Pakistan

Gun battles between rival ethnic groups in India’s troubled northeastern Manipur state killed three men, police said, the latest unrest in the far-flung region. Manipur has seen periodic clashes for nearly three years between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community in which more than 250 people have been killed. “In a heavy exchange of fire… three individuals sustained fatal bullet injuries,” Manipur police said in a statement late on Friday. The clashes took place at Mullam village in Ukhrul district, and police did not specify which community the men came from. “Security measures have been enhanced in the area to prevent further escalation of violence,” police said. “Operations are still underway.” Longstanding enmity between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolves around competition for land and public jobs. Rights activists have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain. Unrest erupted in 2023, when around 60,000 people were forced t...

Abbas Araghchi held a key meeting with Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir during his visit to Islamabad, the Iranian Embassy said on Saturday.

Palestinians in the West Bank and a central area of Gaza began voting on Saturday in municipal elections in the first vote since Israel’s deadly invasion of Gaza, marked by a narrow political field and widespread disillusionment. Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission. Polling stations opened at 7am (9am PKT). AFP footage from Al-Bireh in the West Bank and Deir el-Balah in Gaza showed election officials in polling stations as Palestinians came to cast ballots. Most electoral lists are aligned with President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular-nationalist Fatah party or feature candidates running as independents. There are no lists affiliated with Fatah’s archrival Hamas, which controls nearly half of the Gaza Strip. In most cities, Fatah-backed tickets will run against independent lists headed by candidates from factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberati...

The International Monetary Fund has urged Pakistan to ensure that all public sector entities transfer their funds into a Treasury Single Account (TSA), raising concerns over large sums currently held in commercial banks, sources said.

PESHAWAR: Five policemen were among eight people injured after unidentified assailants attacked a police vehicle and a Rescue 1122 ambulance in two separate areas of Khar tehsil in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district on Friday night. Police and Rescue 1122 officials said on Saturday that the first incident occurred in the Lowi Sam area when assailants opened fire on a police mobile carrying policemen to the nearby Miagano post. They said five policemen in the vehicle were injured in the attack, adding that the attackers managed to flee. “The overnight attack on the police vehicle in the Lowi Sam area, considered among the peaceful areas of Khar tehsil, has left five policemen non-fatally wounded,” a spokesperson for the district police said. The official said that after the incident, a team from the Lowi Sam police station immediately rushed to the scene and launched search efforts for the attackers. The police spokesperson added that a Rescue 1122 ambulance was attacked by unknown assailants in Khar’s Rasha...

Peshawar - Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sohail Afridi, while addressing a meeting of the provincial cabinet, spoke at length on the prevailing national and provincial situation, the political context, and the government’s forward-looking development priorities.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to allow spectators into the stadium for the final of the 11th edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), Interior Minister and PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday. In a post on X, the PCB chairman said he had requested PM Shehbaz to allow spectators in the stadiums during the PSL 11 final. “While he was also inclined to permit fans, he emphasised that austerity measures are currently in place across Pakistan, with efforts underway to minimise fuel consumption,” Naqvi said. “However, on the request of franchise owners, he has graciously approved the presence of fans for the PSL 11 final.” The PCB chairman thanked the premier for the decision to facilitate the fans. This year’s PSL had initially been scheduled to be held across six venues — Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Multan, Peshawar, and Faisalabad. However, last month, it was announced that the tournament would go ahead sans spectators while matches would be held only in Karachi and Lahore in line with the ...

UNITED NATIONS: Terrorist groups are increasingly exploiting artificial intelligence, encrypted platforms and digital currencies, transforming the global threat into a more decentralized and harder-to-detect phenomenon. These trends were discussed at a panel organised by the Permanent Mission of Pakistan in collaboration with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) at the UN headquarters in New York, where diplomats, security experts and academics examined emerging patterns in global terrorism. According to the panelists, the shift has expanded the reach of extremist networks beyond traditional conflict zones, enabling remote recruitment, propaganda and financing through online ecosystems that operate across borders and often outside regulatory control. The convergence of these tools with rising ideological extremism — including far-right movements in Western societies — has further complicated efforts to define and counter terrorism, as loosely organised groups operate without clear leadership...

• Seminaries declared a ‘red line’, with warning of protest movement after May 2 deadline • Govt moves to strengthen madressah registration process, says around 300 unregistered seminaries identified QUETTA: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) Balochistan Emir Senator Maulana Abdul Wasay has announced a boycott of the Bugti-led coalition government’s functions, official meetings, and visits to the Chief Minister’s House, alleging that the provincial government has launched operations against madressas (seminaries) across the province and sealed many of them. Speaking at a press conference on Fri­day, along with Senator Kamran Murtaza and other party leaders, he said that the decision to socially boycott the government was taken in response to actions against seminaries. He said the law under which these actions are being carried out has neither been approved by parliament nor by the provincial assembly. He declared that seminaries are the party’s “red line” and warned that those taking action against them have “dug ...

Source: The 2026 Global Report on Food Crises • Multi-agency report says over 9m Pakistanis face ‘crisis’ conditions; another 1.7 million in the more severe ‘emergency’ category • Notes devastating monsoon rains, severe flooding wiped out crucial cropland, livelihoods • Warns global hunger remains at critical levels amid conflict, drought, aid cuts; outlook for 2026 remains ‘bleak’ ISLAMABAD: Pakistan remains one of the 10 fragile countries where global acute food insecurity is most concentrated, according to a UN-backed report released on Friday, as intensifying climate extremes and persistent economic challenges continue to strain the nation. The 2026 Global Report on Food Crises names Pakistan alongside Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen as the primary centres of acute hunger. According to the report, Pakistan was among the world’s 10 largest food crises in 2025, with about 11 million people facing acute food insecurity. Of t...

ISLAMABAD: In a surprise move, the Shehbaz Sharif government on Friday increased the prices of both petrol and diesel by Rs26.77 per litre with immediate effect for the week ending May 1, passing on the impact of global prices during the last fortnight while also seeking to raise revenues in the final months of the fiscal year under commitments with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF’s executive board is expected to approve in the first half of May the disbursement of more than $1.2 billion under two ongoing programmes. As of April 23, diesel prices were estimated to go down by around Rs25 per litre and petrol by Rs6 per litre. However, the government partially restored the petroleum levy on diesel and increased petrol prices to meet overall fiscal targets. Unlike the prime minister’s anno­uncements of price cuts, the increase this time was quietly announced by the petroleum division on the day Iran and the United States dispatched their negotiators to Islamabad for the second round of talks. Petr...

Every time exams come around, you are told to make a proper schedule, wake up early, drink water, be the responsible and disciplined child. And then somehow, many of you end up on your bed every night around 2 am with zero new information in your brain, but a detailed colour-coded schedule that you made instead of actually studying. Perhaps it’s not wrong. You have the motivation to start your studies accordingly. Whether you actually studied or the schedule became the whole project, at least you started. But there is a specific type of student with the most organised notes, the most colour-coded timetable, the neatest desk setup and, somehow, they actually do study. So that leaves the rest of us — the big lot — the students who also genuinely try, sacrifice sleep, panic-watch YouTube lectures and explanations. But the results still don’t match the effort they put in, leaving them confused and demoralised. What makes their efforts fail? Mostly, it’s study methods that don’t work. The pressure is on vigorous s...

Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Friday that an Iranian delegation led by the Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had arrived in Islamabad. The development came as the White House said that envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would also be heading to Pakistan for talks with Iran. However, Iran asserted that it would not be meeting with the US. In a post on X, FO spokesperson Andrabi Araghchi was received by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir and other senior officials. “During the visit, the Iranian foreign minister will hold meetings with Pakistan’s senior leadership to discuss the latest regional developments as well as ongoing efforts for regional peace and stability,” he added. Subsequently, Dar posted on X that he was pleased to “receive and welcome my brother, Foreign Minister of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, to Islamabad”. “Look forward to our meaningful engagements aimed at promoting regional peace...

The government raised the prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs26.77 each on Friday. Following the increase, the price of petrol now stands at Rs393.35 and that of HSD at Rs380.19. The announcement was made in a press release issued by the Petroleum Division. It said the prices were revised for the week starting on April 25. Petrol is mostly used in private transport, small vehicles, rickshaws and two-wheelers and has a direct bearing on the budget of the middle and lower-middle class. High-speed diesel is mainly used in the heavy transport sector and for large generators. The government has been revising petroleum prices every week on Friday night following the now-paused US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28. The war also led to a global fuel crunch caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s supply of oil and gas used to pass in peace time. After the US-Israeli war on Iran began, the government initially hiked petrol and diesel prices by R...

KARACHI: An 11-year-old boy was feared to have drowned after he could not be recovered even hours after being swept away while swimming in an open water line in Karachi’s Scheme-33 area on Friday. East Deputy Commissioner (DC) Nasrullah Abbasi, who was supervising the rescue operation, told Dawn that the boy, Zahid Mohammed Khan, was swept away around 2pm while swimming in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC)’s line. He was not recovered until late at night, when the last updates were received. Lifeguards from Rescue 1122 and Edhi Foundation carried out the search for him, the DC said, adding that the delay in finding the boy could have been due to the heavy flow of water. Rescue 1122 said in a statement that its two teams were searching for the boy at two spots. The DC said KWSC officials had also visited the spot and had estimated that the boy may end up as far away as in Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block-1 near Continental Bakery, where an iron grill had been installed in the line. But that might take...

RAWALPINDI - Security Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies killed 22 khwarij terrorists belonging to India sponsored Fitna -al-Khwarij in a joint intelligence operation in Khyber District.

ISLAMABAD - The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) repaid a deposit of US $1 billion to Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), UAE, on Thursday (23 April 2026), said a post shared on social media by the central bank of Pakistan on Friday.

ISLAMABAD - Security has been heightened in federal capital Islamabad ahead of arrival of US and Iranian delegations for peace talks aimed at ending the Middle East crisis.

ISLAMABAD- US and Iranian top diplomats are heading back to Pakistan for a new round of peace talks, officials from both the countries confirmed on Friday, ending week-long uncertainty amid deadlock.

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering commitment to dialogue, cooperation, and peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter, marking the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.