Pakistan

At least 11 people died on Wednesday in a crowd surge outside a cricket stadium in the Indian city of Bengaluru, where fans were celebrating Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first Indian Premier League title win, authorities said. Thousands of people, some waving the home team’s red flag, lined the streets around the Chinnaswamy Stadium as the team arrived in a bus in the evening, TV channels showed, with some climbing trees and the stadium wall for a better view. As the celebration proceeded, some people outside without passes tried to push through gates and there was further trouble between the perimeter and main arena, police said. Images from the scene showed people climbing over others. At least 11 people were killed and 47 were injured in the incident, Karnataka state chief minister Siddaramaiah, who uses only one name, told reporters. “At a time of celebration, this unfortunate event should not have happened. We are saddened by this. The fans that showed up were beyond our expectations,” he said. One poli...

Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Amir Muqam has assured affectees of the Diamer Bhasha Dam of addressing their genuine demands with sincerity and mutual consensus.

Nowshera police on Wednesday arrested the prime suspect in the murder of three children last month, with the alleged killer revealed to be the victims’ grandmother, according to a statement issued by Nowshera police. In May, a family suffered from health problems after consuming food believed to be contaminated, resulting in the death of three children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Nowshera district. Nowshera police spokesperson Turk Ali Shah told Dawn.com, “The family had consumed Mithai [sweets] with tea at night, after which their condition deteriorated. Three siblings died after consuming poisonous food. Their mother was in critical condition.” According to Wednesday’s statement, police formed an investigation team to probe the case, which was registered on May 19 upon the complaint of the victim’s father. An inquiry was launched under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) (police to inquire and report on suicide, etc). “District Police Chief Abdul Rashid formed an investigative team led by SP (S...

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari dismissed PTI leader Waqas Akram’s rigging allegations following the party’s significant loss in the Sambrial by-election, calling the claims “shameful” in light of what she termed a “humiliating defeat.

More than 200,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the government renewed a deportation drive in April, with Iran also stepping up expulsions of Afghans. Generations of Afghans have fled to Pakistan and Iran during decades of successive wars, seeking safety and better economic opportunities. Both governments have grown weary of large migrant populations and ordered millions to leave under the threat of arrest. Pakistan has launched a strict campaign to evict more than 800,000 Afghans who have had their residence permits cancelled, including some who were born in the country or lived there for decades. According to the interior ministry, more than 135,000 Afghans left Pakistan in April, while around 67,000 departed in May and more than 3,000 were sent back in the first two days of June. The number of returnees has slowed ahead of the Eidul Azha holiday later this week, but some Afghans were still crossing the main border points from Pakistan today. “We left behind our orchards” and livelihoods, 21-year-old far...

A tanker driver attempted to kidnap a traffic police officer in Karachi’s Manghopir, resulting in a clash which injured three cops, police said in a statement on Wednesday. According to District West Police spokesperson Nabeel Ahmed Rajput, “A tanker driver attempted to kidnap a traffic official near the Malik Chandio Chowk area of ​​Manghopir Police Station. “Instead of stopping at the checkpoint, the tanker driver tried to kidnap the traffic policeman,” he said, adding that the noise prompted a nearby police mobile to chase the tanker to stop it. The statement also said, “An angry group of people, accompanying the driver, launched an attack, injuring three police officers by assaulting them with sticks and stones.” The injured have been shifted to the hospital for immediate medical attention, the spokesperson said. He added that the police were present at the scene and the situation was under control. The city has lately witnessed a rise in traffic accidents, especially involving heavy vehicles, including d...

Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari says the government is not abolishing net metering but is considering transforming its existing mechanism into a more effective, transparent, and sustainable model.

PTI leader Sheikh Waqas Akram has alleged that the Sambrial election was marred by widespread rigging and that the entire process was pre-planned.

The high-powered delegation, led by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, has reached Washington after concluding its two-day visit to the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Wednesday. Pakis­tan had launched a broad-based engagement campaign in the United States to present its perspective on the recent spike in tensions with India, and counter New Delhi’s growing lobbying presence here. The delegation comprises Senator Rehman, former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Dr Musadik Malik, Engineer Khurram Dastgir, Faisal Subzwari, Tehmina Janjua, Senator Bushra Anjum Butt and Jalil Abbas Jilani. In New York, the delegation “drew attention to India’s illegal use of force and violations of international law, including the UN Charter and International Humanitarian Law, particularly targeting of civilian areas and killing of innocent civilians, including women and children”, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office. It added that the delegation rejected India’s allegations regarding t...

A high-profile seminar titled “Water Crisis and the Indus Waters Treaty” was held on Wednesday at the COMSTECH in response to India’s unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), with an emphasis on pursuing all available diplomatic, legal, and multilateral channels to safeguard the country’s water.

Punjab Governor Sardar Salim Haider Khan has given his assent to a series of bills passed by the Punjab Assembly, officially enacting them into law with immediate effect across the province.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed Pakistan's desire to further promote economic partnership with Belarus.

The Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) convened a high-level discussion titled “Azerbaijan-Pakistan Relations Post-Pahalgam: Imperatives for Regional Peace”, featuring Ambassador Jauhar Saleem, President of the Institute of Regional Studies and Dr.

A law banning the marriage of children under eighteen years of age has been challenged in the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) in Islamabad, arguing that it was against the Constitution as well as the tenets of Islam and should be abolished. The bill, which sought to protect the rights of children and eradicate marriages of children under the age of 18, was signed into law by the president on May 27 after sailing through both houses of parliament. However, the move attracted strong opposition from the religious segments of society, with the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) — a constitutional body responsible for giving legal advice on Islamic issues to the government and parliament — ruling that “classifying marriage under the age of 18 as rape did not conform with Islamic law”. A citizen, Shahzada Adnan, filed a petition through his lawyer, Advocate Mudassar Chaudhry, against the recently enacted Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025. The petition has been filed against the Ministry of In...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was “100 per cent” against the country’s interests, rejecting a central US demand in talks to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The US proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Oman, which has mediated talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. After five rounds of talks, several hard-to-bridge issues remain, including Iran’s insistence on maintaining uranium enrichment on its soil and Tehran’s refusal to ship abroad its entire existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium — possible raw material for nuclear bombs. Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, said nothing about halting the talks, but said the US proposal “contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance and the principle of ‘We Can’”. “Uranium enrichment is the key to our nuclear programme and the enemies h...

Authorities on Wednesday recaptured 15 more inmates who had escaped from Malir Jail following the recent earthquake, raising the total number of re-arrested prisoners to 105.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar declared on Tuesday that Balochistan is the lifeline of Pakistan and vowed that a handful of terrorists will not destabilize the nation.

Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) climbed by 1,300 points on Wednesday ahead of the budget announcement on June 10. The KSE-100 index climbed 923.71, or 0.77 per cent, to stand at 121,374.58 from the last close of 120,450.87 at 1:31pm. The index closed at 121,798.86, with a gain of 1347.99 points or 1.12pc. Sana Tawfik, head of research at Arif Habib Limited, attributed the bullish momentum to the news of the approval of a new financial package between Pakistan and Asian Development Bank (ADB). The ADB approved an $800 million programme to strengthen fiscal sustainability and improve public financial management in Pakistan, according to a statement issued by the Philippines-based lender. The statement read that subprogramme 2 of the “Improved Resource Mobilisation and Utilisation Reform Programme” includes a policy-based loan of $300m, and ADB’s “first ever policy-based guarantee” of up to $500m, which is expected to mobilise financing of up to $1 billion from commercial banks. Additionally, Tawfik ...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to make his first visit to occupied Kashmir since the conflict between the country and Pakistan began last month, inaugurating a ‘strategic railway’ service to the mountainous region, his office said on Wednesday. Modi will visit the valley on Friday to open the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-metre-long steel and concrete span that connects two mountains with an arch 359m above the river below. “The project establishes all-weather, seamless rail connectivity between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country,” the Indian Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. Modi is expected to flag off a special train. Last month, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought an intense four-day conflict, their worst standoff since 1999, before a US-brokered ceasefire was agreed on May 10. This military confrontation took place after New Delhi, without evidence, blamed Islamabad for backing terrorists who killed 26 tourists in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam and launched a series of airstr...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with Lieutenant General Victor Khrenin, Defence Minister of Belarus, who led a high-level seven-member delegation on a visit to Pakistan.