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Another Pakistani national died due to “falling debris” from missile interception in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said. The development takes the total number of Pakistani nationals killed in the UAE as a result of falling debris from missile interceptions amid the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran to four. In a post on X earlier in the day, the media office said that an incident “involving falling debris” from the interception of a ballistic missile resulted in “deaths of two unidentified individuals, three injuries, and damage to a number of cars”. It said that the incident occurred on Sweihan Street. In a later post, it confirmed that the incident resulted in the death of “two individuals of Pakistani and Indian nationality”. It added that the incident also resulted in “injuries ranging from serious to moderate sustained by three individuals of Emirati, Jordanian and Indian nationality”. “The public is advised to obtain information only from official sour...

Another Pakistani national was killed due to “falling debris” following the interception of a ballistic missile in the United Arab Emirates, the country’s media office said on Tuesday. The development marks the third instance of a Pakistani national losing their life in an attack in the UAE during the ongoing war between Iran, the US, and Israel. The Abu Dhabi Media Office, in a statement on X, said that the authorities “responded to an incident involving falling debris in the Baniyas area, following the interception of a ballistic missile by air defence systems”. “The incident resulted in the death of a Pakistani national,” it said. The Pakistan Embassy in the UAE, in a statement on X, expressed sorrow at the death and said it was in “close coordination” with local authorities. The embassy said that it will extend “all possible support to the bereaved family,” and added that the embassy will “facilitate the repatriation process at the earliest possible time”. “In this hour of grief, we share in the family’s ...

BEIJING/PESHAWAR/ ISLAMABAD: Pakistani forces targeted the Afghan Taliban’s military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar on Monday night, the government said, as Islamabad pressed on with Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. The operation was launched on the night of February 26, following unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban from across the border. Security sources had reported the development late on Monday night, with Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirming the military action early on Tuesday. In a post on X, he said the armed forces “successfully carried out precision airstrikes” as part of Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, targeting “Afghan Taliban regime terrorism-sponsoring military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar”. “Technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities at two locations in Kabul were effectively destroyed,” Tarar said, stressing that the “visible secondary detonations after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots”. In the Afghan province of Nang...

BEIJING/PESHAWAR/ ISLAMABAD: Pakistani forces targeted the Afghan Taliban’s military installations on Monday night, security sources said, as Islamabad pressed on with Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. The operation was launched on the night of February 26, following unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban from across the border. Security sources said that during the strikes on Monday night, Pakistani forces destroyed the technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage at two locations in Kabul. In the Afghan province of Nangarhar, the sources said, Pakistani forces targeted Afghan Taliban’s military installations at four spots. Logistics, ammunition and technical infrastructure adjacent to these installations were also destroyed, the sources added. They further said a drone assembly workshop, “headquarters from where drones were sent” and weapon stocks were also destroyed in Nangarhar and Kabul. According to the sources, drones were prepared at those workshops using parts made in India and Israel. In updates...

UNITED NATIONS: At the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) at the United Nations this week, two Pakistani voices — one from the country’s parliamentary platform and the other from the moral authority of a Nobel laureate — placed access to justice for women at the centre of a polarised global debate. Speaking during the General Debate on behalf of Asifa Bhutto Zardari, Senator Bushra Anjum stressed that strengthening access to justice requires more than declarations — it demands institutional reform, representation within justice systems, and dismantling structural barriers. Quoting Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, she reminded delegates that “the discrimination against women can only begin to erode when women are empowered to claim their rights.” She highlighted Pakistan’s legal architecture: more than 480 specialised Gender-Based Violence Courts, legal aid mechanisms, family courts, ombudsperson institutions, and integrated protection services aimed at delivering remedies efficiently to wom...

Abdul Malick sat among mourning relatives in his village in southern Pakistan, receiving condolences from neighbours after his nephew, Muzaffar Ali, was killed in Dubai last week. Ali, a 27-year-old labourer, was one of two Pakistanis killed in retaliatory Iranian strikes against Gulf countries since the start of US-Israeli attacks on the Islamic Republic two weeks ago. Debris fell on his vehicle when a projectile was intercepted. “It is a great tragedy for a family whose sole breadwinner was lost,” said Malick, flanked by Ali’s three young children. “We have nothing to do with this war. It is unfortunate that the poor are being used as fuel for a conflict they have no part in,” he told AFP. Ali moved to Dubai from Jamshoro four years ago. Relatives offer prayers on the grave of Pakistani national Muzaffar Ali, who was killed in Dubai amid the ongoing Middle East war, after his funeral in Jamshoro in Sindh on March 12. — AFP Another victim, Murid Zaman, a 48-year-old father of five from Bannu, had been workin...

Muhammad Mudassir Tipu has urged Pakistani nationals in Iran who wish to return home to register with the embassy immediately.

NEW YORK: A court in the United States held on Friday that a Pakistani man with alleged “ties to Iran was guilty of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump” or other US officials in retaliation for the American military killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, prosecutors said. Asif Raza Merchant allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a government official in the US, prosecutors said during the trial in a federal court in Brooklyn. Soleimani, the head of Iran’s foreign military operations, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in Jan 2020. Iran has repeatedly vowed to avenge his killing. Merchant testified that he was forced into the plot to protect his family in the Iranian capital Tehran from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, adding that he thought he would get caught before anyone was killed, multiple media outlets reported. He said he was never ordered to kill a specific person, but added that his Iranian contact had mentioned three people in connection ...

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani man accused of planning to kill President Donald Trump told jurors on Wednesday that he did not willingly work with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to devise the plot, media said. The Justice Department accused Asif Merchant of trying to recruit people in the United States in the plan targeting Trump and other US politicians in retaliation for Washington’s killing of the Corps’ top commander, Qassem Soleimani. The Corps has a central role in Iran, with its combination of military and economic power and an intelligence network. “I was not wanting to do this so willingly,” the New York Times quoted Merchant as telling a court during his trial for terrorism and murder-for-hire charges, adding that he participated to protect his family in Tehran. Prosecutors reject Merchant’s claim of duress, cite lack of evidence to support ‘coercion’ defence Prosecutors rejected Merchant’s claim, citing a “lack of evidentiary support for a true duress or coercion,” according to a letter s...

The Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday issued an advisory on the situation in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, saying it had activated its crisis management unit (CMU) to “closely monitor the developments and extend all necessary assistance” to Pakistani nationals abroad. In a post on X, the Foreign Office (FO) said that the unit would be operational 24/7. It said that the unit could be contacted at +92-51-9207887 for information and emergency assistance. It “strongly advised” Pakistani nationals residing in the Gulf region to “exercise utmost caution, remain indoors where possible, avoid unnecessary travel, and strictly adhere to the instructions and advisories issued by the respective host governments”. The ministry also provided the emergency contact details of embassies and consulates in the Gulf region for the facilitation of Pakistani nationals abroad. Iran Embassy of Pakistan in Tehran: +98-21-669413-88/89/90/91 (landline); +98-9107648298 (mobile) Pakistani Consulate in Zahidan: +98-54-33223389; +98-90...

Multiple videos have been circulating on social media platform X since February 27, claiming to show Afghan BM-21 rocket strikes, launched from the Alishero border district, targeting Pakistani military installations. However, the videos are unrelated to the current situation and are old. Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban, after the neighbouring country opened fire on multiple locations across the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on late Thursday. Authorities in Kabul had called it a response to Pakistani strikes against terrorist hideouts on Afghan soil over the weekend. On Feb 27, a pro-Indian account on X shared a video of buildings set on fire. “Afghan BM-21 rocket strikes have begun from areas of Alishero district targeting Pakistani military installations across the so-called (imaginary) border… look what’s happened,” reads the caption. The post gained 100,800 views. Another pro-Indian account shared the same video with the caption: “Reports of BM 21 rocket strikes from A...

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Saturday rejected claims about a Pakistani jet being shot down in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and the pilot being captured. The ministry’s fact check account on X attributed the claims to Afghan Taliban officials that were “amplified by Indian media”. “The Ministry of Defence of the so-called Islamic Emirate claimed that Afghan forces shot down a Pakistani fighter jet in Nangarhar and captured its pilot alive. The claim was widely amplified by Indian media and Afghan propaganda outlets,” it said. The ministry further said Pakistan’s armed forces had not reported any aircraft loss and stated that no “independent international media outlet or defence monitoring agency” had verified the claim. “The story relies solely on statements from Afghan officials and selective media amplification,” it said. It further stated that there was no visual proof of crash debris, the wreckage site or the captured pilot. “No geolocated imagery or satellite evidence supports the claim,” i...

The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday said that Pakistan’s recent strikes against neighbouring Afghanistan were carried out to ensure the “safety of Pakistani citizens” and to prevent “imminent terrorist attacks”. FO spokesperson Tahir Andrabi made the statement while responding to a question during his weekly press briefing. Pakistan targeted terrorist camps and hideouts overnight in the Nangarhar and Paktika provinces of Afghanistan over the weekend, with an official saying that “more than 80” terrorists had been killed in the air strikes. The strikes were the most extensive military engagement between the two neighbours since border clashes broke out in October last year. During Thursday’s press briefing, the FO spokesperson was asked about civilian casualties in the strikes, the total number of terrorists killed, and the locations of the camps targeted. In his response, he said, “Let me begin by reiterating that the intelligence-based selective targeting of these seven terrorist camps and their hideouts in ...

The United Kingdom has rolled out a new electronic visa (e-visa) system for Pakistani nationals, removing the requirement for physical visa stickers on passports and shifting the process entirely online.

LAHORE: A Pakistani national was repatriated to his home country from India on Tuesday after spending 17 years in jail on charges of spying. “Muhammad Shahid Iqbal Bhatti, a Pakistani citizen imprisoned in India, was repatriated to Pakistan via the Wagah-Attari border today,” Pakistan’s High Commission in India said in a post on X. Separately, an official told Dawn that Bhatti was a resident of Kasur and was handed a 17-year sentence by an Indian court after he was accused of spying for Pakistan. Quoting Indian media reports, he said Bhatti was arrested in August 2008 by police in Indian Punjab. While in custody, he was interrogated for living in India allegedly without legal documents, the official said, adding that the then-chief manager of the State Bank of India had filed a complaint against him in November 2008. “Subsequently, Bhatti was sentenced by a court and sent to jail on charges of spying. He spent nearly 17 years of his life in prison,” the official said. He further said that as Bhatti’s prison t...

WASHINGTON: Two Pakistani nationals were indicted in the United States for their alleged role in a $10 million healthcare fraud scheme that targeted Medicare and private insurance programmes, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Thursday. According to a statement by the DOJ, Burhan Mirza, 31, and Kashif Iqbal, 48, along with several co-schemers, were accused of submitting fraudulent claims for medical services and equipment that were never provided. The alleged scheme operated during 2023 and 2024 and involved nominee-owned laboratories and durable medical equipment providers, it said. The DOJ added that three other alleged co-schemers had already pleaded guilty in the case: Mir Akbar Khan, 57, of West Chicago, who admitted recruiting nominee owners for the fake medical businesses; Fasiur Rahman Syed, 47, an Indian citizen who resided in Chicago; and Navaid Rasheed, 43, a Pakistani citizen who lived in Plano, Texas. All three were awaiting sentencing, it said. The statement quoted the indictment as saying ...

ISLAMABAD: Nearly 200 Pakistani students stranded in Afghanistan for months due to the closure of the border have demanded permission to cross the Torkham border, according to their representatives. Taliban authorities have told them that Pakistani diplomatic missions should officially approach them and verify the list with an official stamp. However, Pakistani officials are reluctant to do so, the affected students told Dawn from Kabul and Jalalabad. The Taliban allowed the first group of 26 students to cross Torkham on Jan 12, and Pakistani authorities also opened the border specifically for them. However, the students who arrived at Torkham on Jan 13 have not yet been allowed to cross, as Taliban authorities insist that the Pakistani embassy or the consulate in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, should officially verify the list. Dr Riazullah Wazir and Amanullah Wazir, representatives of the students in Kabul, said students had met the Nangarhar governor and officials at the Pakistani embassy an...

A Spanish court has sentenced a Pakistani man to 36 years in jail for murdering three elderly siblings over debts reportedly linked to an online romance scam. A jury in October convicted Dilawar Hussain of killing the two sisters and their disabled brother in Morata de Tajuna, near Madrid, in December 2023. In November, a Madrid court sentenced Hussain to 12 years in jail for each murder, citing a “psychological alteration” as a mitigating factor, according to a copy of the ruling seen by AFP on Friday. Hussain has appealed the sentence. Hussain, 44, turned himself in to police and admitted the killings after the siblings’ partially burned bodies were found in their home. The siblings, who were in their 70s, had been beaten to death, possibly with an iron bar. When he took the stand at his trial, Hussain asked for forgiveness, saying he had “heard voices” and “was not in my right mind”. Neighbours told Spanish media the tragedy was linked to a fake online love affair, in which the two sisters believed they we...

British counter-terrorism police are investigating a series of what authorities have described as “highly targeted” attacks against two Pakistani dissidents living in the United Kingdom, according to a report published by The Guardian on Friday. Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command took over the investigation following four attacks that began on Christmas Eve in Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire. One person has been arrested, and one of the incidents involved the use of a firearm. The attacks targeted two prominent supporters of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated. One of the victims told The Guardian that his attackers appeared to be “fair-skinned, white or wearing masks” and said he feared for his life. The first two attacks took place on Christmas Eve. In Chesham, Buckinghamshire, two men broke into the home of a dissident shortly after 8am and vandalised the property. The second attack occurred at the Cambridgeshire home of rights lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar, a h...

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani parliamentary delegation, led by Senator Babar Siraj Khan Nasir, arrived in Washington on Tuesday evening for a series of high-level engagements with US lawmakers and officials as part of a renewed push to strengthen bilateral ties. The delegation, which includes members of both the Senate and the National Assembly of Pakistan, will also engage with the members of the Pakistani diaspora to emphasise the significance of their participation in promoting national causes in the United States. The delegation will participate in multiple forums, beginning with an Inter-Parliamentary Group (IPG) session at the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday, followed by a press conference at the National Press Club (NPC) and a diplomatic reception in New Jersey. According to Dr Gholam Mujtaba, chairman of the Pakistan Policy Institute USA (PPI-USA), who has been instrumental in organising the visit, the engagements are designed to promote legislative-to-legislative dialogue, deepen institutional c...