MIRPUR: Voters across Azad Kashmir’s Mirpur division began casting ballots on Monday in the opening stage of a fractious three-phase election, with authorities deploying tens of thousands of security personnel and simultaneously moving to block a long march by a banned rights movement threatening to disrupt polling day.
top-politics
Pakistan accuses Kashmir protest group of India links after arrest of alleged ‘digital marketing’ suspect
ISLAAMABAD: Pakistan’s information minister has accused a protest movement in Azad Kashmir of receiving funding and direction from India, unveiling what he described as “irrefutable evidence” linking the banned group to a cross-border disinformation network days before elections are due to be held in the territory.
Electric bus ‘gift’ sparks bribery row as over 18,000 troops deployed for Kashmir election
MUZAFFARABAD: A fleet of green electric buses presented as a “gift” from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has become the focal point of a bitter dispute with the rival Pakistan Peoples Party, after the vehicles arrived in Muzaffarabad on Saturday, just two days before voters in Azad Jammu and Kashmir go to the polls in the territory’s 2026 general election.
As US-Iran conflict deepens, Pakistan explores a path back to talks
ISLAMABAD: Drones packed with explosives were shot down over the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on Friday morning, the latest sign that the war between the United States and Iran is spilling ever further beyond Iranian territory nearly five months after it began.
Houthis strike Saudi oil tankers as US pounds Iran for 12th straight night
ISLAMABAD: Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck two Saudi Arabian oil tankers with a barrage of missiles and drones on Wednesday evening, the group claimed, in an attack that threatens to open a second maritime front in the Middle East war even as the United States pressed on with its bombing campaign against Iran, now in its twelfth consecutive night.
Trump threatens to bomb Iranian bridge or power plant for every ship attacked in Hormuz
ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump has raised the stakes in the war with Iran, threatening to destroy an Iranian bridge or power station in retaliation for any future attack on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz — a warning that extends, he made clear, to targets inside Tehran itself.
Azad Kashmir elections split into three phases as security strains reshape polling
MUZAFFARABAD: Elections in Azad Kashmir have been split into three separate phases, with polling now stretching into August, after officials said troops needed to be freed up from duties elsewhere in the country to secure the vote following weeks of deadly unrest.
Iran’s interior minister arrives in Islamabad amid mediation push
ISLAMABAD: Iran’s interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, arrived in Islamabad on Monday for two days of official talks, the latest step in Pakistan’s monthslong effort to keep alive a peace process between Iran and the United States.
Defiant cleric-politician Fazlur Rehman refuses to apologise for remarks on security forces
ISLAMABAD: Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the veteran leader of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl party, said Sunday he would not apologise for remarks he made about the country’s security forces, telling a gathering of party-aligned lawyers in Islamabad that his criticism was directed at policymakers, not the institution or its soldiers.
Bomb-maker killed, eight detained as Bannu crackdown enters third day
BANNU: For the third straight day, security forces pressed deep into the villages ringing the embattled Bannu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, part of a widening campaign against militants that has left one terrorist killed and eight others in custody, according to police.