Pakistan

Abducted child safely recovered; family dispute behind quadruple murder

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The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it was quitting Opec, dealing a heavy blow to the oil producers’ group as an unprecedented energy crisis triggered by the Iran war exposes discord among Gulf nations. The stunning loss of the UAE, a longstanding Opec member, could create disarray and weaken the group, which has usually sought to show a united front despite internal disagreements over a range of issues from geopolitics to production quotas. UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mohamed al-Mazrouei told Reuters the decision was taken after a careful look at the regional power’s energy strategies. Asked whether the UAE consulted with Saudi Arabia, he said the UAE did not raise the issue with any other country. “This is a policy decision, it has been done after a careful look at current and future policies related to level of production,” said the energy minister. Mazrouei said the UAE’s move, in which it will leave Opec and Opec+ as of May 1, would not have a huge impact on the market because of the constraints in t...

ISLAMABAD: PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan received a fourth intravitreal anti-VEGF injection at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and was discharged on Tuesday morning, according to the hospital spokesperson. Imran last underwent the anti-VEGF intravitreal injection on March 23. His eye ailment — right central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) — came to light in late January. His first medical procedure was carried out on January 24, and he was administered the second dose on Feb 24. According to the Pims spokesperson, Imran, 74, was brought to the hospital on April 28 for follow-up eye treatment, during which he received a fourth intravitreal injection. “Prior to the procedure, he was examined by the ophthalmologists and was found to be clinically stable,” the statement said, adding that Imran’s “optical coherence tomography was performed, which showed clinical improvement”. “After obtaining informed consent and under standard monitoring, adopting all standard precautionary meas...

Balaclavas and e-bikes have become the armour of teenage boys zooming around London streets, snatching mobile phones from unsuspecting commuters and tourists. As AFP joined a patrol on a sunny Friday night, police officer Hayden O’Connor spotted potential victims everywhere — people holding out phones to follow directions or listening to music. “You see, your bus is in 20 minutes, you get your phone out, start scrolling Instagram, and before you know it, there’s a whizzy whirl of an e-bike coming towards you and your phone is gone,” he said. O’Connor is part of the interceptor teams now driving around London in unmarked vehicles. Metropolitan Police walk past a commuter (L) using a mobile telephone during a foot patrol in central London on April 25. — AFP They follow reports of stolen phones, but the chances of getting one back are “really, really slim”, his colleague, police officer Hayley Carr, conceded. London’s Metropolitan Police force has invested heavily in clamping down on the phenomenon, which has se...

ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of deteriorating water quality in the country’s rivers and irrigation systems, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has asked the provincial governments to ensure that untreated wastewater does not fall into rivers and natural streams. The water regulator has reported deteriorating water quality due to pollution, salinity, odour, etc., in the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS). “Recent studies and reports have highlighted an alarming deterioration of water quality in Pakistan’s rivers due to the discharge of untreated wastewater,” said Irsa Chairman Amjad Saeed in a letter to the provincial chief secretaries. Based on these reports, sources said Irsa had deputed its own teams and sought reports from field formations of the provinces’ irrigation authorities. In the letter, the provinces and the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pepa) were reminded that under the Indus River System Act, 1992, the water regulator was mandated to regulate and distribute the surface water reso...

Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister (DPM/FM), Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, on Tuesday, expressed satisfaction over the finalization of the Centre of Excellence for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)’s location and directed that the planning and development process should be expedited alongside quality service delivery, trained professionals,.

PESHAWAR: The Kalash valleys of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chitral district have been inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organisation’s (Unesco) ‘World Heritage Tentative List’, it emerged on Tuesday. According to Unesco’s website, a country must make an inventory of important natural and cultural heritage sites located within its boundaries, which is known as the Tentative List. “It is an important step since the World Heritage Committee cannot consider a nomination for inscription on the World Heritage List unless the property has already been included on the state party’s Tentative List,” it says. Kalash, an enclave of three remote and inaccessible valleys of Bumburate, Birir and Ramboor, is located in Chitral district and inhabited by over 4,000 indigenous people who profess a polytheistic religion and unique cultural practices. KP Director General of Archaeology and Museums Dr Abdul Samad told Dawn that the development was a significant achievement towards the preservation of K...

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has unanimously endorsed the austerity campaign initiated by the prime minister by passing a joint resolution.

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Tuesday dismissed the applications of PTI leaders Ejaz Chaudhry and Mian Mahmoodur Rashid seeking suspension of their sentences as an interim relief in multiple cases related to the May 9 riots. Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Tariq Mahmood Bajwa heard the pleas of the incarcerated PTI leaders. The PTI leaders had filed appeals challenging their conviction in the May 9 cases alongside applications seeking the suspension of the sentence as an interim relief. However, the bench dismissed the pleas for interim relief and adjourned the hearing on the main appeals. Separately, the bench also allowed a similar application filed by PTI leader Afzal Azeem Pahat and suspended his sentence. Senior PTI leaders, including Chaudhry, Rashid, Dr Yasmin Rashid and Omer Sarfraz Cheema, have been handed down sentences by the anti-terrorism courts in five cases pertaining to violent protests in the country on May 9, 2023, including an attack on the Shadman police st...

The Army Rocket Force Command conducted the successful training launch of the indigenously developed Fateh-II missile system, the military’s media wing said on Tuesday. In a statement, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the missile system was “equipped with advanced avionics and state-of-the-art navigation aids”. It said that the training launch was aimed at training troops, validating various technical parameters and evaluating the performance of different sub-systems incorporated for “improved accuracy and enhanced survivability”. ISPR added that the launch was witnessed by senior officers from the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), Army Rocket Force Command, and the Pakistan Army, as well as scientists and engineers from “strategic organisations”. “The forum commended [the] successful training fire of [the] indigenously developed missile of Fateh series,” the statement added. According to ISPR, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Ar...

The Sindh High Court on Tuesday ordered an inquiry into the killing of an accused in an alleged fake police encounter and directed the Federal Investigation Agency to submit a report within 15 days.

Iran warned last week that submarine cables in the Strait of Hormuz were a vulnerable point for the region’s digital economy, raising concerns about potential attacks on critical infrastructure. The narrow waterway, already a chokepoint for global oil shipments, is equally vital for the digital world. Several fibre-optic cables snake across the seabed of the strait, connecting countries from Southeast Asia to Europe via the Gulf states and Egypt. What makes undersea cables important? Subsea cables are fibre-optic or electrical cables laid on the sea floor to transmit data and power. They carry around 99 per cent of the world’s internet traffic, according to the ITU, the United Nations specialised agency for digital technologies. They also carry telecommunications and electricity between countries, and are essential for cloud services and online communications. “Damaged cables mean the internet slowing down or outages, e-commerce disruptions, delayed financial transactions … and economic fallout from all of th...

Five people were sentenced to life in Bahrain on Tuesday for plotting “terrorist and hostile acts” with Iran, which bombarded the tiny Gulf state during the Middle East war. Two Afghans and three Bahrainis were convicted and a fourth Bahraini was acquitted by the High Criminal Court, the public prosecution said. They were accused of monitoring and photographing “vital facilities” for Iran, it said. “The Public Prosecution affirms that the crime of communicating with hostile foreign entities against the Kingdom of Bahrain is considered one of the most serious crimes affecting national security,” the statement said. The public prosecution is considering appealing against the acquittal of the sixth defendant, it added. Iran launched waves of missile and drone strikes against Gulf states, including Bahrain, in response to US and Israeli attacks on the Islamic republic that sparked the Middle East war on February 28. Human Rights Watch last month expressed alarm over the arrests of “dozens of people” in the region...

PESHAWAR: Police in the provincial capital allegedly resorted to firing and tear gas early on Tuesday to disperse a protest by tribesmen from Khyber district against a suspected quadcopter strike that killed a minor girl and injured six others. The protesters had gathered at the Hayatabad toll plaza to protest the death of a teenage girl in a suspected quadcopter strike in Bara’s Akkakhel area. Six other family members, including women and children, were injured in the attack. The site of the incident is located close to the Bara Bazaar. Hashim Afridi, one of the participants, told Dawn that about 150 tribesmen from Bara and other adjacent areas had gathered at the Hayatabad toll plaza to protest the quadcopter strike. He claimed that the police opened fire, apparently over some scuffle near a roadblock. However, he said there were no casualties, and no arrests were made. He added that Khyber MNA Iqbal Afridi joined the protest later. MNA Afridi, speaking to Dawn, said the firing began when some protesters br...

Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat on Tuesday said that a final decision regarding summer vacations in schools across the province will be taken after May 15, amid discussions on reducing holidays to cover academic losses.

An Indian billionaire’s son offered on Tuesday to take hippos descended from those introduced to Colombia by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, rather than have the animals killed. Anant Ambani, the son of tycoon Mukesh Ambani, said he had formally requested the Colombian government to stay a decision to kill the animals, which have wreaked havoc on rivers in the South American nation. Instead, he has asked to allow the “safe, scientifically-led translocation that would bring the 80 animals to a permanent home” at his Vantara animal centre. The vast zoo in India’s western state of Gujarat bills itself as the “one of the world’s largest wildlife rescue, care and conservation centres”. Vantara is already home to hundreds of elephants, as well as 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, among other animals, according to India’s Central Zoo Authority. Experts have repeatedly sounded the alarm on Vantara’s massive animal intake, including the import of critically endangered and rare species. Esco...

The month of May 2026 is expected to bring an extended period of holidays across Pakistan, with estimates suggesting up to two weeks off when public holidays and weekends are combined.

President Asif Ali Zardari has visited SANY Heavy Industry Co.

Security forces destroyed multiple Afghan Taliban posts in Balochistan’s Chaman sector on Tuesday, said security sources. The sources said that the operation was carried out in response to “unprovoked aggression” by Afghan Taliban forces and terrorists on the border, under the ongoing Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. Security sources said the Pakistan Army effectively targeted and destroyed several Afghan Taliban posts in Chaman. The Sarshan, Al-Marjan and Edhi posts, as well as vehicles and other installations, were successfully hit, they added. They further added that security forces’ determination to defend the homeland was unwavering and that the “intentions of terrorists and their patrons will be crushed”. @dawn.today Security forces destroyed multiple Afghan Taliban posts in Balochistan’s Chaman sector on Tuesday, said security sources. The sources said that the operation was carried out in response to “unprovoked aggression” by Afghan Taliban forces and terrorists on the border, under the ongoing Operation Gh...