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Dawn - 02:25 Oct 11, 2025
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Friday avoided directly acknowledging strikes in Kabul, instead framing Pakistan’s counter-terrorism actions as legitimate self-defence against militants operating from Afghan soil. The FO, moreover, also emphasised the need for continued dialogue and cooperation with Kabul to address cross-border terrorism. At the weekly FO briefing, spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said, “Pakistan reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the security and well-being of its people.” Pakistan “respects the sovereignty of Afghanistan, and remains steadfast in its commitment to fostering dialogue and cooperation with our neighbour to address the shared challenges of terrorism”, the spokesperson said, adding that the security operations were intelligence-driven and aimed at protecting its citizens from terrorist groups, including the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The statement came after twin explosions shook Kabul on Thursday night. Local Afghan media, quoting witnesses, reported fighter jet overf... -
Dawn - 22:47 Oct 10, 2025
For now, there is no clarity on where Ali Amin Gandapur’s resignation really is. A day after he stepped down as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister — on the directive of PTI founder Imran Khan — it seemed that his resignation got lost in red tape, with the Governor House denying having ever received it. Officials at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat told Dawn that Gandapur’s resignation had been delivered to the Governor House on Wednesday night — the same day he was asked to vacate the post. A copy of the letter seen by Dawn showed it was received by the governor’s staff at 10:57pm. However, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, who was in Islamabad on Thursday, and other officials at the Governor’s Secretariat remained tight-lipped about the issue. An official on Kundi’s staff told Dawn that they were yet to receive the resignation letter. “As far as I know, the resignation has not yet reached the Governor’s Office,” the official said, adding that the governor would sign it whenever he received it. Meanwhile, s... -
Dawn - 19:11 Oct 10, 2025
At least three terrorists, including a suicide bomber, were killed in retaliatory fire by police forces after an attack on a police training centre in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan was repulsed on Friday night. DI Khan District Police Officer (DPO) Sajjad Ahmed Sahibzada confirmed that three terrorists were killed by police forces and added that a large contingent of security forces reached the incident site and cordoned off the area. Police confirmed that the training centre premises were cleared and all terrorists involved in the attack were killed. A search operation, led by DPO Sahibzada, was also conducted in the surrounding areas to ensure no other terrorists were present. A large contingent of security forces reached the incident site soon after the attack commenced and cordoned off the area. Earlier, there were reports of a loud explosion in the vicinity of the police facility. DI Khan Police Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yaqoob Khan earlier told Dawn.com that a “suicide bomber and two terror... -
Dawn - 19:06 Oct 10, 2025
Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) supporters reached Lahore’s Shahdara bridge late on Friday night as the religious party attempted to march towards Islamabad and hold an anti-Israeli demonstration outside the US embassy. A spokesperson for the party told Dawn.com that they have stopped the march for the night. A Dawn.com correspondent in Lahore reported earlier on Friday evening that the protesters were trying to remove obstacles at the city’s Chauburji Chowk and march ahead. A statement by Edhi spokesperson Younis Bhatti said several policemen had been injured in clashes with TLP protesters. The statement added that Edhi volunteers moved the injured personnel to various hospitals in the city. Meanwhile, TLP spokesperson Usman Naushahi told Dawn.com that one of the protesters had died and 22 were injured. Ahead of the march, without naming the TLP, the US embassy in Islamabad posted on social media platform X that “the US consulates general in Lahore, Karachi, and Peshawar are monitoring planned protest activ... -
Dawn - 18:32 Oct 10, 2025
Multiple people were dead or missing after a massive blast rocked a US explosives factory on Friday, sending emergency responders rushing to the site and prompting official warnings for the public to avoid the area, authorities said. “We can confirm there has been an explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems in the Bucksnort area,” located in Hickman County, Tennessee, the local sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook. “Emergency services are currently on the scene working to address the situation,” it added. The mayor’s office in Hickman County told AFP that it could not immediately confirm any fatalities or the cause of the explosion. Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates told CNN the plant did not have a history of safety problems, although there was a small ammunition explosion there in 2014. That incident killed one person and injured three, according to the Tennessean newspaper. However, Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis reported “some” fatalities and added that several people were missing in the “very devastating... -
Dawn - 17:38 Oct 10, 2025
Amid rising speculations over an explosion reported in the Afghan capital a day earlier, the interim Taliban government on Friday accused Pakistan of “violating Kabul’s sovereign territory”. “Pakistan violated Afghanistan’s airspace, bombing a civilian market in the Marghi area of Paktika near the Durand Line and also violating Kabul’s sovereign territory,” the Afghan Defence Ministry said in a post on social media. For its part, Pakistan remained tight-lipped on the issue, with the the military spokesperson neither confirming nor denying the strikes when questioned about them at a press conference earlier in the day. The Foreign Office, meanwhile, did not respond to a request for comment till the publication of this report. On Thursday evening, residents in the border town of Marghi reported that a market selling second-hand weapons had been bombed. Around the same time, Afghan government spokesman Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabeehullah Mujahid confirmed on X that an explosion “was heard in the city of Kabu... -
Dawn - 17:35 Oct 10, 2025
A Karachi University student died on Friday after being run over by a campus bus, police said. The victim was identified as a second-year student of the social work department by traffic police inspector Akmal Rai. According to police reports, the student had gotten off at a point near the Mehmood-ul-Hassan Library and was attempting to cross the road when another bus passed by her. Meanwhile, a campus bus, bearing registration number EB-0333, attempted to overtake the first bus and hit the student from the driver’s side. The student, knocked down by the initial impact, was then run over by the bus, killing her on the spot. The accident angered students, resulting in protests inside the campus. A notification issued by the university dated October 10, and available with Dawn.com, said an inquiry committee has been constituted to “investigate the tragic incident”. “Vice Chancellor is pleased to constitute an inquiry committee forthwith to investigate the tragic incident in which a female student succumbed to d... -
Dawn - 16:57 Oct 10, 2025
Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The committee chose to focus on Venezuela at this time, in a year dominated by US President Donald Trump’s repeated public statements that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Machado was on this year’s TIME Magazine “100 most influential People” list, where current US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said she was the “personification of resilience, tenacity, and patriotism”. “She is receiving the prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo. “As the leader of the democratic forces in the Venezuela, she is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times,” he said. He said that Machado had been a “key unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided; ... -
Dawn - 16:41 Oct 10, 2025
The recent floods across Punjab have upended lives once again, displacing nearly 2.8 million people and affecting more than 4.2m, according to a Rapid Needs Assessment report from the United Nations. Amid the devastation, survivors are struggling not only with loss and uncertainty but with deep psychological distress that shows no sign of easing. A mother’s silent struggle Nazeera Bano, 39, a mother of four from Bait Nabi Shah village in Muzaffargarh’s Tehsil Alipur, has been having sleepless nights since this year’s floodwaters swallowed her home and forced her family to seek shelter in a government-donated tent. Now living with relatives in a nearby village, she said, the flashbacks of the ordeal still play out vividly in her mind, leaving her anxious and on edge. “My daughter is getting married next year, so we had all the dowry kept in the house. When the water entered, we barely had time to save anything. We brought the jewellery with us and some essential items, but not everything could be carried. I am... -
Dawn - 15:36 Oct 10, 2025
Two powerful offshore earthquakes struck off the southern Philippines on Friday, killing at least seven people, while towns near the epicentre suffered structural damage and authorities warned of strong aftershocks. The first quake of magnitude 7.4, in waters off the town of Manay in the province of Davao Oriental, triggered a tsunami alert for coasts within 300 kilometres of the epicentre, but the warnings for the Philippines and Indonesia were subsequently lifted. A second earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck the same area seven hours later, triggering a new tsunami warning, with the country’s seismology agency Phivolcs warning of possible waves that could be more than a metre higher than normal tides. People living near coastal areas in the southern Philippines were “strongly advised to immediately evacuate” to higher ground, or move further inland, it said in an advisory. Phivolcs Director Teresito Bacolcol described the twin earthquakes as a “doublet”, two distinct earthquakes that occurred along a massive... -
Dawn - 15:16 Oct 10, 2025
Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar announced on Friday that a web portal is being developed to facilitate traders by registering their complaints regarding extortion and other crimes in Karachi. Earlier this week, Sindh Inspector General of Police (IG) Ghulam Nabi Memon vowed to provide full protection to economic and commercial activities in collaboration with traders across the province. “All complaints submitted through this portal will be addressed promptly, and police action will be taken immediately to ensure redressal,” Lanjar said while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Police Office. Flanked by IG Memon and Karachi Additional IG Javed Alam Odho, Lanjar said any complaint related to extortion slips or threats submitted through the new web portal will lead to the immediate registration of a first information report (FIR), and all legal measures will be ensured against those involved. Additional IG Odho said that the initiative is being taken in light of traders reporting “inconveniences... -
Dawn - 14:47 Oct 10, 2025
The White House lashed out at the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday after it awarded the peace prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and overlooked US President Donald Trump. “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung said on X. “President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.” Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, Trump had repeatedly insisted that he deserved the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts — a claim observers say is broadly exaggerated. Trump restated his claim on the eve of the peace prize announcement, saying that his brokering of the first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza this week was the eighth war he had ended. But he added on Thursday: “Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for tha... -
Dawn - 14:07 Oct 10, 2025
Thirty terrorists involved in the Orakzai incident earlier this week — during which 11 security personnel, including two officers, were martyred — were killed in a “retribution operation”, the military’s media affairs wing said on Friday. The incident in Orakzai took place on Tuesday night when security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Orakzai district on the reported presence of “Indian proxy Fitna Al Khawarij”. In July, the government designated the banned terrorist outfit Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan as Fitna al Khawarij, mandating all institutions to use the term khariji (outcast) when referring to the perpetrators of terrorist attacks on Pakistan. In the Tuesday operation, 19 “India-sponsored” terrorists were killed, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said, adding that 11 security personnel, including two officers, had also embraced martyrdom during the exchange of fire. In a statement issued today, the ISPR said, “Security forces have been conducting a serie... -
Dawn - 13:44 Oct 10, 2025
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Friday that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should work on protecting the people of the province instead of “begging Afghanistan” for security. The DG ISPR made these remarks while addressing a press conference at Peshawar Corps Headquarters. He said governance gaps in KP were being paid for by the blood of security personnel. “Appeasement of terrorists and their facilitators is never and not a policy,” he asserted, adding that the state and its institutions would not be bothered by “any political distortions”. “The state and its people will not and cannot be left to the whims of any single person who is singularly the most responsible person for bringing terrorism back to KP.” He said that he hoped the government would focus on governance and the people it was duty-bound to protect. “We also hope that instead of begging Afghanistan for security, you will protect this province and its people.” The DG ISPR began... -
Dawn - 10:34 Oct 10, 2025
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for promoting democratic rights in her country and her struggle to achieve a transition to democracy, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said. The following are some facts about the democracy campaigner: Upper-class background Maria Corina Machado, 58, was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on October 7, 1967. She is an industrial engineer by training, and her father was a prominent businessman in Venezuela’s steel industry. Her upper-class roots have made her a target of criticism from Venezuela’s governing socialist party. In hiding Machado won a resounding victory in the opposition’s primary election in 2023, and her rallies attracted large crowds, but a ban from holding public office prevented her from running for president against Nicolas Maduro in an election in 2024, and she went into hiding. The country’s electoral authority and top court say Maduro, whose time in office has been marked by a deep economic and social crisis, won ... -
Dawn - 10:22 Oct 10, 2025
I had never set foot in a zoo before; I now wish I hadn’t. As a mom of two feline monarchs who rule my home and a self-appointed custodian of strays that stumble into my orbit, my lessons in love have come padded in fur and whiskers. Cats, after all, love without surrendering their sovereignty. They teach you that affection can be fierce yet uncompromising of selfhood. That dignity breathes in freedom. And if dignity breathes in freedom, naturally, captivity is its slow suffocation. Few places advertise that suffocation as boldly as cages built in the name of leisure and ‘education’. So when my editor assigned me a story on the Karachi Zoo, I knew it wouldn’t be one of those breezy reporting days, neatly filed away before lunch. This one would sit heavy. But journalism, inconveniently faithful to reality, does not make exceptions for personal aversions. Zoos exist whether I approve or not, and my job was to bear witness. So, I went (a naïve corner of my heart clung to the hope of encountering some grace). I d... -
Dawn - 08:35 Oct 10, 2025
Human remains found in Japan have been identified as those of a six-year-old girl missing since the massive earthquake and tsunami of 2011, police said on Friday. The disaster killed 15,900 people, with 2,520 people still listed as missing as of the end of February, according to the National Police Agency. Teeth and fragments of jaw were discovered in February 2023 in the northern region of Miyagi, a spokesman for the local police told AFP. “After dental and DNA identification analyses, it was confirmed the remains belong to Natsuse Yamane, female, who was six years old at the time,” he said. The girl had been at her home in Yamada, a town around 100 kilometres away in Iwate Prefecture, when the tsunami swept her away, the spokesman added. She had been listed as missing ever since. The remains were found by construction workers sifting through material amassed in a clean-up of coastal areas, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported. The child’s family issued a statement of thanks. “We are very happy to have been cont... -
Dawn - 08:00 Oct 10, 2025
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday said that Pakistan’s recent engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was “constructive”, adding that there appeared to be no “showstoppers” so far. An IMF mission led by Iva Petrova met with Pakistan’s economic team in Karachi and Islamabad from September 24 to October 8 to review the implementation of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and $1.1bn Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). A day earlier, the Fund said that “significant progress” had been made towards finalising a staff-level agreement on the second review under the 37-month EFF and the first review of the 28-month RSF. “Programme implementation remains strong, and broadly aligned with the authorities’ commitments,” the IMF had said. Today, the minister virtually addressed a high-level business delegation from Saudi Arabia, which arrived in Pakistan on October 7, and said, “We have had very constructive engagement with the [IMF] mission here. “We have a few outstanding issu... -
Dawn - 07:49 Oct 10, 2025
India will reopen its embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul that was shut four years ago, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Friday. India had closed its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban seized power following the withdrawal of US-led Nato forces in 2021, but opened a small mission a year later to facilitate trade, medical support, and humanitarian aid. About a dozen countries including China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkiye have embassies operating in Kabul, although Russia is the only country to have formally recognised the Taliban administration. New Delhi’s announcement came as Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi began talks with Jaishankar on what is the first visit to India by a Taliban leader since 2021. “India is fully committed to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Afghanistan,” Jaishankar told Muttaqi in his opening remarks. “Closer cooperation between us contributes to your national development, as well as regional stability and resilien... -
Dawn - 07:45 Oct 10, 2025
In a major intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district on Thursday, two terrorists were killed including one reported to be the mastermind behind the killing of four officials in April, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in a statement A press release by the CTD issued yesterday said that it had “killed two most-wanted terrorists during a successful intelligence-based operation in Bannu district”. “The mastermind of the martyrdom of four CTD officials is also among those killed,” it added. According to the press release, the CTD had received confidential information that terrorists belonging to the banned organisation Fitna-al-Khawarij were planning a “major terrorist operation” on Company Road within the limits of Domail police station. Fitnah-al Khawarij is the term the state uses to refer to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Per the statement, the CTD’s Special (SWAT) team surrounded the area immediately along with the district police. “Upon seeing the operation...
7421 items