Dawn
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Dawn - 00:24 Jun 30, 2025
MANSEHRA: Chinese engineers working on the Dasu hydropower project are set to complete an alternative section of the Karakoram Highway by next year, significantly reducing travel time between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. “We are building a state-of-the-art highway that meets all standards of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative. Tunnels and arch bridges will keep it straight and free of dangerous curves,” Amir Shafique, general manager of the Dasu hydropower project, told reporters on Sunday. The construction of the alternative KKH section within the Upper Kohistan district stretching from Kamila Bazaar to Summer Nullah is progressing well and, according to Wapda, is expected to be completed by 2026. “As the existing KKH will be submerged by the Dasu dam reservoir, the new section will meet Chinese standards. Even in case of landslides or flooding, traffic will continue to flow smoothly at full speed,” Mr Shafique said. He said that the 62km alternative section was part of the pr... -
Dawn - 19:58 Jun 29, 2025
At least eight more people were killed and 13 injured on Sunday in separate rain-related incidents across Karachi, some areas of Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, according to rescue officials. Monsoon rains, which fall across the region from June to September every year, continue to lash many parts of the country, prompting authorities to release an urban flooding warning for several cities. According to rescue officials, at least 32 people have been killed across four provinces over the last two days as heavy rains triggered flash floods and damaged houses. Meanwhile, some people lost their lives due to electrocution. On Sunday, Rescue 1122 issued a statement outlining more deaths and injuries in Lahore as a result of rain-related incidents. “Rescue 1122 received 10 emergency calls about collapsing walls in different parts of the city,” the statement read. “One woman was killed and 10 others were seriously injured. They were moved to different hospitals and received medical aid in Rescue Emergency ambulances.” T... -
Dawn - 18:50 Jun 29, 2025
An Indian defence attache has claimed that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down six Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter aircraft “only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishment or their air defences”, Indian news outlet The Wire reported on Sunday. Earlier this month, the PAF confirmed that six IAF jets were shot down late on the night of May 7, after India launched missiles at six Pakistani sites, including in Sialkot and Bahawalpur, as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Three of the downed fighters were French-made Dassault Rafales. This military confrontation took place after New Delhi, without evidence, blamed Islamabad for backing terrorists who killed 26 tourists in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April — an allegation that Islamabad denied. According to The Wire, India’s defence attache to Indonesia, Indian Navy Captain Shiv Kumar, while speaking at a seminar in Indonesia last month, acknowledged that the PAF downed the Indian fighters. During his pre... -
Dawn - 18:48 Jun 29, 2025
US President Donald Trump branded the winner of New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary a “pure communist” in remarks that aired Sunday, an epithet the progressive candidate dismissed as political theatrics. Zohran Mamdani’s shock win last week against a scandal-scarred political heavyweight resonated as a thunderclap within the party, and drew the ire of Trump and his collaborators, who accused Mamdani of being a radical extremist. The Republican’s aggressive criticism of the self-described democratic socialist is sure to ramp up over the coming months as Trump’s party seeks to push Democrats away from the political centre and frame them as too radical to win major US elections. “He’s pure communist” and a “radical leftist … lunatic,” Trump fumed on Fox News talk show ‘Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo’. “I think it’s very bad for New York,” added Trump, who grew up in the city and built his sprawling real estate business there. “If he does get in, I’m going to be president and he is going to ha... -
Dawn - 18:35 Jun 29, 2025
Activists and civil society members gathered at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday to mark 16 years since the disappearance of Dr Deen Mohammad Baloch, as his daughter Sammi Baloch, still holding on to hope, vowed her faith in his return would never fade. On June 28, 2009, Deen Mohammad Baloch was reported missing after he was allegedly picked up by unknown men from the hospital where he worked in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district. A father of three, Dr Deen was one of the many Baloch people who have gone missing in the province — an issue that remains largely unaddressed, despite persistent pleas of their families, who still long for their loved ones to return, uncertain whether they are dead or alive. According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIOED) — a governmental body set up in 2011 to trace missing persons — the total number of missing persons cases received up to December 2024 was 10,467, while 8,216 cases were disposed of, with a total of 6,599 people traced so far. “In these 16 y... -
Dawn - 17:18 Jun 29, 2025
An 11-year-old madressah student was allegedly molested by his seminary teacher in the Bisham area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district on Sunday evening. According to Station House Officer (SHO) Syed Khurshid Ali, a complaint was filed and the victim’s statement was recorded, in which he alleged that he was sexually assaulted by his teacher and was injured. “The complaint was registered by the victim’s uncle, and the suspect was arrested,” the SHO told Dawn.com. “A first information report will be lodged under Section 53 (sexual abuse) of the CPA (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection Act), and a medical report will be obtained,” he added. “However, the victim provided us with bloodstained clothes, which indicate that he was assaulted.” The SHO said that further investigation was underway. As many as 3,364 child abuse cases were reported from all four provinces, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) in the year 2024, according to a civil society report. ... -
Dawn - 16:30 Jun 29, 2025
Lando Norris won the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two on Sunday after fending off championship-leading team mate Oscar Piastri in an early wheel-to-wheel duel and then withstanding intense pressure to the end. The Briton’s third victory of the season cut Australian Piastri’s Formula One lead from 22 to 15 points after 11 of 24 rounds, with the two McLaren drivers locked in an increasingly private title battle. Charles Leclerc completed the podium for Ferrari with teammate Lewis Hamilton fourth and George Russell, last year’s winner in Austria, fifth for Mercedes. Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement of the season, in his team’s home race, after a first-lap collision with Mercedes’s Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli. The Dutch driver stayed third overall but is now 61 points behind Piastri in the championship standings. “Tricky, hot, tiring,” said Norris after stepping out of the car at the finish of the 70-lap race on a sweltering Sunday. “A l... -
Dawn - 15:51 Jun 29, 2025
US President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview aired on Sunday that he found a buyer for the TikTok social media app, which he described as a group of “very wealthy people” whose identities he will reveal in about two weeks. Trump made the remarks in an interview on Fox News programme ‘Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo’ and said that the deal he is developing would probably need China’s approval to move forward, predicting that Chinese President Xi Jinping would likely approve it. The US president earlier this month extended a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of TikTok to September 17, despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown without significant progress. A deal had been in the works this spring that would have spun off TikTok’s US operations into a new US-based firm — majority-owned and operated by US investors — but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump’s announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods. “We have a b... -
Dawn - 15:23 Jun 29, 2025
Operations at Bangladesh’s biggest port were suspended on Sunday as a strike by customs officials brought shipping activity to a halt. The shutdown at Chittagong Port is part of an ongoing dispute between tax authority employees and the government, which is trying to overhaul the body. “The port typically handles around 7,000 to 8,000 containers daily … But since this morning, there has been no movement in offloading or onboarding of goods,” said Mohammed Omar Faruq, secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority. “This is having a huge impact on the country’s economic situation,” he told AFP. Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment manufacturer, while textile and garment production accounts for about 80 per cent of the country’s exports. Mahmud Hasan Khan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the halt in port operations would cost the industry $222 million. “The cost of recovery will be staggering — beyond comprehension — and many factories risk going bankrup... -
Dawn - 14:36 Jun 29, 2025
A collision between a bus and minibus in Tanzania has killed 38 people after both vehicles were set on fire by the crash, the presidency said on Sunday. The accident in Sabasaba, in the Kilimanjaro region, on Saturday evening occurred after one of the bus’s tyres punctured, causing the driver to lose control. “A total of 38 people died in the crash, including two women,” a presidency statement said, adding that 28 others were wounded. “However, due to the extent of the burns, 36 bodies remain unidentified,” the presidency said. Six of the injured were still in hospital for treatment, it added. Deadly crashes are frequent on Tanzania’s roads. In a 2018 report, the World Health Organization estimated that 13,000 to 19,000 people in Tanzania were killed in traffic accidents in 2016, far higher than the government’s official toll of 3,256. -
Dawn - 14:09 Jun 29, 2025
The leader of a peace committee and two of his companions were shot dead by terrorists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district on Sunday, according to police officials. The incident reflects the escalating militant presence in Lakki Marwat, where attacks have become more frequent in recent months despite ongoing efforts by local peace committees to maintain order and resist terrorist influence. Shahid Khan, a spokesperson for Lakki Marwat police, told Dawn.com that the head of the Shahab Khel peace committee was heading to Qabol Khel when he was attacked in the Kara Wanda area. “The peace committee chief Ghulam Dastagir alias Fauji and his friends Saleem Khan and Salahuddin were killed,” Shahid told Dawn.com. “A search operation was launched in the area after the incident.” Peace committee officials in KP have been targeted in the past by terrorists. In April, there were two incidents targeting peace committees, one of which was in Lakki Marwat. On April 29, a fierce gun battle was reported between memb... -
Dawn - 13:37 Jun 29, 2025
The government on Sunday notified a 50 per cent increase in fixed gas charges for domestic consumers, according to a notification from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra). On Friday, the federal cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved the hike in fixed gas charges for all consumers from July 1. The ECC decided to increase fixed charges by 50pc for domestic consumers and shift the partial burden to bulk, power sector and industrial consumers. According to the Ogra notification, seen by Dawn.com, fixed charges for domestic consumers in the Protected category have risen to Rs600 from Rs400, while those in the non-protected category have to pay Rs1,500 as opposed to the previous charge of Rs1,000. For non-protected consumers exceeding consumption of 1.5 cubic hectometres (hm³), the price has risen to Rs3,000 from Rs2,000. Though the fixed charges have been increased, the price of gas itself has not risen, according to the notification. The sale prices for both Protected and Non-protected ... -
Dawn - 12:14 Jun 29, 2025
An Indian aviation minister on Sunday said investigators were probing “all angles” behind the Air India crash earlier this month when asked by the media about possible sabotage. All but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner were killed when it crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad on June 12. Authorities have identified 19 others who died on the ground, but a police source told AFP after the crash that the toll was 38. India’s minister of state for civil aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, said the investigation was looking at “all angles” when asked specifically about possible “sabotage”, in an interview with Indian news channel NDTV. “It has never happened before that both engines have shut off together,” Mohol said earlier in the interview, in reference to theories by some experts of possible dual-engine failure. The minister added that until the investigation report is published, it would be premature to comment on the cause. The team appointed to investigate the crash started extracting da... -
Dawn - 12:12 Jun 29, 2025
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday formally inaugurated the ‘Apna Meter, Apna Reading’ power smart mobile application — an initiative aimed at promoting transparency in the billing process by allowing consumers to take their own meter readings and send them to their respective power companies. The initiative aims to phase out the role of meter readers in power distribution companies (Discos) across the country amid frustration by power consumers. The current pro rata system removes electricity consumers from the ‘protected category’ or pushes them into the next slab, leading to higher bills. Speaking at a ceremony to launch the app, the prime minister said the initiative is a revolutionary step undertaken by the government as part of power sector reforms over the past year. “We implemented reforms in the power sector, but we have a long way to go. We brought merit-based appointments to the boards of Discos, and took strong action against the corrupt mafia,” he said. PM Shehbaz said that the minister of e... -
Dawn - 12:02 Jun 29, 2025
Security forces on Sunday killed two terrorists and apprehended two others during an operation in Balochistan’s Duki district, a statement from the military’s media wing said. The statement, issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said that security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the area upon the suspected presence of terrorists.. During the operation, security forces “effectively engaged the Indian-sponsored terrorists’ location, and after an intense fire exchange, two Indian-sponsored terrorists were sent to hell, while two terrorists were apprehended,” the ISPR said. Weapons, ammunition and explosives were seized from the dead terrorists, who, according to the military’s media wing, remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities in the area. “[A] sanitisation operation is being conducted to eliminate any other terrorist found in the area, as the security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of Indian sponsored terrorism from the cou... -
Dawn - 10:40 Jun 29, 2025
President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday declared Justice Sarfaraz Dogar the “senior-most judge” of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), according to a fresh seniority list released by the Ministry of Law and Justice. The development followed the Supreme Court’s verdict on June 19, declaring the transfer of IHC judges constitutional and referring the matter of seniority determination to the president. Earlier this year, the law ministry’s transfer of three judges to the IHC had disrupted the seniority list. On Friday, however, five judges of the IHC challenged the SC’s decision to uphold the transfer of three judges — Justice Sardar Dogar from the Lahore High Court (LHC), Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro from the Sindh High Court (SHC), and Justice Muhammad Asif from the Balochistan High Court (BHC). According to the latest seniority list, Justice Dogar was designated as the most senior judge of the IHC, while the two other judges, Justice Soomro and Justice Asif, were ranked 9th and 11th, respectively. President Zardar... -
Dawn - 09:37 Jun 29, 2025
Pakistan thrashed hosts South Korea 91-6 at the Asian Youth Netball Championship on Sunday to mark their third consecutive win of the tournament. The green shirts had a strong first quarter to lead 23-2 and extended their lead to 45-3 by halftime. The score was 70-4 in the third quarter, and the women managed to end the game 91-6 to sit at the top of the rankings of Pool B. According to details, Leya Raza Shah, Alisha Naveed, Haleema, Sarina Hussain, Jasmine Farooq, Farah Rasheed , Amani, Parisa , Sumayya Ahmed and Alina were recognised as outstanding players in the match. Senior officials of the Pakistan Netball Federation congratulated the team on their victory. Pakistan now faces Japan on Monday and the Maldives a day later. In a post on Instagram, the netball federation extended its gratitude to coach Amanda Newton “for her exceptional coaching, technical expertise, and unwavering dedication to the Pakistan Youth Girls Netball Team.” “Under her guidance, our team has shown incredible skill and determinati... -
Dawn - 09:00 Jun 29, 2025
The body of a child who was swept away in the Swat River on Friday has been recovered from Charsadda, rescue officials said on Sunday, making this the 12th body recovered from the incident. At least 19 people have been killed and six others injured in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid heavy rains and the consequent flash floods and landslides, according to data from the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). KP Rescue 1122 Spokesperson Bilal Faizi said the child’s body was recovered from Charsadda and shifted to a hospital. “He will be shifted to his native area in an ambulance,” Faizi said. “One person remains missing and a search operation is underway.” According to Faizi, a total of 17 people were reported missing on Friday when torrential flash floods triggered by heavy rains affected several areas in Swat and Malakand divisions. Four people were rescued, while 11 bodies had been recovered. Today, a 12th body was recovered, leaving one person who remains missing. Separately, the body of a young man who dr... -
Dawn - 08:18 Jun 29, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Five judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) have challenged the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the transfer of three judges from other high courts to the federal capital. The appeal was filed on Saturday, two days before the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s (JCP) meeting to appoint chief justices to at least three high courts on July 1. In its judgement announced on June 19, the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench, had held by a majority of 3-2 that the transfer of three judges to IHC from Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan high courts was within the framework of the Constitution. The Constitutional Bench had also partially sent the matter to the president to determine seniority amongst judges, based on their service records. Now, IHC’s justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Babar Sattar, Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan and Saman Rafat Imtiaz, who originally challenged the transfers, have filed an intra-court appeal (ICA) against the June 19 judgement. The ICA, jointly moved by senio... -
Dawn - 07:41 Jun 29, 2025
Three people were killed and six injured in a stampede during a festival in Bhubaneswar, eastern India on Sunday, officials said. “Three people have died and six sustained injuries; none of them are serious and all are out of danger,” YB Khurania, director general of police in the state of Odisha, told Reuters. The incident occurred at dawn as thousands of Hindu devotees gathered at an annual chariot festival in Puri, said a senior administrative officer told Reuters. He asked not to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media. Stampedes occur routinely during large Hindu gatherings in the world’s most-populous country, as huge crowds gather in tight spaces, often ignoring safety protocols. In January, at least 39 people were killed in a pre-dawn stampede during the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, northern India.
5467 items