Cambodia | Pakistan

The Federal Investigation Agency’s immigration wing has arrested a passenger arriving from Cambodia at Jinnah International Airport, exposing a migrant smuggling and international fraud network with links to Southeast Asia. According to a statement issued by the FIA on Saturday, the suspect was taken into custody during a major operation at the airport. Initial investigations revealed that the suspect was involved in organised migrant smuggling and online fraud activities operating out of Cambodia. The FIA said the suspect had travelled from Pakistan to Cambodia in September 2024, where he worked for an online fraud company. “He later began recruiting individuals from Pakistan as agents, allegedly facilitating their movement to Cambodia under false pretences,” the statement said. During forensic analysis of the suspect’s mobile phone, investigators recovered passport photographs of several individuals, payment receipts and records of financial transactions. The agency said the suspect received money through p...

Displaced residents rest at an evacuation centre in the Thai border province of Buriram.—AFP BANGKOK: Cambodia shut its border crossings with Thailand on Saturday, after Bangkok denied US President Donald Trump’s claim that a truce had been agreed to end days of deadly fighting. Violence between the Southeast Asian neighbours, which stems from a long-running dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometre (500-mile) border, has displaced around half a million people on both sides. At least 25 people have died this week, including four Thai soldiers, the defence ministry said were killed in the border area on Saturday. The latest fatalities were followed by Phnom Penh announcing it would immediately “suspend all entry and exit movements at all Cambodia-Thailand border crossings”, the interior ministry said. Each side blamed the other for reigniting the conflict, before Trump said a truce had been agreed. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Trump “didn’t mention whether we should make ...

Thailand’s leader vowed to keep fighting on the disputed border with Cambodia as fighter jets struck targets on Saturday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he had brokered a ceasefire. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul posted on Facebook that the Southeast Asian nation would “continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people”. Trump, who brokered a ceasefire in the long-running border dispute in October, spoke to Anutin and Cambodian premier Hun Manet on Friday, and said they had agreed to “cease all shooting”. Neither of them mentioned any agreement in statements after their calls with Trump, and Anutin said there was no ceasefire. “I want to make it clear. Our actions this morning already spoke,” Anutin said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the continued fighting. Hun Manet, in a statement on Saturday on Facebook, said Cambodia continues to seek a peaceful resolution of disputes in line with the October agreem...

Thailand has launched air strikes along its disputed border with Cambodia, the Thai military said on Monday, after both countries accused the other of breaching a ceasefire agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump. At least one Thai soldier has been killed and four wounded in the fresh clashes that broke out around two areas in the easternmost province of Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand’s military said in a statement, after its troops came under Cambodian fire. “The Thai side has now begun using aircraft to strike military targets in several areas,” the statement said. Cambodia’s defence ministry said in a statement that the Thai military had launched dawn attacks on its forces at two locations, following days of provocative actions, and added that Cambodian troops had not retaliated. Thailand’s army said Cambodia’s military had fired BM-21 rockets towards Thai civilian areas, adding there were no reports of casualties. Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim urged Thailand and Cambodia to exercis...

Three Thai soldiers were injured by a landmine on Saturday while patrolling a border area near Cambodia, the Thai army said in a statement, days after the two neighbours agreed to a detailed ceasefire following a violent five-day conflict last month. One soldier lost a foot and two others were injured after one of them stepped on a landmine as they patrolled an area between Thailand’s Sisaket and Cambodia’s Preah Vihear provinces. “The soldiers are being treated at a hospital,” the army said. Thailand said the incident took place within its territory and in an area recently cleared of landmines. It added that it would lodge a complaint against Cambodia for violating a treaty that bans the use of landmines and for infringing Thai sovereignty, the Thai foreign ministry said in a statement. Both Thailand and Cambodia are signatories to the Ottawa Convention against landmines. Cambodia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that it “has yet to receive clear confirmation from Cambodian frontline forces concerning the...

Thailand and Cambodia agreed Thursday to extend a shaky ceasefire deal that followed five days of deadly hostilities along their border last month. At least 43 people were killed in the conflict that ended last Tuesday, after a long-standing dispute over border temples boiled over into violence. A truce was brokered by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim — chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc — after cajoling by United States President Donald Trump and a team of Chinese mediators. The deal dictated a ceasefire, followed by a meeting of rival regional commanders, before defence officials held three days of talks in Kuala Lumpur that concluded with a joint statement on Thursday. “Both sides agree to a ceasefire involving all types of weapons, including attacks on civilians and civilian objects and military objectives of either side, in all cases and all areas,” it said. “This agreement must not be violated under any circumstances.” In the first days of the truce, both Tha...

Pakistan has welcomed the successful conclusion of the special meeting hosted by Malaysia to address the ongoing tensions between Cambodia and Thailand.

Thailand and Cambodia’s leaders agreed to an “unconditional” ceasefire on Monday, after five days of combat along their jungle-clad frontier that has killed at least 36 people. More than 200,000 people have fled as the two sides fired artillery, rockets and guns in a battle over the long-disputed area, which is home to a smattering of ancient temples. The flare-up was the deadliest since violence raged sporadically from 2008-2011 over the territory, claimed by both sides because of a vague demarcation made by Cambodia’s French colonial administrators in 1907. Reading a joint statement from the leaders of both countries after peace talks, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said they had agreed “an immediate and unconditional ceasefire” with effect from midnight on Monday (10pm PKT). “This is a vital first step towards de-escalation and the restoration of peace and security,” he said at a press conference in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya, flanked by Thai acting PM Phumtham Wechayachai and Camb...

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to Malaysia acting as a mediator in their border conflict, the Malaysian foreign minister said on Sunday, as the combatants each said the other had launched further artillery attacks across contested areas. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai are expected in Malaysia on Monday evening, Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told state news agency Bernama. “They have full confidence in Malaysia and asked me to be a mediator,” Mohamad said, adding he had talked with his Cambodian and Thai counterparts and they agreed no other country should be involved in the issue. The talks in Malaysia come after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, chair of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) forum, had proposed a ceasefire on Friday and US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the two leaders had agreed to work on a ceasefire. Four days after the worst fighting in more than a decade broke out between the Southeast Asian neig...

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the leaders of Cambodia and Thailand had agreed to meet immediately to quickly work out a ceasefire, as he sought to broker peace after three days of fighting along their border left at least 33 people dead. In a series of social media posts during a visit to Scotland, Trump said he had spoken to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thailand’s acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, warning them that he would not make trade deals with either of their governments if the border conflict continued. Following calls for restraint on both sides from Trump’s senior aides, he became directly involved on Saturday, speaking to each leader and saying he relayed messages back and forth. “Just spoke to the prime minister of Cambodia relative to stopping the war with Thailand,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network. “I have just spoken to the acting prime minister of Thailand, and it was a very good conversation,” he said soon after in a new post. “Thailand,...

Thailand and Cambodia are engaged in their worst fighting in over a decade, exchanging heavy artillery fire across their disputed border, with at least 16 people killed and tens of thousands displaced. Tensions began rising between the Southeast Asian neighbours in May, following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief exchange of gunfire, and have steadily escalated since, triggering diplomatic spats and now, armed clashes. A Thailand’s mobile artillery unit fires towards Cambodia’s side after Thailand and Cambodia exchanged heavy artillery on Friday as their worst fighting in more than a decade stretched for a second day, in Surin, Thailand, July 25. — Reuters What is the current situation? Clashes broke out between the two countries early on Thursday along a disputed area abutting an ancient temple, rapidly spilling over to other areas along the contested frontier and heavy artillery exchanges continuing for a second straight day. Thailand recalled its ambassador to Phnom Penh on Wednesday and ex...

Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai warned on Friday that cross-border clashes with Cambodia that have uprooted more than 130,000 people “could develop into war”, as the countries traded deadly strikes for a second day. A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, and the UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis later on Friday. A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border, where the province of Oddar Meanchey reported one civilian — a 70-year-old man — had been killed and five more wounded. More than 138,000 people have been evacuated from Thailand’s border regions, its health ministry said, reporting 15 fatalities — 14 civilians and a soldier — with a further 46 wounded, including 15 troops. “We have tried to compromise as we are neighbours, but we have now instructed the Thai military to act immediately in case of urgency,” said Wechayachai. “I...