any operation — a reference to military action in various parts of the province against militants. Addressing a PTI rally in Peshawar, he said, “We will not allow any operation and do not support it … Federal government, listen. The KP government does not support operation or displacement.” Gandapur called on the “federal institutions” to talk to Afghanistan and resolve the issue of terrorism in the country. “We don’t want war and we will raise our voice against it,” he added. Gandapur has been shifting positions on the matter. In July, he said in a heavily-edited video message that the armed for­ces were in the province at the request of the KP government and should be treated as “guests” and with respect. This came in complete contrast to another video statement issued by him following a PTI parliamentary meeting a day ago, in which he said that innocent civili...

The federal government has decided to relocate the Federal Constabulary (FC) Headquarters from Peshawar to the federal capital, in line with its plan to transform the force into a modern and active security institution.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Tuesday said that tremors were felt in Peshawar, Mansehra and Islamabad after another earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan. A press release from the PMD said the 5.4-magnitude earthquake occurred at 5:30pm in southeastern Afghanistan at a depth of 22 kilometres with tremors felt all the way in Peshawar, Mansehra, Islamabad, Abbottabad and Swat. Meanwhile, the US Geological Survey reported it as a 5.2-magnitude earthquake 34 kilometres northeast of Jalalabad city in Nangarhar province. The epicentre of the tremor was close to where a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit late Sunday night, devastating remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan. The “quake was felt in the same areas which were affected in Kunar [province] in the first earthquake”, Ehsanullah Ehsan, the disaster management spokesman in the hard-hit province, told AFP. “These aftershocks are constant, but they have not caused any casualties yet.” The number of victims from Sunday’s ...

Torrential downpours lashed several parts of Punjab and Peshawar on Saturday night, worsening the already grim situation in flood-hit regions.

Tremors from a 5.3-magnitude earthquake were felt in Peshawar and Islamabad on Wednesday, according to a press release issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department’s (PMD) Seismic Network, but there have been no reports of casualties or damage so far. The PMD stated that the earthquake occurred at 6:27pm with a magnitude of 5.3 and a depth of 110 kilometres. The PMD determined that the epicentre was in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) tracked an earthquake in northeast Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, 35km south of Eshkashem. USGS data shows that the quake was registered at 6:27pm, albeit with a magnitude of 5.1 and at a depth of 128km. Last week, a strong, 5.2 magnitude earthquake jolted the northern parts of the country, including the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and several parts of Khyber Pakht­unkhwa. The PMD said in a statement that the epicentre of the earthquake was located in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. The d...

Flyadeal, Saudi Arabia’s leading low-cost carrier, has officially expanded its scheduled operations to Pakistan with the launch of direct flights to Islamabad and Peshawar.

Pakistan Railways has suspended train operations between Quetta and Peshawar for two days due to the prevailing flood situation.

PESHAWAR: The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of police on Wednesday claimed to have successfully dismantled Daesh Khorasan network in Peshawar and has achieved major operational successes in several cases, including the killing of religious scholar Mufti Munir Shakir. Mufti Munir Shakir, founder of the banned Lashkar-i-Islam, was killed in a blast outside his seminary in Urmar area on the outskirts of the provincial capital on March 15 this year. They said the department identified the gang involved in this heinous act while efforts were under way to apprehend the culprits in the near future. The CTD officials, while briefing media-persons said that it busted a group of militants responsible for no fewer than 18 terrorist incidents in the settled areas of the provincial capital, adding that those attacks include the martyrdom of deputy superintendent of police Sardar Hussain Khan and 14 other police officials of various ranks. Officials reveal terrorists using digital currency for extortion; propose semin...

A man in Peshawar was booked under the charges of cyberstalking and harassment on Friday by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) after he allegedly threatened to leak personal pictures of the complainant online. In a statement, NCCIA said that the suspect — who was arrested from the Faqirabad area of Peshawar — was posting photos of the complainant on TikTok and had threatened to post photos of an obscene nature on the platform. “The incident caused severe mental and social damage to the victim,” the NCCIA said. A first information report (FIR) has been registered against the suspect under Section 16 (Unauthorised use of identity information), Section 20 (Offences against dignity of a natural person), and Section 24 (Cyberstalking) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, as well as Section 419 (cheating by personatation) and Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The investigation officer, Sub-Inspector Mukhtiar Ahmed, said in a statement that strict action would ...

Four people were killed and two others were injured after a fire broke out in a house located in Peshawar’s Kochi Bazar on Tuesday morning, rescue officials said. Spokesperson for Rescue 1122 Bilal Ahmed Faizi said in a statement, “Six people were rescued from the fire in critical condition and taken to the hospital. “However, four of them succumbed to their injuries. They have been identified as Rafiq, Shehnaz, Riaz and his wife.” Faizi added that the firefighters and ambulances reached the site of the incident soon after receiving information and started rescue operations. “The firefighters initially rescued three people trapped in a house adjacent to a market and transported them to the hospital for medical assistance,” Faizi detailed in the statement. During the rescue efforts, two firefighters fainted due to the blazing flames. They were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital for treatment, where their condition became stable, he said. Six fire vehicles and 40 personnel participated in the firefighting effor...

A Peshawar child protection court on Monday sentenced a suspect to death and life imprisonment over charges of rape and serial killing carried out in July 2022. In 2022, police had arrested a man in Peshawar on charges of sexually assaulting three minor girls and killing two of them. Former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of police (IG) Moazzam Jah Ansari had told reporters that the 20-year-old embroiderer had confessed to sexual assaults and murders. The suspect was declared a serial killer by the police, who also said that he sexually assaulted the girls before killing them and dumping the bodies. In a press release today, KP police said that the province’s “first serial killer and rapist was sentenced to death and life imprisonment through an excellent police investigation”. “The suspect — involved in the July 2022 rape and serial killing cases — was sentenced to death five times by the child protection court,” the statement added. KP IG Zulfiqar Hameed congratulated the joint investigation and operat...

Peshawar - Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Faisal Karim Kundi, on Tuesday praised the political awareness and exemplary conduct of the Peoples Students Federation (PSF) and its youth members during a peaceful protest organized by the party.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari assailed the PTI-run Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday for its “harsh police response” to a protest by PPP workers and supporters in Peshawar against corruption, calling out the administration’s “cowardice”. PPP protesters on Monday staged a protest in Peshawar against corruption in the province. In a statement posted on X, the party alleged that the protesters faced shelling and violence at the hands of the police. In response to the situation, Bilawal took to X and posted a statement calling out the KP government, stating that they had “demonstrated cowardice” by attacking unarmed party workers. PPP Senator Saleem Mandviwala also condemned the alleged incident in the statement. He was quoted as saying, “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government tried to cover up its failures by suppressing public protests with force.” He added, “Shelling and violence against peaceful activists shows the government’s desperation. “PPP workers are certainly unarmed and peaceful, but they are ...

The Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar has enforced Section 144 in several parts of the city for a duration of 60 days to enhance flight safety and protect airspace.

Six people, including three women, lost their lives in an exchange of fire over a family feud on Monday in the Khatko Pul area of Peshawar in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, according to a Rescue 1122 spokesperson. Seven people were reported to have been shot in the exchange of fire between two families, six of whom died on the spot. The deceased have been identified as Fazl Amin, Hazrat Amin, Ahmed, along with three women. Another woman was reported to be critically injured and has been shifted to Lady Reading Hospital. “The incident took place when a dispute over family issues escalated and members of both families opened indiscriminate fire at each other,” said Rescue 1122 KP spokesperson Bilal Faizi. According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Peshawar Noor Jamal who oversees investigations, a first information report (FIR) has been registered, and three have been named as accused. Raids are currently underway to arrest them. “The sister of one of the accused had died three days ago,” as per the SSP. The accus...