PESHAWAR: Militants ambushed a security convoy in Pakistan’s northwest on Wednesday, and hours later a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a police station in a nearby city, leaving at least three police officers dead and 20 wounded in the latest sign that violence is intensifying along the border with Afghanistan.
Politics
PTI to mark three years of Imran Khan’s imprisonment with nationwide rallies
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, announced on Wednesday it will hold rallies in cities across the country on Aug. 5, the date that will mark three full years since Khan’s arrest set off one of the most turbulent chapters in the nation’s recent political history.
Banned Kashmiri rights group delays protest march as mediators seek deal to end deadly unrest
A banned protest coalition that has led weeks of unrest in the mountainous Azad Kashmir region agreed on Wednesday to postpone a long-threatened march on the regional capital, a reprieve that came after back-channel negotiations raised hopes for a lasting settlement to a standoff that has left at least nine people dead in the past two days alone.
Pakistan moves to shield Chinese mine after warning of shutdown over militant unrest
ISLAMABAD: The government pledged on Wednesday to significantly expand security around the country’s largest Chinese-operated copper and gold mine, responding to an unusually blunt warning from the mine’s operator that a monthlong spiral of violence in the southwestern province of Balochistan could force production to a halt within weeks.
Bhutto-Zardari proposes truth panel as Kashmir region reels from deadly unrest
MUZAFFARABAD: The chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party proposed the creation of an independent truth and reconciliation commission on Wednesday to help end nearly six weeks of deadly unrest in Azad Kashmir, warning that continued bloodshed there was inflicting lasting damage on both the Kashmir cause and Pakistan’s standing abroad.
Trump threatens Iran’s power grid, bridges as Hormuz standoff enters fourth day of strikes
ISLAMABAD: US President Trump warned on Tuesday night that the United States would begin striking Iranian power plants and bridges next week if Tehran does not return to the negotiating table, escalating his rhetoric on the same day American forces carried out a fourth consecutive night of strikes against Iranian military targets and reimposed a naval blockade on the country’s ports.
Pakistan condemns Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, reaffirms support for Kingdom security
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday condemned a barrage of ballistic missiles that Yemen’s Houthi movement fired at Saudi Arabia, invoking a year-old mutual defense pact between the two countries and warning that the attack threatened to further destabilize an already volatile Middle East.
Six more militants killed in Balochistan, pushing month’s death toll past 120
QUETTA: Security forces killed six more militants in Balochistan province on Tuesday, officials said, raising to 85 the number of terrorists killed since the launch of a major counterterrorism sweep earlier this month.
US strikes Iran for third straight night as Trump moves to charge toll on Hormuz
ISLAMABAD: The United States carried out a five-hour bombing campaign against Iran early on Tuesday, the third consecutive night of American strikes, as President Trump moved to seize control of the Strait of Hormuz and declared that ships passing through it would owe Washington a fee.
PTI backs Aleema Khan’s fresh long march call for Imran Khan’s release
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has publicly thrown its support behind Aleema Khan’s call for a fresh “long march,” the latest attempt by the jailed former prime minister’s family to force his release.