ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Navy anticipates that its first Chinese-designed submarine will enter active service next year, a development that underscores the deepening military collaboration between Islamabad and Beijing amid regional tensions.
International
Trump says Pakistan among nations testing nuclear arms, claim not independently verified
ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump said Pakistan has been testing nuclear weapons, listing it with Russia, China and North Korea as countries he said are advancing their arsenals while the United States holds to a decades-old moratorium.
Pakistan says it foiled Indian plot by arresting fisherman forced into espionage
ISLAMABAD: Authorities said on Saturday they arrested a fisherman whom they accused Indian intelligence agencies of coercing into a scheme to fabricate evidence against Pakistan, in what the government described as a desperate bid by New Delhi to revive its tarnished image after a failed covert operation.
Pakistan’s counterterrorism push leaves record 355 militants dead in October
ISLAMABAD: Militants in Pakistan endured their most severe setbacks in a decade during October, with security forces killing 355 insurgents in intensified operations across the country, according to a monthly report released by an Islamabad-based think tank.
Minister Asif accuses India of fuelling terrorism to keep Islamabad engaged on two fronts
ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif accused India on Saturday of trying to entangle his country in conflicts on its eastern and western borders by stoking terrorism in the region, even as Islamabad works to solidify a fragile ceasefire with Afghanistan. “If there is a need for evidence, then we have it, about what involvement India has in terrorism [in Pakistan] and how it wants to keep us busy on two fronts: the eastern and western,” the minister, Khawaja Asif told a private television channel.
Pakistan partially reopens key Afghan border for refugee repatriation
PESHAWAR: Pakistan partially reopened a key border crossing with Afghanistan on Saturday, allowing thousands of stranded Afghan refugees to return home after nearly three weeks of closure prompted by deadly clashes between the two nations’ forces.
Minister Asif disowns colleague’s claim Pakistani troops would disarm Hamas
ISLAMABAD: Defence minister Khawaja Asif on Friday forcefully disavowed comments by a government spokesman suggesting that Pakistani troops deployed to a new international force in Gaza would help disarm Hamas, highlighting tensions within the government over a prospective, and politically fraught, commitment.
Fragile new truce with Taliban hinges on Kabul’s action against militants
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday portrayed a fragile new truce with the Afghan Taliban as a hard-won step toward peace along their volatile border, but one laden with stern conditions and deep scepticism, as Islamabad demanded verifiable action against militants using Afghan soil to stage attacks inside its soil.
Report warns India could weaponise Indus River flows against Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: India lacks the capacity to abruptly halt the flow of the Indus River or fully divert its tributaries in the near term. But a report warns that New Delhi could soon wield the timing of its dams to manipulate river levels in ways that could cripple Pakistan’s agriculture, at a moment when trust between the nuclear-armed neighbours has frayed to its lowest point in years.
Security forces kill 22 militants, including top TTP commander – military
ISLAMABAD: In a series of sharp counterterrorism operations along restive border regions, Pakistani security forces killed 22 militants on Wednesday night and Thursday, the military said, dealing a significant blow to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan by eliminating its second-in-command.