Month: May 2022

Addressing a condolence reference in Islamabad, he said the country was shocked and saddened at the terrible loss.

“We fully condemn this cowardly act and we will never forgive the enemies of Pakistan-China all-weather strategic partnership. We will also not allow anyone to harm our iron-clad friendship. The sacrifice of both Chinese and Pakistanis in nurturing our bonds of brotherhood will not be in vain.”

Bilawal pledged that authorities would do everything in their capacity to provide maximum security and ensure the safety of the Chinese in Pakistan. “You are our guests and we are determined to ensure your safety and comfort in our country.

“To the families of those who perished, our entire nation grieves with you. While we cannot bring back the departed, we will not rest until we have given exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of this heinous act,” he vowed.

The foreign minister said that Pakistan-China ties were time-tested and the countries would face every challenge together and emerge stronger.

The suicide attack at Karachi University had been carried out using the rights of the Baloch as an “excuse”, he said.

“I know that every Pakistani is proud of our hospitality and gives importance to caring for friends. Not only do we know this [but] we’re also known for this internationally. Neither a Sindhi Pakistani nor a Baloch Pakistani can ever tolerate the terrorism that is directed at our guests.”

In the last decade, Pakistanis saw that citizens were targeted using religion, he said, iterating that Baloch rights were used as an “excuse” for carrying out the terror attack at the university.

“These people left their homes to come here and educate our people. This attack happened not only on those individuals but on Pakistan-China friendship as well. Now, it is the responsibility of every Pakistani to proceed on this issue as if it was an attack on our own brothers and sisters.

“Together, we have to ensure that we do not tolerate such terror attacks. We will ensure that the families of these people and our public get justice.”

The country would succeed in its fight against terrorism and show the world that those who believed that they could attack Pakistan-China friendship would not succeed, he pledged.

On April 26, a woman, later identified as Shari Baloch, detonated herself as a van carrying staff members was about to enter the Confucius Institute at the Karachi University.

A spokesperson for the university had identified three of the deceased as Chinese nationals — Confucius Institute Director Huang Guiping, Ding Mupeng and Chen Sai. The fourth victim was the van’s driver, Khalid.

Another four people were injured in the attack.

The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) had claimed responsibility.

The Karachi University attack was the third terrorist attack on Chinese citizens on Pakistani soil in a year.

President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had separately visited the Chinese embassy later and assured officials that Pakistan would leave “no stone unturned” to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals and bring the elements involved in the incident to justice.

The pre-monsoon period in South Asia is usually marked with excessively high temperatures, especially in May, but early heatwaves like this signal complex, compounding and cascading risks, says the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP).

Pakistan was in the grip of a heatwave on Friday, with parts of the nation previously scalded by temperatures of nearly 50 degrees Celsius as officials warned of acute water shortages and a health threat.

Scientists believe that early heatwaves are consequent of persisting north-south low pressure patterns that form over India during winters when a La Niña phenomenon occurs in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Major cities record temperatures in excess of 40 degrees, Jacobabad touches 50

In its sixth assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its sixth assessment report, highlights that heatwaves and humid heat stress in South Asia are set to be more intense and frequent this century.

A recent study highlights that India is the most impacted country with largest heat exposure to country’s labour productivity. It loses labour productivity of more than 100 billion hours per year while the global sum is 220 billion.

Sizzling temperatures

“It’s like fire burning all around,” labourer Shafi Mohammad told AFP. He hails from a village on the outskirts of Jacobabad, which experienced 49.5 degrees Celsius on Friday, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD).

Nationwide, the PMD alerted that temperatures were between 6oC and 9oC above normal, with Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar recording temperatures around 40oC on Friday.

“This year we have jumped from winter right into summer,” said PMD chief forecaster Zaheer Ahmad Babar.

Pakistan has endured heightened heatwaves since 2015, he said. “The intensity is increasing, and the duration is increasing, and the frequency is increasing,” he told AFP.

Though Turkey has officially supported Nato enlargement since it joined the US-led alliance 70 years ago, its opposition could pose a problem for Sweden and Finland given new members need unanimous agreement.

Turkey has repeatedly slammed Sweden and other Western European countries for its handling of organisations deemed terrorist by Ankara, including the Kurdish militant groups PKK and YPG, and the followers of US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Ankara says Gulenists carried out a coup attempt in 2016. Gulen and his supporters deny the accusation.

Finland’s plan to apply for Nato membership, announced Thursday, and the expectation that Sweden will follow, would bring about the expansion of the Western military alliance that Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed to prevent by launching the invasion of Ukraine.

“We are following the developments regarding Sweden and Finland, but we don’t hold positive views,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul, adding it had been a mistake for Nato to accept Greece as a member in the past.

“As Turkey, we don’t want to repeat similar mistakes. Furthermore, Scandinavian countries are guesthouses for terrorist organisations,” Erdogan said, without giving details. “They are even members of the parliament in some countries. It is not possible for us to be in favour,” he added.

In response, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto urged patience and called for a step-by-step approach in response to Turkish resistance. He also said he was due to meet his Turkish counterpart in Berlin on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Sweden said it remained confident it could secure unanimous backing for any Nato application it could submit.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had said the Finns would be “warmly welcomed” and promised a “smooth and swift” accession process, which is also backed by Washington.

Aaron Stein, research director at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said on Twitter with respect to Turkish opposition: “Turkish national security elites view Finland and Sweden as semi-hostile, given the presence of PKK and Gulenists. It’s gonna take arm twisting to get sign-off.” Nato states that membership is open to any “European state in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area”.

Finland and Sweden are already Nato’s closest partners, sitting in on many meetings, getting regularly briefed on the situation in Ukraine and taking part in regular military drills with Nato allies. Much of their military equipment is inter-operable with Nato allies.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed five-time prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to his sixth term late on Thursday, but opposition comments signalled it was not likely to resolve the political and economic disarray in the strategic Indian Ocean island nation.

A week of violent clashes between protesters and government supporters across the country has left nine people dead and more than 300 wounded. The president’s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, quit as prime minister on Monday as violence spiralled and is in hiding in a military base.

The rest of the cabinet quit earlier.

“It is clear the (new) prime minister is remote controlled by the president,” said Eran Wickramaratne, a parliamentarian and senior member of the main opposition party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya. “This country wants the Rajapaksas to go home. We are committed to that goal.” Protesters who have camped out at a site near the prime minister’s office for over a month also rejected the appointment.

“We will stop this struggle when our people get justice,” said Chamalage Shivakumar, one of the hundreds of people at the “Gota Go Home” protest site, named after the president.

“Whoever they appoint as prime minister, we will not stop this struggle until people get relief.” Wickremesinghe, 73, is the only lawmaker from his United National Party in parliament and will be reliant on rival political parties to form a coalition government. An alliance led by the Rajapaksas holds about 100 of parliament’s 225 seats, while the opposition has 58 seats. The rest are independent.

On Friday, Wickremesinghe held talks with foreign envoys representing India, Japan, the United States and China, his office said.

“Discussed continued cooperation for economic recovery and stability in Sri Lanka through democratic processes,” the Indian High Commission in Colombo said in a tweet.

New Delhi is battling China for influence in Sri Lanka, which lies on key shipping lanes between Asia and Europe and is home to major infrastructure projects financed by both countries.

The prime minister also held an emergency meeting with officials from the energy ministry regarding chronic fuel shortages that have blighted the island for months.

Protesters said the appointment of Wickremesinghe will do little to ease the anger against the president, who they say is ultimately responsible for the worst economic crisis to hit the nation since it became independent from Britain in 1948.

Buffeted hard by the pandemic, rising oil prices and populist tax cuts by the Rajapaksa brothers, Sri Lanka is critically low on foreign exchange.

Rampant inflation and fuel shortages brought thousands on to the streets in a month of protests that had remained predominantly peaceful until this week.

Clashes are frequent in the occupied territory, but the police operation was the first in the Muslim-majority region against the local Hindu population, known as Pandits.

According to police, two gunmen shot and killed Rahul Bhat, a government employee, on Thursday inside an office complex in Budgam where he worked. Later police put the blame on Kashmiri fighters resisting Indian rule in the valley.

The protesters on Friday shouted slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and demanded Bhat’s killers be brought to justice.

“If this kind of killing can happen inside a government office, what security is Modi’s government talking about for us?” one angry protester said.

Police were deployed when the demonstrators poured onto a main road and attempted to march towards the airport.

Small groups of Hindus also staged protests at three other locations in occupied Kashmir on Thursday night.

Many political leaders, including Muslims, issued statements condemning the “barbaric” killing of Bhat.

Tens of thousands of Hindu families fled the valley in the early 1990s when Kashmiris took up arms against Indian rule.

Most of them still live outside their homeland, scattered across Indian cities.

Bhat lived in a protected rehabilitation settlement for thousands of Pandits given government jobs in recent years under a plan to help resettle some of those who fled.