Month: March 2022

A soldier was martyred while six terrorists belonging to BNA got killed during an operation of the security forces conducted in the general area of Nagao Mountains, near Sibbi, Balochistan.

According to an Inter Services Public Relations Statement on the information of the presence of terrorists in general area Nagao Mountains, near Sibbi, Balochistan, security forces conducted an operation to apprehend them.

Once the troops started clearance operation in the area, terrorists tried to escape from their hideout and opened fire onto security forces.

Six Terrorists belonging to BNA including Naseeb Ullah Bangalzai alias Jahangir, Pir Jan and Rakai Kalhoi have been killed in the ensuing exchange of fire. These terrorists were involved in recent security incidents in Sibbi and surrounding areas and were also linked to January 20 blast in Anarkali, Lahore.

In addition, arms and ammunition have also been recovered which were intended to be used by the terrorists for disrupting peace and security in the area.

During the operation, a valiant son of the soil, Sepoy Nisar embraced Shahadat while another two soldiers got injured

Security Forces, in step with the nation, remain determined to thwart attempts at sabotaging peace, stability and progress of Balochistan.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) camp at Bhatti Chowk in Lahore Saturday caught fire, reported 24NewsHD TV Channel.

The camp was reportedly set on fire by unknown individuals.

According to PTI workers, no one was present in the camp at the time of the fire.

Rescue 1122 reached the spot and put out the fire. No casualties were reported.

The fire in the camp started due to a short circuit which was extinguished by Rescue 1122.

The fire burned chairs, tents and banners in the camp, as six chairs and four tents were burned.

LAHORE: PML-N’s “Mehngai Mukao March” kick-started Saturday from Lahore’s Model Town area under the leadership of PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz and Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz.

The first phase of the march will take place in Gujranwala where workers from Hafizabad and Sialkot will join. The next overnight stay of the marchers will be in Jhelum on March 27. Here, local workers from Pind Dadan Khan will join. The marchers will then leave from Jhelum on March 28.

After that, the marchers will reach Rawalpindi where locals and workers from Attock, Sargodha, Multan, D G Khan and Bahawalpur will join. Later, the caravan will reach its destination in Islamabad.

The party leaders will reach three different places in the form of rallies from their constituencies. However, majority of the leaders in Lahore and the MNAs are directed to reach Model Town including the Khokhar brothers and the workers from Kasur, Sahiwal, Okara, Pakpattan.

PML-N’s Bilal Yasin and Mian Marghoob Ahmad’s constituency workers are directed to reach Data Darbar where workers from the north of Lahore will reach. Meanwhile, the party workers from Gujranwala will reach Lahore today.

A reception camp for the party workers has been set up by Chaudhry Shahbaz Ahmad and Ghazali Saleem Butt at Shahdara where workers from Sheikhupura and Nankana Sahib will arrive.

Moreover, the workers from Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Kala Shah Kaku, Chiniot and Ferozewala, Muridke, Alipur Chatha, Wazirabad, Gujarat, Lalamusa, Kharian, Sarai Alamgir, Mandi Bahauddin, Dina, Sohawa, Gujar Khan, Chakwal and Narowal have also been directed to join the party march. However, all the MNAs will remain in Islamabad.

Lanka IOC, a fuel retailer which accounts for a third of the market, said it raised the petrol price to 303 rupees (just over $1) a litre, up from 254 rupees. Two weeks ago, the company increased the price of gasoline by 25 percent.

The company said the 30 percent depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar and other major currencies this month fuelled the increase.

There was no immediate price revision from the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation but its representatives, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP it was almost certain to follow Lanka IOC.

Sri Lanka is in the grip of its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.

The island’s foreign reserves have hit rock bottom, with commercial banks unable to secure dollars to finance imports of food, fuel and medicines.

At least four people have died while waiting in long queues to buy fuel in the past week.

Sri Lanka was in a deep economic crisis when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, reducing foreign worker remittances and crippling the lucrative tourism sector — a key source of dollars for the economy.

The government imposed a broad import ban in March 2020 to save foreign currency.

The shortages pushed food prices up 25 percent last month, with overall inflation at 17.5 percent — the fifth consecutive monthly record high.

Sri Lanka is also facing five-hour rolling electricity blackouts as thermal generators have run out of oil.

Three international rating agencies have downgraded the island since late last year, on fears it may not be able to service its $51 billion sovereign debt.

Sri Lanka announced earlier this month that it will seek an IMF bailout and talks are expected to open next month in Washington.

 

The 13-year-old was one of thousands of jubilant girls who flocked back to secondary schools reopening across the country on Wednesday, for the first time since the Taliban seized power in August.

But just hours into classes, the education ministry announced a shock policy reversal that left schoolgirls feeling betrayed and the international community outraged.

“Not only me but everyone you asked believed that the Taliban had changed,” said Adeeba, who briefly returned to Al Fatah Girls School in the capital, Kabul.

“When they sent everyone back home from school, we understood that the Taliban were the same Taliban of 25 years ago,” her 11-year-old sister Malahat added.

“We are being treated like criminals just because we are girls. Afghanistan has turned into a jail for us.”

When the Taliban returned to power, they promised a softer rule compared with their first regime from 1996 to 2001, which became notorious for human rights abuses.

They claimed to respect women’s rights, in line with their interpretation of Islamic sharia law, and said girls would be allowed to study through to university.

But the Taliban have imposed a slew of restrictions on women, effectively banning them from many government jobs, policing what they wear and preventing them from travelling outside of their cities alone.

They have also detained several women’s rights activists.

“We miss our freedom. We miss our classmates and teachers,” said Adeeba.

‘Dreams shattered’

There has been no clear explanation for the last-minute reversal on secondary schools, but reports leaked from a secretive leadership meeting this week suggested motives ranging from problems with uniforms to an outright rejection of the need for education for teenage girls.

The education ministry still insists schools will restart, but only when new guidelines are issued.

Across town, Nargis Jafri, from the minority Shia Hazara community, said the Taliban feel threatened by educated women. “They believe that if we study, we will gain knowledge and we will fight against them,” the 14-year-old told AFP, sitting with her books spread out on her study table at home.

It is agonising for her to watch boys her age walking past her house on their way to school each morning. “It is really hard and painful for me,” she said.

Like many families, history is repeating itself from one generation to the next.

Nargis’s mother, Hamida, was forced to leave school during the Taliban’s first rule when she was about 10 years old.

The stories from what she thought a distant past are flooding into her mind again.

“I used to feel strange when she told us how she wore a burqa or a chador, or how a woman was not allowed to go out without a male relative,” Nargis said.

Hamida now struggles to accept a similar fate for her daughter.

“My daughter will be held back from going to school,” she said. “The dreams she has in her heart will be shattered.”

JEDDAH: A Yemeni rebel attack on a Saudi oil plant set off a huge fire near Jeddah’s Formula One circuit during practice sessions on Friday, part of a wave of assaults on Aramco facilities.

Smoke billowed near the circuit and drivers complained of the smell in the most visible of 16 drone-and-missile attacks claimed by the Iran-backed rebels around the country.

The wave of assaults comes ahead of the seventh anniversary of a Saudi-led coalition’s military intervention against the Houthis in Yemen, a country in the grips of a major humanitarian crisis.

Oil prices have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked supply fears, prompting Western powers to implore OPEC countries to ramp up production.

The attacks targeted “Aramco facilities in Jeddah and vital facilities in the capital of the Saudi enemy, Riyadh”, tweeted Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree.

Facilities of oil giant Aramco were also attacked in Jizan, Najran, Ras Tanura and Rabigh with “a large number of drones”, he added.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed rebels confirmed the Jeddah oil plant attack.

“They are trying to impact the nerve-centre of the world economy,” the coalition said in a statement. “These attacks have no impact on life in Jeddah,” it added.

Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen said he could smell the blaze as he drove in practice sessions that were beamed live around the world.

“I can smell burning… is it my car?” the Dutchman asked over team radio.

An F1 spokesperson said: “The position at the moment is that we are waiting for further information from the authorities on what has happened.”

The rebel attacks also included an electrical station in Jizan, bordering Yemen, which was set ablaze.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened to support Yemen’s internationally recognised government in 2015, after the rebels seized the capital Sanaa the previous year.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly and left millions on the brink of famine in what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.

Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, warned this week that rebel attacks posed a “direct threat” to global supplies.

Saudi Arabia “will not incur any responsibility” for shortages in oil supplies in light of the Iran-backed Houthi attacks, the foreign ministry said.

The statement on Monday came a day after the kingdom acknowledged a temporary drop in production after the Houthis attacked a refinery with an armed drone.