March | Pakistan

Nepal’s President Ramchandra Paudel has dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections on March 5 following a week of deadly violence that culminated in the appointment of the country’s first woman prime minister. The statement from Paudel’s office late on Friday came just hours after he announced former chief justice Sushila Karki would lead the country on an interim basis following the deadly “Gen Z”-led anti-graft protests that forced former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign. According to the statement, the president has “dissolved the House of Representatives” and fixed March 5 next year for the elections. Karki was appointed after two days of intense negotiations between Paudel, army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel and the protest leaders behind Nepal’s worst upheaval in years, in which at least 51 people were killed and more than 1,300 injured. Nepal’s southern neighbour, India, said it hoped that the developments would help foster peace and stability. “Heartfelt congratulations to the Honourable Sushi...

A significant improvement was seen in Pakistan’s internal security landscape in April 2025, “as both militant attacks and resultant casualties dropped sharply compared to March”, according to data released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) on Thursday. Militant violence and security operations intensified in March, with the number of militant attacks surpassing 100 for the first time since November 2014, according to a report by the PICSS. Pakistan also ranked second in March in the Global Terrorism Index 2025, with the number of deaths in terrorist attacks rising by 45 per cent over the past year to 1,081. According to a press release issued by PICSS today, the number of militant attacks fell by 22 per cent — from 105 in March to 82 in April — while fatalities and injuries declined by 63pc and 49pc, respectively. It said that security forces intensified counterterrorism actions, killing at least 203 militants in various operations, making the majority (73pc) of the total fat...