Dawn
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Dawn - 03:15 Mar 23, 2026
AFTER a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean was targeted by two long-range missiles, there are conflicting claims about who fired the projectiles, which reportedly had a range of 4000km and were successfully intercepted. Reports indicate that one missile failed mid-flight, while the other was intercepted by a US warship before reaching the island. According to an Al Jazeera report, the incident happened just hours before UK ministers were to assemble in London to discuss the Iran war. At the meeting, the UK agreed to let the US use its military bases for collective self-defence, it reported. The UK condemned what it described as “reckless” Iranian actions after missiles, while Iran denied carrying out the attack. However, a senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera that Tehran was not responsible for the alleged missile launch. Earlier this month, Iran’s foreign minister said that Tehran kept its missile range under 2000km because it did not want the world to perceive them as a ... -
Dawn - 03:01 Mar 23, 2026
• IDF ordered to destroy all bridges over Litani River • Key Qasmiyeh bridge near Tyre damaged in strikes • Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemns attacks, calling them a ‘prelude to a ground invasion’ BEIRUT: The Israeli military on Sunday announced it was expanding its ground campaign in Lebanon, warning of a lengthy operation, after Beirut condemned what it called Israel’s flagrant violations of Lebanese sovereignty. Israel struck a main bridge linking Lebanon’s south to the rest of the country on Sunday after ordering its military to destroy all crossings over the Litani River and to step up the demolition of homes near the southern border. The destruction of bridges and homes marks a significant escalation in Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon. International law generally prohibits militaries from attacking civilian infrastructure, and the United Nations human rights chief has criticised Israel’s actions in Lebanon, particularly its use of widespread evacuation orders that have displaced more than a ... -
Dawn - 02:46 Mar 23, 2026
Iranian women shout slogans after Eidul Fitr prayers at the Grand Mosalla mosque in Tehran.—AFP • Trump manages to secure backing from some allies for potential mission to unblock the strait • Tehran says Hormuz open to all, except aggressors • US Treasury lifts sanctions on Iran oil; Bessent says Washington may ‘escalate to de-escalate’ • Hit hard over Eid, Tehran strikes back with largest salvo yet against Israel • Gulf states reject accusation they back military actions against Iran JERUSALEM / TEHRAN: A day after Iranian forces launched a punishing series of retaliatory attacks against Israel, the country’s president said that “threats and terror” would only make the country more unified. The message from Masoud Pezeshkian came after Trump threatened to attack Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not fully reopened, and called on other nations to help end the closure. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Washington is “already starting to see them (Nato) answer the president... -
Dawn - 18:51 Mar 22, 2026
PTI founder Imran Khan assailed the judiciary as his son, Kasim Khan, shared a message from his incarcerated father on the social media platform X on Sunday. The message came after Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that Imran would be allowed to speak to his children on Eidul Fitr. In a post on X on Sunday night, Kasim — who, along with his older brother Sulaiman, has repeatedly raised concerns about the ex-premier’s jail conditions — said he had spoken to Imran on Saturday, who had then asked for a message to be relayed. In the message shared by Kasim, Imran assailed the judiciary, saying that they had “sold their integrity”. “They know they cannot break me, so they turn to my wife. How they can allow this inhumane treatment to Bushra Bibi, simply to blackmail me?” he asked. According to Imran, Bushra Bibi was spending 24 hours in isolation, except for 30-minute meetings with him per week, adding that this was also often ignored. “It is anti-Islamic to harm women, children and the elderly — and their... -
Dawn - 18:04 Mar 22, 2026
KARACHI: Three people were arrested after a huge fire erupted in the gutted structure of Karachi’s Gul Plaza shopping centre on Sunday, which was brought under control by over half a dozen fire tenders after several hours, according to police and rescue services officials. The development comes after a huge fire erupted at the shopping centre in January this year, claiming the lives of over 70 people and destroying hundreds of shops. Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassaanul Haseeb Khan told Dawn that the service received information about a fire in the basement at around 5:00pm. “Six fire tenders managed to control the blaze after hectic efforts up to 70 per cent, but thick smoke and heat is still emanating from the building,” he stated. Khan added that a “special response team” — set up after the previous Gul Plaza fire and equipped with the latest equipment — was deployed to the scene. He said initially, they were informed that the fire had erupted “spontaneously” in bushes inside Gul Plaza’s basement. “Since the... -
Dawn - 16:04 Mar 22, 2026
Allegations of sexual misconduct against the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are still under review by the court’s executive branch, an internal memo shared with staff on Sunday said, after a media report that he had been exonerated. ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, who investigates war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, has stepped aside temporarily pending an investigation into accusations of a non-consensual sexual relationship with a lawyer in his office. He rejects allegations of wrongdoing. After a year-long investigation, the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services submitted its confidential fact-finding report in December to the ICC’s executive branch, known as the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties. A Saturday news report by Middle East Eye said Khan had been cleared of the allegations. But in a memo to court staff, which Reuters reviewed, the Assembly’s President Paivi Kaukoranta said: “The disciplinary process before the Bureau is ongoing and remains confident... -
Dawn - 15:54 Mar 22, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday directed to increase the levy on high-octane fuel used by luxury vehicles by Rs200 per litre. According to a handout from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the development came as the premier virtually chaired a meeting on decisions regarding high-octane fuel used in “luxury vehicles”. “The prime minister took notice that the levy on high-octane fuel used in the most expensive vehicles should be increased,” the statement said. Therefore, PM Shehbaz decided that the levy, which was Rs100 per litre, should be increased by Rs200 per litre. “A levy of Rs300 per litre will now be applicable on high-octane fuel used in the most expensive vehicles,” the statement said. “This decision will save the government Rs 9 billion per month and as per the prime minister’s instructions, this will be used to provide the people with relief,” it said. “This decision will reduce the burden on the economy; the richest class in the country will bear the burden,” it said. “The prices of fuel u... -
Dawn - 15:26 Mar 22, 2026
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi said on Sunday that the 11th edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) would go ahead sans spectators while matches would be held only in Karachi and Lahore in line with the government’s austerity drive. The tournament, which is set to begin on March 26, will feature eight teams and 44 matches. It was initially scheduled to be held across six venues — Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Multan, Peshawar, and Faisalabad. However, addressing a press conference in Lahore on Sunday, the PCB chairman said the board, after holding consultations with the government and security agencies, had decided that the tournament “will go ahead as scheduled [..] but a few difficult decisions had to be taken”. Noting the government’s austerity drive, which was launched in the wake of the global fuel crisis triggered by the US-Israel’s war on Iran and aimed at fuel saving measures, the PCB chairman said, “On one hand, 25,000 to 30,000 people will be gathering at stadiums and on the ot... -
Dawn - 15:14 Mar 22, 2026
On the 23rd day of the US- Israeli war against Iran, the conflict entered its most dangerous phase yet as US President Donald Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum imposed a hard deadline on an already grinding and multi-front war. The demand that Iran fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on its power infrastructure has compressed timelines and raised the risk of immediate escalation. Tehran’s response was swift. It warned that any attack on its power, fuel or energy infrastructure would trigger strikes not only on US and Israeli-linked assets, but also on critical energy, IT and desalination facilities across the Gulf. This explicit warning, backed by proven Iranian capability to deliver on their warnings, sharply raised the stakes, particularly for Gulf states. At the operational level, US and Israeli strikes have continued against Iranian coastal missile sites and access tunnels near Kharg and the Tunb islands. These actions look to be designed by the US and Israel to degrade Iran’s ability to control the... -
Dawn - 14:43 Mar 22, 2026
Security sources said on Sunday that on the second day of Eidul Fitr, two terrorists belonging to the banned Fitna al Khawarij were killed after they attempted to attack an under-construction police station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district. Fitna al Khawarij is a term designated by the state for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. Security sources said that labourers were busy with the construction while police officials had been deployed for security. During this time, Fitna al Khawarij terrorists demanded that the work stop, which resulted in their clashing with police. As a result, two terrorists were killed, they said. Security sources said that the terrorists also kidnapped a few of the workers and policemen. However, negotiations were held with tribal elders, which resulted in them being let go, they said. They said that additional police personnel also reached the scene and the situation was brought under control. Meanwhile, one person was killed and three others were injured after a mortar ... -
Dawn - 13:52 Mar 22, 2026
ISLAMABAD: A social media influencer was allegedly murdered by her husband in Islamabad, it emerged on Sunday. The TikToker was killed within the limits of Humak Police Station near a shopping mall. The initial investigation showed that the suspect shot the victims before shooting himself in the head. According to police sources, the victim was identified as Sana Javed, who had a TikTok account called OutLofara, a permanent resident of Attock. Police said that the suspect, Muhammad Sadiq, was also a resident of Attock and previously served as a constable in Attock Police, but was dismissed from service. The suspect initially shot his wife and then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, sources said. As many as three shells of fired bullets and a 9mm pistol have been recovered from the site of the incident, they said. According to the first information report (FIR), available with Dawn, a private security guard informed police that he was performing his duties in a market located in DHA Phase II. H... -
Dawn - 12:56 Mar 22, 2026
Chinese Premier Li Qiang pledged on Sunday to further open the country’s economy to foreign firms and pursue more balanced trade with its global partners, after a year marked by trade friction and tariff wars with the United States and European Union in particular. China will import more high-quality foreign goods and work with all parties to promote optimised and balanced trade development and expand the global trade pie, Li told the China Development Forum in Beijing, according to state media. The annual two-day forum, which concludes on Monday, allows Beijing to lay out its economic vision and investment opportunities to foreign business leaders, Chinese officials, economists and academics. It comes after the world’s second-biggest economy reported a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus for 2025. Challenges for Beijing are aplenty, including deflecting concerns from an increasing number of global capitals about China’s trade practices and overcapacity, as well as its overreliance on key Chinese products. Whi... -
Dawn - 12:47 Mar 22, 2026
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Sunday said that the government was moving towards “targeted relief” so that the benefit is passed onto the deserving. Aurangzeb’s remarks came amid spiking global fuel prices caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Delivering a televised address, the minister referred to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s address to the nation on Friday night, where the latter mentioned the steps taken to minimise the burden on the public “He spoke clearly and said that the government has taken on Rs69bn of the burden using our own fiscal resources,” the finance minister said. “Yesterday, my honourable colleagues in the cabinet, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, had a detailed talk,” he said. “Ali Pervaiz Malik sahib especially said in detail that all our efforts are focused on making sure we have supplies, so that we have no supply disruption in the chain [and] we can ensure the uninterrupted supply of petrol, diesel and other molecules,” Aurangz... -
Dawn - 11:56 Mar 22, 2026
Qatar on Sunday confirmed four of its military personnel and three Turkish nationals, including one serviceman, were killed on board a helicopter that crashed in Qatar’s territorial waters. The Gulf state’s interior ministry said in a statement rescue operations had been completed and a final seventh individual was confirmed dead. “All those who were on board have been found, numbering seven, and their martyrdom has been confirmed,” it said. Earlier, Qatar’s defence ministry named the victims of the crash as Captain Mubarak Salem Daway al-Marri, Sergeant Fahad Hadi Ghanem al-Khayarin, Corporal Mohammed Maher Mohammed and Captain Saeed Nasser Sameekh from the Qatari armed forces. The defence ministry also identified Major Sinan Tastekin from the Qatar-TurkiyeJoint Forces and two Turkish civilians, Suleiman Cemra Kahraman and Ismail Anas, as having been killed in the crash. They are the first recorded fatalities from both countries since the US and Israel unleashed strikes on Iran on February 28 and the Islamic... -
Dawn - 08:27 Mar 22, 2026
President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday called on India to immediately restore full implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in accordance with international obligations. In a message on World Water Day, President Zardari reiterated Pakistan’s strong condemnation of the unilateral suspension of the treaty by India. “This deliberate weaponisation of shared water resources is a matter of deep concern. India’s decision to place the treaty in abeyance, disrupt hydrological data-sharing, impede agreed mechanisms and undermines both the letter and spirit of a long-standing international agreement that has governed equitable sharing of the Indus river system for over six decades,” he said. “Such conduct threatens food and economic security, jeopardises the livelihoods of millions who depend on these waters and sets a dangerous precedent for the management of transboundary resources under international law,” he said. The IWT, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, allocates the three western rivers — Indus, Jhelum a... -
Dawn - 07:29 Mar 22, 2026
US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran does not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, a significant escalation barely a day after he talked about “winding down” the war. “If Iran doesn’t fully open, without threat, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 hours from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various power plants, starting with the biggest one first!” Trump said on social media. Trump’s ultimatum would expand the scope of US strikes to infrastructure that affects daily civilian life in Iran. The threat of Iranian attacks has kept most ships from getting through the strait, a narrow waterway that serves as the conduit for around a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, threatening a global energy shock. Its near-closure sent European gas prices surging as much as 35 per cent last week. Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military command headquarters said on Sunday that if the US attacks I... -
Dawn - 07:15 Mar 22, 2026
An American-operated Patriot air defence battery likely fired the interceptor missile involved in a pre-dawn explosion that injured dozens of civilians and tore through homes in US-ally Bahrain 10 days into the war on Iran, according to an analysis by academic researchers examined by Reuters. Both Bahrain and Washington have blamed an Iranian drone attack for the March 9 blast, which the Gulf kingdom said injured 32 people including children, some seriously. Commenting on the day of the attack, US Central Command said on X that an Iranian drone struck a residential neighbourhood in Bahrain. In response to questions from Reuters, Bahrain on Saturday acknowledged for the first time that a Patriot missile was involved in the explosion over the Mahazza neighbourhood on Sitra island, offshore from the capital Manama and also home to an oil refinery. In a statement, a Bahraini government spokesperson said the missile successfully intercepted an Iranian drone mid-air, saving lives. The damage and injuries sustained ... -
Dawn - 06:52 Mar 22, 2026
Mavra Bari had intended to take part in a march for International Women’s Day in Islamabad, but spent it in a cramped prison cell. What was meant to be a celebration was instead a terrifying 12-hour ordeal in a suffocating space, with a broken toilet and the smell of damp concrete and sweat. Over 30 others — women, men and children — were also held. “We were in a horrible prison,” said Bari, a 36-year-old sociologist and activist. “We were beaten.” An AFP journalist saw detainees when they were released. All looked shaken from the experience, and some had signs of ill-treatment, such as bruises and swelling. Outside the police station, one man said tearfully: “My daughter came here just to observe the march… She did nothing wrong.” On the face of it, the Women’s Day march, like those elsewhere in the world, should have posed little concern for the authorities in Islamabad. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif himself posted on X on March 8 that women’s empowerment was “central to our government’s vision for Pakistan... -
Dawn - 06:40 Mar 22, 2026
Two Iranian missiles struck southern Israel on Saturday, injuring more than 100 people in the most destructive attack of the three-week war, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to retaliate “on all fronts”. The strikes tore open the facades of residential buildings and carved craters into the ground. First responders said 75 people were injured in the town of Arad, 10 of them seriously. Hours earlier, 33 were wounded in nearby Dimona, where AFPTV footage showed a large hole gouged into the ground next to piles of rubble and twisted metal. Dimona hosts a facility widely believed to be the site of the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never admitted to possessing nuclear weapons. The Israeli army told AFP there had been a “direct missile hit on a building” in Dimona, with casualties reported at multiple sites, including a 10-year-old boy in serious condition with shrapnel wounds. In Arad, emergency workers combed through the rubble of heavily damaged buildings. Netanyahu vowed to... -
Dawn - 06:22 Mar 22, 2026
Diplomats from 13 European countries and Canada on Saturday slammed growing “terror” by settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, after a surge in deadly attacks. Since the start of March, six Palestinians have been shot dead in settler attacks in the West Bank, according to a tally of data from the health ministry. “We strongly condemn increasing settler terror and violence by the Israeli security forces inflicted upon Palestinian communities,” said a joint statement from the diplomatic missions of countries including France, Spain and Britain. “We are especially appalled by the killings of Palestinians over these past weeks. This violence by settler militias, aimed at taking over land and creating a coercive environment, forcing Palestinians to leave their homes, must end.” The statement called on the Israeli authorities to “prevent and prosecute the lethal violence, raids and attacks”. Israel’s military chief, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, on Wednesday criticised the increase in settler att...
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