ISLAMABAD: Six soldiers were martyred on Wednesday when an improvised explosive device struck their convoy in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the military said, the latest in a wave of attacks that has made the region bordering Afghanistan the epicentre of Pakistan’s militant crisis.
Politics
Pakistan says troops deployed in Saudi Arabia under 2025 defence pact, stays vague on Houthi response
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday that it has deployed forces inside Saudi Arabia under a bilateral defence treaty signed a year ago, and said it would honour both that pact and a new three-way alliance with Riyadh and Ankara “in intent and spirit” — but pointedly refused to spell out what would trigger Pakistani troops going into action against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Punjab chief minister defends use of state jet for daughter’s graduation
MULTAN: Maryam Nawaz, the chief minister of Punjab province, has launched a robust defence of her use of a provincial government aircraft to attend her daughter’s graduation ceremony in London, telling critics she “does not owe” them an explanation while simultaneously producing what she described as a receipt for the trip on her mobile phone.
Islamabad sealed with containers as senior PTI leader briefly detained en route to funeral
ISLAMABAD: Major roads into Islamabad were sealed with shipping containers on Thursday as the country’s capital braced for a fortnight of competing political marches, hours after the secretary general of Imran Khan’s opposition party said he had been detained and then released by police.
Pakistan summons Indian diplomat over naval incident in Arabian Sea
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan summoned India’s top diplomat in Islamabad on Wednesday and lodged a formal protest after an Indian Navy vessel made contact with a Pakistani warship in disputed waters, the most serious naval confrontation between the two nuclear-armed nations since a four-day war last year brought them to the brink of wider conflict.
Pakistan’s military says Saudi-Turkiye defence pact has ‘no regional aspirations’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military has moved to reassure allies and rivals alike that its new defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkiye carries no hidden ambitions, insisting the trilateral alliance exists purely to deter aggression rather than to project power across the region.
Attack near Islam’s holiest site tests new Saudi defence pact — and its limits
ISLAMABAD: Saudi air defences shot down a drone on Tuesday evening as it approached the restricted airspace over Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the site Muslims worldwide face in prayer five times daily, in what Saudi officials called an attempted attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on the holiest city in Islam.
Pakistan calls for return to June accord as Hormuz all but shuts and Houthis tighten Red Sea grip
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has again pressed the United States and Iran to return to a fragile ceasefire framework it helped broker in June, as the conflict between Washington and Tehran flares anew and threatens to draw in Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure and the wider shipping routes of the Middle East.
PIMS fire: report blames ‘systemic failure’ as electrical fault named likely cause of 14 newborn deaths
ISLAMABAD: A government inquiry into the fire that killed 14 newborn babies at a hospital in Islamabad has concluded that the disaster was the product of “systemic and institutional failure”, with a localised electrical fault the most probable trigger for a blaze that overwhelmed a nursery in a matter of minutes.
Three militants killed in Balochistan drone strike
QUETTA: Security forces killed three militants, including a field commander, in a drone strike in Balochistan’s Mastung district, state media reported on Monday, the latest in a weeks-long escalation of military operations across the restive province.