Author name: admin

ISLAMABAD/RISALPUR – Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Tuesday said peace in the region could not be guaranteed till the resolution of the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir between Pakistan and India. “Let me make it clear that there can be no peace without the settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir issue,” he said in his address at the graduation ceremony of the officers here at the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Academy Asghar Khan. PM Kakar said Pakistan was a peace-loving nation and wished to maintain friendly relations with all countries, especially its neighbours. He, however, categorically stated that the country’s desire for peace “must not be understood as weakness”. The prime minister strongly condemned the ongoing grave human rights situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Pakistan, he said, would not indulge in any arm race but would continue to enhance its capability in line with evolving technology to deter any aggression. The prime minis­ter highlighted that the rapidly changing geo-strategic environ­ment had a profound impact on Pakistan and rest of the region. No plans for electoral alliance with PTI, says PPP “Therefore, the situation de­mands advancements in space networks, cyber technology, nano technology and artificial in­telligence,” he said. He expressed satisfaction that PAF modernised itself though smart induction of cutting-edge niche technol­ogy and achieved great prog­ress in cyber space and non-con­tact warfare through indigenous means. PM Kakar termed the Armed Forces of Pakistan as pro­fessionally competent and well-trained to cope with all internal and external challenges. “The nation holds our Armed Forc­es in high esteem for the sacri­fices they rendered for national defence and for their contribu­tion towards nation-building,” he said. He mentioned that the country’s brave Armed Forces always showed great courage during testing times to keep the national flag high. “I assure you that as a na­tion we have surmounted chal­lenges in the past and Insha’Al­lah, we will do so in future and make the country prosperous,” he said. The prime minister con­gratulated the cadets graduated from the colleges of flying train­ing and aeronautical engineer­ing and expressed confidence that they would give their best professional performance with commitment and diligence. “Be­ing the custodians of the PAF, you carry the hopes of this na­tion and must work hard to keep abreast with modern technolo­gy and trends related to modern warfare,” he told the graduates. Imam-e-Kaaba urges world community to stop Gaza crimes The PAF graduates includ­ed 148 General Duty Pilots, 94 Aeronautical Engineers, 104 air defence and 130 of combat support course officers. Earlier, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar Sidhu received the prime min­ister on the venue. Bugles were blown when PM Kakar as chief guest of the ceremony entered the arena. The prime minis­ter onboard a PAF jeep inspect­ed the formation of the smart­ly turned out contingents of the PAF falcons. He awarded the prestigious Quaid-e-Azam Banner to the Champions No. 3 Squadron on its consistently best perfor­mance in all semesters. The prime minister also pinned badges on the professional­ly distinguished graduating ca­dets. The Chief of the Air Staff tro­phies for best performance were given to Muhammad Moo­sa Jawad (best pilot), Muham­mad Ali Gohar (general avia­tion), Sajid Sikandar Abbas (air defence), Syed Saad Ali (com­bat support) and Sohaib Saeed (aeronautical engineering). ECP to release final list of constituencies on Nov 30 The Swords of Honour were awarded to Aviation Cadets Ahmed Malik (flying) and Sohaib Saeed (engineering). The prime minister witnessed a thrilling fly-past of the formations of PAF jets including Mirage, F-7P, JF-17 Thunder and J-10C. Source: https://www.nation.com.pk/22-Nov-2023/v

NEW YORK: US-Canada border crossings near Niagara Falls were closed Wednesday as terrorism investigators responded to a vehicle explosion at Rainbow Bridge, local and state authorities said. Two people were killed in the blast, according to US media citing authorities. Their identities were not yet clear. The cause of the incident was not immediately clear but New York Governor Kathy Hochul said state police and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force were monitoring all points of entry into the state. US media cited law enforcement sources as saying there were two people in the car, which had passed through one border checkpoint where it was selected for a secondary check. The car then sped up, crashed into a barrier and exploded, the sources said, stressing it was unclear if the blast was the result of a device. “I am traveling to Buffalo to meet with law enforcement and emergency responders and will update New Yorkers when more information becomes available,” Hochul posted on social media. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau´s office said he had been briefed and was in contact with US law enforcement. Multiple Canadian agencies were supporting the investigation, it added. Witnesses reported hearing a deafening explosion and seeing a large cloud of smoke near the inspections station. Ivan Vitalii, a visitor from Ukraine, told the Niagara Gazette he and a friend were at a nearby convenience store on the US side when they saw a car exit a parking lot and travel toward the bridge. “We heard something smash,” he said. “We saw fire and big, black smoke.” Ron Rienas, of the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, told ABC News all four bridges connecting the two countries over the Niagara River have been closed. Dramatic images posted to social media, which AFP has not verified, purported to show thick plumes of black smoke rising from a large conflagration at the crossing. Source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1131507-two-killed-in-car-explosion-at-niagara-border-prompting-terrorism-task-force-response

Israel intensified its attacks across the Gaza Strip late Wednesday shortly before a humanitarian pause in fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters was set to take effect. The Israeli army struck several areas across the Gaza Strip, particularly in the northern parts, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. It said a number of people were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes on residential homes in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The agency cited local sources as saying that Israeli artillery bombed the vicinity of Khalifa School in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, which is home to more than 8,000 displaced people, leaving many injured. In Gaza City, Israeli warplanes struck the Sheikh Ridwan and Shejaiya neighborhoods. Artillery shelling was also reported in Al-Fukhari east of Khan Younis in the southern the Gaza Strip and another airstrike on a home in Rafah which left at least three people injured, WAFA said. The latest attacks come as a humanitarian pause is expected to come into effect as a result of Qatari, Egyptian and US mediation between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. Source: https://www.nation.com.pk/23-Nov-2023/israel-intensifies-attacks-across-gaza-ahead-of-humanitarian-pause

TURBAT: A policeman and four labourers were killed when unidentified assailants attacked a police station in the Nasirabad area of Balochistan’s Turbat in what appeared to be a terrorist incident. According to police, the labourers belonged to Punjab and were identified as Mohammad Uzair, Baqar Ali, Shehbaz Ahmed and Shehzad Ahmed. It added that Shehbaz and Shehzad were brothers. The law enforcement agency also shared that one labourer was also injured in the incident, adding that the bodies of the deceased were shifted to Teaching Hospital Turbat. Caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai confirmed that the firing was a terrorist incident, and condemned the attack on unarmed labourers. Meanwhile, interim Chief Minister Ali Mardan Khan Domki has summoned a report from the provincial Ministry of Home and Tribal Affairs. He also vowed to hold the perpetrators of the attack accountable. This is the second time that such an incident has occurred in Turbat this month where labourers from Punjab were among the deceased. Earlier this month, at least 6 labourers were killed in their sleep and two were wounded after gunmen targeted them in an overnight attack in Turbat city. According to the police, unidentified gunmen targeted the labourers who were sleeping in an under-construction house. The deceased — which included four family members of which two are brothers — were identified as Rizwan, Shehbaz, Waseem, Shafiq Ahmed, Mohammad Naeem, and Sikander. Source:https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1124554-four-labourers-killed-in-attack-on-turbat-police-station

An earthquake jolted Gilgit, Chilas and surrounding areas on Thursday. A quake with less intensity was reported in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). No loss of life or property has been reported so far. Source: https://www.nation.com.pk/05-Oct-2023/earthquake-jolts-gilgit-chilas-and-surroundings

VENICE-Flags flew at half-mast over Venice Wednesday after 21 people including a toddler were killed when a bus careered off an overpass and caught fire. “The bus flipped upside down. The impact was terrible because it fell from over 10 metres (32 feet)” landing next to railway tracks below, said Mauro Luongo, Venice’s fire brigade commander. Source:https://www.nation.com.pk/05-Oct-2023/venice-mourns-after-21-killed-in-bus-accident

TEHRAN-Activists have accused Iran’s morality police of beating a girl for not wearing a hijab and posted a photo purportedly showing her in a coma. Armita Geravand, 16, collapsed after boarding a Tehran metro train at Shohada station on Sunday. Officials said she fainted and released CCTV footage in which she is seen being pulled unconscious from the train. Human rights group Hengaw alleged that she was subjected to “a severe physical assault” by morality police officers. It said Armita was being treated at Tehran’s Fajr hospital under tight security, and that the phones of all members of her family had been confiscated. On Monday, authorities briefly detained a female journalist for the Sharq newspaper who went to the hospital to report on the case. Hengaw, which focuses on Iran’s Kurdish ethnic minority, said on Tuesday afternoon that Armita lived in Tehran but was originally from the predominantly Kurdish western province of Kermanshah. “She was physically attacked by authorities at Shohada station for what they perceived as non-compliance with the compulsory ‘hijab’,” it added. “As a result, she sustained severe injuries and was transported to the hospital.” Two prominent rights activists also told Reuters news agency that there was a confrontation with agents enforcing the strict dress code. Source:https://www.nation.com.pk/05-Oct-2023/iran-hijab-police-accused-of-beating-girl-into-coma

Inayatullah, the driver of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) leader, Hafiz Hamdullah, succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday. The deceased who was being treated at a private hospital in Karachi, had suffered serious injuries during a motorcycle bomb blast last month near the Pringabad area of Mastung, Quetta. After the blast, Inayatullah had been shifted to the Civil Hospital Quetta, however, sensing his condition the caretaker chief minister of Balochistan got him shifted to the Agha Khan Hospital in Karachi. The JUI-F leader Hafiz Hamdullah and scores of other people had also sustained wounds in the blast. Mr Hamdullah had also been transferred to the Agha Khan Hospital. Source: https://www.nation.com.pk/04-Oct-2023/driver-of-hafiz-hamdullah-passes-away-days-after-explosion

BANGKOK-Three people were killed and four wounded in a shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall on Tuesday, with the attacker arrested by police. Hundreds of people fled the upmarket Siam Paragon mall in the heart of the Thai capital as shots rang out around 4:30 pm (0930 GMT), witnesses told AFP. The police arrested a 14-year-old boy after a shooting at a luxury shopping mall in the capital Bangkok on Tuesday. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters the attacker had been apprehended and the situation brought under control. “Police are clearing the scene. The situation is easing,” Srettha told reporters. Yuthana Srettanan, director of the Erawan Emergency Center, said three people were killed and four wounded in the incident, in a message sent to reporters. “At around 4.30 pm, I heard loud gun noises, continuously, about 10 times,” Thanpawasit Singthongkham, 31, who works at a Japanese restaurant in the mall, told AFP. “Then the department store announced that there was a shooting. Source: https://www.nation.com.pk/04-Oct-2023/three-dead-in-bangkok-mall-shooting-attacker-arrested

Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) Munir Akram on Tuesday described India’s occupation of Jammu and Kashmir as the “worst manifestation of modern-day colonialism”. Speaking during the UN General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonisation (Fourth) Committee meeting, Akram called on the world body to push for a peaceful settlement of the lingering Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and as per the aspirations of people of Kashmir. Noting that since 1946, 80 former colonies have gained independence, he said that there are still people who are denied the right to self-determination, “most prominently the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine.” The right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people, the envoy said, was explicitly recognized in UNSC resolution 47 and several subsequent resolutions, which prescribed that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir should be decided by its people through a free and fair plebiscite held under UN auspices. These resolutions were accepted by both India and Pakistan, he said, adding that under Article 25 of the UN Charter, both parties are obliged to implement these resolutions, APP reported. In his remarks, Akram also said that durable peace in the Middle East can only be achieved through the two-state solution and the establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine, with the pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. On Kashmir, he said that for 75 years, through force and fraud, India has avoided the implementation of UN resolutions, and since 1989, it’s “brutal” campaign of repression killed 100,000 Kashmiris. Since 5 August 2019, he said, India has taken “unilateral and illegal steps” to annex occupied Kashmir in what its leaders have termed as a “final solution”. “Resolution 122 (1957) of the Security Council provides that unilateral measures ‘to determine the future shape and affiliation of the entire state or any part thereof, would not constitute a disposition of the state’”, Ambassador Akram said, adding that consequently, all unilateral actions taken by India on and after 5 August 2019 are not only illegal, but, ipso facto, null and void.” “Kashmir today is the most densely occupied place in the world, with more than 900,000 Indian occupation troops deployed there who have perpetrated a vicious campaign of extrajudicial killings in fake encounters and so-called ‘cordon and search’ operations; abduction and enforced disappearances of 13,000 young Kashmiri boys; collective punishments, destroying and burning entire villages and urban neighbourhoods,” he said. “In a classic settler-colonial project, India is seeking to convert occupied Kashmir from a Muslim-majority state to a Hindu-majority territory,” the envoy said, pointing out that over 3.4 million fake domicile certificates have been issued to Hindus from across India. “The land and properties of Kashmiris are also being confiscated for military and official use,” he told the committee. India’s brutal campaign, he said, is turbo-charged by the ideology of ‘Hindutva’, which asserts the religious and ethnic supremacy of Hindus and hate against Muslims. “This has led the organisation — Genocide Watch — to warn of the possibility of genocide in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and, indeed, against Muslims within India itself. Underscoring that the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is essential to achieve durable peace in South Asia, Akram said the onus is on India to create conditions for a dialogue towards its settlement. To that end, he said, India must stop its human rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir; halt and reverse the process of demographic change there; and rescind the illegal and unilateral measures imposed on and after 5 August 2019. “The United Nations and all its member states are bound by the Charter to promote a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” he added. Source:https://www.geo.tv/latest/512839-at-unga-body-pakistan-terms-indias-occupation-of-iiojk-worst-manifestation-of-colonialism