Pakistan

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Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Sahir Shamshad Mirza is on an official visit to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, where he met with Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman at the Bangladesh Army Headquarters in Dhaka.

A body was found after a fire which erupted near the University of Karachi (KU) on Tuesday evening destroyed huts and damaged graves and flats, according to officials. A statement released by Rescue 1122 after the fire was brought under control said that the body of a 50-year-old man was recovered during a search operation. Earlier, Rescue-1122 spokesperson Hassaanul Haseeb Khan told Dawn.com that the fire erupted in the dry bushes outside KU. As a result, the fire spread rapidly due to heavy winds. “It [the fire] engulfed a nearby graveyard, damaging some graves, while around 10-20 huts (makeshift houses) were destroyed,” the spokesperson said. “The fire also reached a nearby housing complex, which prompted citizens to vacate their flats.” Khan said that 12 to 15 flats that were exposed to fire were vacated and residents were relocated to safe places. He added that 12 fire tenders were engaged to control the blaze. A later statement from Rescue-1122 said that the fire had been brought under control and that ...

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Sahir Shamshad Mirza and the Bangladeshi army chief on Tuesday expressed appreciation for the “positive trajectory” of growing defence cooperation between Pakistan and Bangladesh. Ever since a popular uprising in Bangladesh toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government in August last year, there has been a thaw in ties between Islamabad and Dhaka, with trade and bilateral relations seeing a marked improvement. CJCSC Mirza is currently on a visit to the country. A press release issued from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) today said the CJCSC called on Bangladesh’s Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman at Army Headquarters, Dhaka. “During the meeting, both sides appreciated the positive trajectory of expanding defence cooperation between the two countries and agreed to maintain regular exchange visits at various tiers of military leadership,” the ISPR said. It added that the two dignitaries discussed the evolving global and regional security environm...

More than 2,650 electronic challans have been issued by the Karachi Traffic Police following the inauguration of the new e-ticketing system in the city. In June, the Sindh government decided that e-challans for traffic violations would be delivered to vehicle owners’ registered home addresses. Vehicles with unpaid fines would not be allowed to be sold or transferred. The decision came amid the port city witnessing a surge in traffic accidents, particularly involving dumpers and water tankers, that killed nearly 500 people and injured 4,879 in 2024, according to hospital data. The spate of deadly incidents triggered protests over citizens’ deaths, prompting the provincial government to ban heavy vehicles during daytime hours and require them to obtain fitness certificates. According to a press release by the Sindh police dated October 28, 1,535 challans have been issued for not wearing a seat belt, 507 challans for riding a motorcycle without a helmet, 419 for over speeding, 166 for running a red light, and 32...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan has learned from past mistakes and is now taking transformative steps for national progress.

American forces killed 14 people in strikes that destroyed four alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from Washington’s anti-narcotics campaign to at least 57. The United States began carrying out the strikes — which experts say are illegal — in early September, and has now destroyed at least 14 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific. “A total of 14 narco-terrorists were killed during the three strikes, with one survivor. All strikes were in international waters with no US forces harmed,” Hegseth said in a post on X about strikes carried out the day before. “The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics,” he said. The Pentagon chief’s post included video of the strikes, the first of which targeted two stationary boats that appeared to be moored together, and the other two on vessels that were speeding across open water. Heg...

The information ministry on Tuesday rubbished what it said was a “completely fabricated” report about an alleged meeting of the Pakistani leadership with the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency and Israel’s Mossad that would see Pakistan sending troops to Gaza for a peace force. A cornerstone of the US-brokered Gaza Peace Agreement is the establishment of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), composed mainly of troops from Muslim-majority countries. According to officials close to the discussions, an announcement is expected soon from the federal government regarding the decision. Officials familiar with the deliberations, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said discussions within the government and military establishment were at an “advanced stage”. According to them, the tone of internal consultations suggests that Islamabad is inclined to take part in the mission. Earlier today, Indian news outlet First Post reported that per CNN-News 18, top intelligence source...

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Experts discuss concerted pursuit of SDGs

November 15 deadline set for Lahore motorists

City's sanitation facilities crumble as theft, mismanagement, official apathy continue

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Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro on Tuesday recused himself from hearing the case challenging the eligibility of Justice Tariq Meh­mo­­od Jahangiri. A complaint pertaining to Justice Jahangiri’s allegedly fake law degree was submitted to the Supreme Judicial Council last year in July, while a petition challenging his appointment was filed in the IHC last year. The matter centres on a letter that began circulating last year on social media, purportedly from the University of Karachi’s (KU) controller of examinations, regarding the judge’s degree. Today, a two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Soomro, took up a miscellaneous application filed by the Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) seeking to become a party in the matter. During the proceedings, Justice Soomro recused himself from hearing the case, following which the bench stood dissolved, and the hearing was adjourned without any further proceedings. His decision comes after a division bench hearing a wr...

An Indian national was charged with an assault on a flight travelling from Chicago to Germany, according to a press release issued by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday. The DoJ stated that Praneeth Kumar Usiripalli, 28, stabbed two teenagers with a metal fork and was arrested on October 25 after the flight was diverted to Boston. He was charged in the US District Court with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm. “According to the charging documents, on October 25, 2025, while on board Lufthansa flight 431 en route from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany, Usiripalli allegedly stabbed a 17-year-old male passenger (Minor A) in the shoulder area with a metal fork,” the statement read. “Usiripalli then allegedly stabbed a second 17-year-old male passenger (Minor B) in the back of the head with the same metal fork.” The DoJ said that when flight crew members attempted to subdue Usiripalli, he reportedly raised his hand, formed a gun with his fingers, put it in h...

A “rare lenticular cloud formation” observed over Quetta in the early hours of Tuesday left the public puzzled over the phenomenon and its origins. Citizens reported sighting the phenomenon around morning prayers from many parts of Balochistan and speculation was rife about the likely cause. Many social media accounts hinted that the cloud formation was the result of a missile test or a new technology tested by the military. In a post on X later in the day, the Pakistan Meteorological Department said the sight was a “lenticular cloud formation” which was observed early morning over Koh-i-Murdar region. “The cloud appeared before sunrise, persisted for approximately 20 minutes, and dissipated just prior to sunrise.” As per the United Kingdom’s Met Office, lenticular clouds are lens-shaped orographic wave clouds that are formed when the air is stable and winds blow across hills and mountains from the same or similar direction at different heights through the troposphere. “These strange, unnatural-looking clouds...

Reports were mounting on Tuesday of ethnically motivated atrocities in the western Sudanese city of El-Fasher since its capture by paramilitaries, with allies of the army accusing fighters of executing “more than 2,000” civilians. El-Fasher fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after more than 18 months of brutal siege warfare, giving the group control over every state capital in the vast Darfur region. Allies of the army, the Joint Forces, said on Tuesday that the RSF “committed heinous crimes against innocent civilians in the city of El-Fasher, where more than 2,000 unarmed citizens were executed and killed on October 26 and 27, most of them women, children and the elderly”. Local groups and international NGOs had warned that El-Fasher’s fall could trigger mass atrocities, fears that Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab said were coming true. The monitor, which relies on open source intelligence and satellite imagery, said the city “appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cle...

At least six suspects were killed in four separate encounters with the Crime Control Department (CCD) in different locations of Lahore late on Monday, the CCD said on Tuesday. Earlier this year, the Punjab government launched the CCD with a mandate to tackle organised crime, terrorism, and high-profile criminal gangs. Recently, the body has carried out a range of encounters. Officials have publicly praised the department for its successes, claiming it has “significantly reduced street crime and targeted major criminal figures.” As per a statement issued by the department’s spokesperson today, “CCD teams conducted four different encounters in Lahore’s Nishtar Colony, Green Town, Harbanspura, and Ring Road, where six suspects were killed.” In the first instance, in Nishtar Colony, the CCD team came under attack while they were out to arrest the suspects, the statement said. “An exchange of fire ensued, leaving two suspects dead by their associates’ fire,” the CCD said, adding that the “deceased had been involve...