Pakistan

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with Iranian Ambassador Dr Reza Amiri Moghadam in Islamabad on Monday to discuss arrangements for the second round of the Islamabad Talks.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has directed authorities to accelerate wheat procurement across the province to meet the official target within the stipulated timeframe.

Security forces killed two militants during an intelligence-based operation in Bannu, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations.

Ministry of National Health Services has dismissed reports claiming a sharp rise in HIV/AIDS cases in Islamabad, terming them inaccurate and without factual basis.

A lady constable of the Levies Force was laid to rest with full state honours in Quetta on Monday, a day after she embraced martyrdom in a terrorist attack in the Bajoi area of Khuzdar district.

ISLAMABAD: The second nationwide anti-polio campaign of the ongoing year has missed its target of vaccination by around 300,000 children. The week-long campaign aimed to vaccinate more than 45 million children under the age of five. However, according to data released by the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) on Monday, more than 44.7m children were vaccinated against polio. “Due to the tireless efforts of polio workers, the vaccine reached over 44.7m children across the country. In addition to polio drops, children were also administered Vitamin A supplements to help strengthen their immunity,” it said. The provincial breakdown showed that over 23m children were vaccinated in Punjab, over 10.4m in Sindh, over 7.2m in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and over 2.6m in Balochistan. Meanwhile, over 441,000 children were vaccinated in Islamabad, over 292,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and around 717,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The NEOC highlighted that the strong support and cooperation of parents and communities played a...

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the foreign minister and the military on Monday condemned the desecration of a crucifix after it was smashed by an Israeli soldier in a Christian village in southern Lebanon. A photo that emerged online over the weekend shows a soldier taking the blunt side of an axe to a fallen sculpture of Jesus on the cross. It was posted by Younis Tirawi, who describes himself as a Palestinian reporter and has also posted images of Israeli soldiers’ misconduct in Gaza. Reuters verified the location of the image as Debel, one of the few villages in southern Lebanon where residents remained through an Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah that began on March 2. The cross was part of a small shrine in the garden of a family living on the edge of the village, said Fadi Falfel, a priest in Debel. “One of the Israeli soldiers broke the cross and did this horrible thing, this desecration of our holy symbols,” he said. Netanyahu said that the soldier’s actions went against Jewish ...

Pakistan and Egypt concluded a two-week-long military exercise focused on counter-terrorism, the military’s media wing said on Monday. In a press release, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the “Pakistan-Egypt Joint Exercise Thunder-II” concluded in Cherat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — the military’s premier Special Operations School (SOS). “[The] two-week-long exercise was designed to enhance interoperability by refining drills, procedures, and techniques related to counterterrorism operations through joint training,” ISPR said. It added that “combat teams from the Special Services Group (SSG) of the Pakistan Army and the Egyptian Special Forces actively participated” in the exercise. The military’s media wing further said that the participants exhibited “exceptional professionalism and operational skill throughout the exercise”. The picture shows Pakistan-Egypt Joint Exercise Thunder-II underway. — ISPR General officer commanding SSG and Commander of Egyptian Paratroopers, Major General Mohamed Saad Ab...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday engaged the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank as transaction adviser for inducting private investors in the installation of 10 million smart meters across all electricity distribution companies (Discos). The Ministry of Energy (Power Division) had announced a large-scale rollout of smart meters across Discos in October 2025. On Monday, the Power Division said it has signed a Transaction Advisory Services Agreement (Tasa) with the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group. Under this agreement, the IFC will act as transaction advisor and conduct a comprehensive techno-commercial assessment for a service-provider model or public-private partnership framework to support the large-scale rollout of smart metering infrastructure for 10m single-phase connections. The initiative was intended to attract local and international investors to install, maintain, and operate the infrastructure, thereby advancing Pakistan’s digital transformation in the power sector. It said...

Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met Acting US Ambassador to Pakistan Natalie Baker on Monday to review security arrangements for the upcoming round of talks in Islamabad.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has launched an ambitious initiative to convert barren land into productive economic zones through modern shrimp farming projects across the province.

Pakistan and Egypt have successfully concluded a two-week joint military exercise, “Thunder-II,” focused on enhancing counterterrorism capabilities, at Cherat.

An 80-centimetre tsunami wave hit a port in northern Japan on Monday after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the region, Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. The wave was observed at 5:34pm (1:34pm PKT) at a port in Kuji, Iwate, JMA said. It previously said a 70-centimetre wave had struck at 5:32pm. A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck northern Japan earlier, the country’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) said, issuing a tsunami warning for waves up to three metres. The quake hit at 4:53pm (12:53pm PKT) in Pacific waters off northern Iwate prefecture and the tremor was strong enough to shake large buildings as far as Tokyo, hundreds of kilometres away. “Evacuate immediately from coastal regions and riverside areas to a safer place such as high ground or an evacuation building,” it said, warning that damage due to tsunami waves was expected. “Tsunami waves are expected to hit repeatedly. Do not leave safe ground until the warning is lifted,” it said. Footage from national broadcaster NHK did not show any...

A terrorist and his accomplice, an alleged suicide bomber, were killed by security forces during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, the military’s media affairs wing said on Monday. In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said an IBO was conducted on Sunday on the reported presence of “khawarij”. Khawarij, or Fitna al Khawarij, is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). “During conduct of the operation, after [an] intense exchange of fire, two khawarij, belonging to the Indian-sponsored Fitna-al-Khawarij, including Kharji Ring leader Waheedullah alias Muktiar, along with a suicide bomber, were sent to hell,” the ISPR statement read. It added that a suicide jacket, weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the killed terrorists. The ISPR said Waheedullah “was amongst the most-wanted terrorist list for his active involvement in numerous terrorist activities”, including the martyrdom of secu...

Temperatures are rising across the country, with the mercury crossing 40 degrees Celsius in parts of Sindh and Balochistan, the Met Office said on Monday.

Russia said Monday it had arrested a German woman found with a homemade bomb in her backpack in what it alleged was a Ukrainian-hatched plot to blow up a security services facility in the south. Russia has arrested dozens of people throughout the four-year war, mostly its own citizens, on allegations of working for Ukraine to carry out sabotage attacks. There has been a string of high-profile arrests of Western citizens since Moscow ordered its troops into Ukraine — typically on espionage charges that are widely seen as baseless, with those detained later swapped in exchange for Russians jailed abroad. Detentions of Western citizens for carrying out or preparing actual attacks are much rarer. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said the woman, born in 1969, had been dragged into the alleged plot by a citizen from a Central Asian country, who was working on orders from Ukraine. She was detained and found with an improvised explosive device in her bag in the Caucasus city of Pyatigorsk, the FSB said. The FS...

Two militants belonging to the Indian proxy group Fitna al-Khwarij on Monday were killed in Bannu.

Authorities in Islamabad have closed several hiking trails and implemented a comprehensive traffic management plan amid heightened security arrangements for the arrival of foreign delegations.

A gunman who opened fire outside the Quran and Sunnah Academy of religious scholar Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza in Jhelum was killed in a police response on Sunday, while the scholar remained unharmed, officials said.

LAKKI MARWAT: Two terrorists were killed and a police constable embraced martyrdom in a gun battle in Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police said on Monday. District police spokesperson Qudratullah Khan said the gunfight erupted when police conducted a targeted operation in a forest near the Khundan area, bordering Bannu district. He said that a large police contingent was dispatched to the area after local law enforcement authorities received credible intelligence reports that Fitna-al-Khawarij terrorists were hiding in the forest. Fitna al Khawarij is a term that the state uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. “The exchange of fire continued for some time, resulting in the neutralisation and killing of two terrorists,” he maintained. Qudratullah added that police constable Attiqur Rehman was also martyred in the exchange of fire. The official said that several terrorists were injured in the clash but escaped with the help of their accomplices, taking advantage of the darkness and dens...