23-10-2025

Month: July 2024

Pakistan rebuffs Modi’s ‘belligerent remarks’, reminds India of its ‘terror campaign’

Pakistan has rebuffed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “belligerent remarks,” dubbing them as “totally counter-productive” to resolving disputes between the two countries and reminding India of its own terrorism campaign.

Speaking at an event earlier today, Modi alleged that Pakistan was trying to stay relevant through “terrorism” and “proxy war” and added that such a strategy would never succeed.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in a statement on Friday said that the Indian prime minister cannot divert the world’s attention from the brutalities being committed by Indian forces in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Dismissing the Modi’s remarks, the FO said: “Bravado and jingoism undermine regional peace, and are totally counter-productive for resolution of long-standing disputes between Pakistan and India, especially the core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir.”

“The Indian leaders’ rhetorical statements cannot deflect international attention from India’s heavy-handed approach to suppress the Kashmiri people’s just struggle for realisation of their fundamental rights and freedoms, particularly their inalienable right to self-determination,” the statement said.

Islamabad also called on New Delhi to “reflect on its own campaign of orchestrating targeted assassinations, subversion and terrorism in foreign territories” and asked the Modi-led regime to avoid maligning others for terrorism.

The FO spokesperson also warned India against any aggression, saying that Pakistan stood resolute in its intent and ability to safeguard its sovereignty, as exemplified by its robust response to India’s reckless incursion in February 2019.

However, Pakistan remains committed to promoting peace and stability in the region, according to the FO statement.

Indian-Pakistani relations have been largely frozen as the two countries downgraded their diplomatic ties in tit-for-tat moves in August 2019 after New Delhi scrapped IIOJK’s special status and split it into two federally administered territories.

UN expert faces backlash from Israel over Hitler-Netanyahu remarks

Israel on Friday slammed a UN rights expert for “anti-Semitism” after she endorsed a social media post comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, has faced harsh criticism from Israel previously, especially after she in March accused the country of committing genocide in the war in Gaza.

On Thursday, she responded to a post on X, formerly Twitter, displaying a picture of Hitler being celebrated by a crowd with Nazi salutes and cheers above a shot of Netanyahu appearing to be greeted by US congressmen this week.

“History is always watching,” Craig Mokhiber, a former UN human rights official who resigned late last October accusing the world body of failing to prevent the “genocide” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, wrote in the post.

“This is precisely what I was thinking today,” Albanese, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022 but who does not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said in her response on Thursday.

Israel’s foreign ministry was quick to respond, slamming her on X as being “beyond redemption”.

“It is inconceivable that (Albanese) is still allowed to use the UN as a shield to spread anti-Semitism,” it said.

Israel’s mission to the UN in Geneva also chimed in.

“When a current UN ‘expert’ endorses Holocaust distortion spread by the former (UN rights office) director in New York… the system is rotten to its core,” it said.

“It’s high time to #UNseatAlbanese!”

Israel’s new ambassador in Geneva, Daniel Meron, used the same hashtag, decrying that “Francesca Albanese abuses her (UN) title to spread hatred and inflammatory rhetoric”.

Israel’s top ally the United States also weighed in.

“UN Special Rapporteur’s comparison of Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler is reprehensible and antisemitic,” US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva Michele Taylor said on X.

“There should be no place for such dehumanising rhetoric. Special rapporteurs should be striving to improve human rights challenges, not inflame them.”

Albanese on Friday hit back at the criticism, insisting that “the memory of the Holocaust remains intact”.

“Institutional rants and outburst of selective moral outrage will not stop the course of justice, which is finally in motion.”

The Hamas attack that started the war on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 111 are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

South African police detain 95 Libyans at alleged military camp

South African authorities rounded up 95 Libyans in a raid Friday at a farm that appeared to have been converted into an illegal military training base, police said.

The early morning raid was in a remote area outside the town of White River in the northeastern province of Mpumalanga, about 360 kilometres (220 miles) east of Johannesburg, they said.

“The 95 individuals taken into custody are all Libyan nationals and are currently being questioned by the relevant authorities,” police said in a statement.

The Libyans had entered South Africa in April and claimed to be training to be security guards, officials said.

“They allegedly misrepresented themselves on (their) visa application to SA claiming they were coming to train as security guards,” police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe said on the social media site X.

However, police in Mpumalanga “suspect they are receiving military training”. They had been arrested for contravening the immigration act, she said.

Newzroom Afrika television footage from the scene showed a heavy police presence outside the suspected camp, which included green military-style tents.

It showed the detained men standing in groups and wearing civilian clothing.

A sign leading to the facility described it as an academy offering “specialised security training”, an AFP reporter said.

“The place, which was initially designated as a training site, appears to have been converted into an illegal military training base,” the police statement said.

No weapons or illegal substances were found on the site immediately but a search was ongoing, a police official told AFP.

The raid was launched after authorities received intelligence about the site in the province, which adjoins Mozambique and Eswatini.

Mpumalanga’s safety and security minister, Jackie Macie, told local media authorities were following up information about other similar camps in the area.

Authorities were processing the group with the aim of sending them back to their country of origin, he said.

 

 The owner of the security company said to be running the facility was a South African national, police spokesman Donald Mdhluli told AFP.

Most of the detained men did not speak English and it was not immediately clear whether they were affiliated to any group, Mdhluli said.

“We do suspect them of serious crime because we have had multiple complaints from the community for cases including rape,” Mdhluli said.

South Africa has porous borders and high corruption and criminality which experts say have made it fertile ground for criminal syndicates.

Its security problems have given rise to a huge private security industry.

The country has more than 15,000 security firms employing about 2.8 million guards, providing armed response and training services, according to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority.

There are also concerns the country may be a base for jihadist financing in Africa.

The United States Treasury Department announced Tuesday sanctions against what it said were two Islamic State (ISIS) operatives based in South Africa.

They used robberies and kidnappings for ransom to raise money, and one was a suspected ISIS trainer and facilitator, it said.

Libya is still struggling to recover from years of war and chaos after the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Although relative calm has returned in the past four years, clashes periodically occur between its myriad armed groups.

Most are allied with either the UN-recognised government in Tripoli or the rival administration backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east.

Analyst Jalel Harchaoui said rival factions were known to have sought security training abroad to create elite military units.

He pointed to a recent The Irish Times report saying an Irish firm was being paid to train Haftar’s forces.

“This is often done through networks of foreign private companies,” Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in Britain, told AFP.

Over 300,000 displaced as typhoon lashes China

The storm has affected almost 630,000 people in China’s Fujian so far, with almost half of them — over 300,000 people — having to be relocated, Xinhua news agency reported. Earlier this week, it killed several people as it swept through Taiwan and worsened seasonal rains in the Philippines.

Gaemi was packing winds of up to 100.8 kilometres per hour (kph) near its centre, easing slightly from 118.8 kph logged on Thursday night when it landed in the Fujian city of Putian.

While Gaemi has been downgraded to a tropical storm because of slower wind speeds, its vast cloud bands remain a significant flood risk, particularly to rivers in central China already elevated due to summer rains.

Hours ahead of the typhoon’s arrival, the Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s politburo, helmed by President Xi Jinping, held a special meeting on flood control and urged cadres across the country to protect lives.

Efforts must be made to prevent breaches of major rivers and the collapse of large and key medium-sized reservoirs, Xinhua quoted a readout of the meeting as saying.

Due to the typhoon, 72 townships across Fujian recorded accumulated precipitation exceeding 250mm, with the highest reaching 512.8mm, local weather bureaus said.

By late Friday, Gaemi is expected to reach Jiangxi province, home to China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang.

Forecasters warned as many as 10 provinces could be affected, including Henan, a province with a population of over 100 million in central China. Henan’s meteorological bureau expects Gaemi to start ushering in rains on Friday night.

Into next week, Gaemi’s impact is expected as far north as the provinces of Jilin and Liaoning, both of which are still grappling with overflowing rivers and waterlogged cities following a powerful cluster of summer storms a few days ago.

Scientists have warned that global warming is worsening tropical storms, making them less frequent but much more intense, according to a report published on Friday.

On Thursday, Gaemi flooded several Taiwanese cities and towns, injuring more than 700 people and killing seven as well as sinking a freighter off the island’s coast.

Rescuers pulled nearly 1,000 people out of floodwater in inflatable boats, the Taiwan government said.

Are the UK’s finances really worse than expected?

The new Labour government has been in power for just over three weeks.

In that time, it says ministers have found government departments in a much worse state than they thought.

On Monday, the Chancellor will argue the public finances are in a bad place – and that will mean tough decisions.

To use the Westminster jargon, she’s rolling the pitch for announcements that might not be popular. But how much of what the government is facing is actually a surprise? And how much are these ministers trying to shape the political narrative?

The first thing to highlight is that we already had a good idea of the state of the country’s books. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) publishes them twice a year – we last got a full breakdown last November.

We also knew during the election campaign that there were tough decisions to come.

The BBC covered them – including warnings that there were likely to be tax rises or cuts or both as a result of a squeeze on public spending.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggested some government departments could see cuts of between £10bn and £20bn – something Labour were reluctant to engage with during the campaign.

So what is new?

Treasury insiders are claiming there have been surprises since they took over.

One is that public sector pay deals are likely to cost a lot more than expected.

Independent pay review bodies have said teachers and nurses should get 5.5% – more than most were expecting.

The last government budgeted for a lower settlement of 2%, sources say, so to fund the much higher deal will cost billions of pounds. If a similar increase happens across the public sector, it would cost billions more.

Labour has also claimed that hundreds of millions were being spent on the Rwanda scheme – a lot more than it realised.

Although some of that money was pay for civil servants who would have been working for the department anyway, sources say a lot of it was operational costs which were only discovered once the new government went through the books.

The Department of Health and Social Care has also warned of hospital building programmes in England costing a lot more than budgeted for.

Sources have also said there are extra spending commitments announced after the Autumn Statement which need to be paid for. Expect to hear about “in-year pressures” – extra spending that needs to be allocated immediately.

The Treasury intends to publish a full report and breakdown on Monday, explaining where it thinks it has found a “black hole”.

At that point we will be able to scrutinise the calculations and see what is really new.

But it was known before the election that whoever was in power afterwards would face big challenges.

Rachel Reeves started talking about a tricky inheritance well before polling day.

Ms Reeves told the Financial Times in June: “We’ve got the OBR now.

“We know things are in a pretty bad state… You don’t need to win an election to find that out.”

This is not just about the economy.

Ministers have been pointing to other areas where they say things are worse than they expected – the health service, prisons, the environment and more.

On prisons, the justice secretary announced some offenders in England would be released earlier to ease overcrowding. She blamed that on the “scale of the emergency” the new government had left.

It is true to say there are big challenges with overcrowding. Senior ministers in the last government wanted action taken – but it was not signed off before the election.

But was it a surprise to the incoming government?

Sources in the justice department point to the system being a lot closer to “disaster” than they thought and how little time they had to try to solve the issue.

They will, however, have had a good idea because the government publishes weekly figures showing prison numbers. They knew ministers in the last government were pushing for a quick decision.

The picture is not a complete surprise, even if some specific details might have become clearer.

So let’s return to the politics. Because a lot of this is about politics.

The new government is trying to frame the debate over the next few years. It wants to argue it has been left such a dire inheritance that it has to do some pretty unpopular things.

It wants you to blame the Conservatives – not Labour.

The former chancellor Jeremy Hunt argues this is all nonsense and has warned Labour is paving the way for tax rises it did not disclose during the election campaign.

The Labour strategy though is not a new one.

The Conservatives did something similar when they won power in 2010, arguing that Labour in power had crashed the economy and left the government with no cash – and that was why austerity was essential.

It’s an argument Conservatives still make to this day.

And remember, Labour in power is making choices.

It has pledged not to increase income tax, National Insurance, VAT and corporation tax.

It has said it will not borrow extra money for day-to-day spending. It is likely to choose to pay public sector workers more than inflation, in line with recommendations from the pay bodies.

So the government has possibly found a few surprises that make its life a bit harder.

But it’s also trying to frame the political narrative and prepare the ground for what comes next.

Imran Khan to run for chancellor of Oxford University from Adiala jail

LONDON: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) supremo Imran Khan will apply for the position of chancellor at Oxford University despite being incarcerated in corruption and other cases relating to incitement of violence during May 9 protests last year.

Sayed Zulfi Bukhari, Imran’s adviser on international affairs, told Geo News that the seat at Oxford University has become vacant following the resignation of 80-year-old Lord Patten, who stepped down after 21 years in the role, and Imran will be running for the post. Former prime ministers Sir Tony Blair and Boris Johnson are also among the candidates to become the university’s chancellor.

Khan studied Economics and Politics at Keble College, Oxford in 1972, and also captained the university’s cricket team. He debuted for Pakistan’s Test cricket team in 1971 and served as the chancellor of Bradford University from 2005 to 2014.

Bukhari cited public demand for Imran’s participation. “We will announce it publicly once we get a go-ahead from Khan and start the signature campaign for it. He’s the most suited person right now for this post and we hope he will win the contest,” Bukhari said.

Oxford University describes the chancellor’s role as a ceremonial head, typically an eminent public figure elected for life, presiding over all major ceremonies. The election process for the new chancellor will be conducted online for the first time, allowing the university’s 350,000-strong convocation to participate.

The PTI founder is currently imprisoned on charges of inciting protests and violence against the military in May of the previous year, allegations which he denies. In a recent interview from jail, he stated, “I am confined in a 7ft by 8ft death cell, typically reserved for terrorists. People voted for me because they are fed up with the current system and how Pakistan is being run.”

This will be the first time the chancellor elections will be held online, instead of the traditional process requiring graduates to attend in full academic dress. The position typically goes to university graduates, often politicians.

Khan faces competition from former prime ministers Sir Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, making the competition tough but Bukhari said he was hopeful that the PTI founder will win. “We await approval from Khan and the campaign will begin,” he said.

Since Khan’s imprisonment in August 2023, the UN has described his detention as having no legal basis, with hundreds of his supporters arrested and the government indicating its intention to ban PTI.

His candidacy news was shared by Bukhari and Lord Hannan at an event this week in the House of Lords where nearly two dozen UK Parliament members called for his immediate release.

The demand for his release was made at a recent hearing in the House of Lord’s Committee Room about the erosion of democratic norms in Pakistan and the “illegal incarceration” of former prime minister.

The hearing was jointly convened by Labour MP for Bradford West Naz Shah, and Conservative Peer, Lord Hannan of Kingsclere. Bukhari, PTI leader Meher Bano Qureshi, were guest speakers, as was Sarwar Bari, founder of Pattan Development.

This hearing was attended by over 22 parliamentarians from all major parties, including the former Leader of the Conservative Party and Cabinet Minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, the former Home Secretary Priti Patel MP, former Security Minister Baroness Neville-Jones, former Minister of State in the Foreign Office Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and former Conservative Party Chairwoman and Foreign Office Minister Baroness Warsi.

Newly elected independent MPs Shockat Adam, Barrister Ayoub Khan, Iqbal Mohammad and Labour’s Naushabah Khan were also in attendance. PTI UK’s leader Jahanzeb Khan was also in attendance as well as four other office bearers.

PM Shehbaz to attend new Iranian president’s inauguration ceremony in Tehran

Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch announced the trip during her weekly press briefing on Thursday.

“At the invitation of the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Muhammad Baghir Ghalibaf, the prime minister […] will visit Tehran on July 30 to attend the inauguration ceremony of the President-Elect of Iran, Dr Masoud Pezeshkian,” she said.

“The visit attests to the commitment by the two countries to strengthen leadership-level engagement and bilateral cooperation.”

Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old cardiac surgeon known to be relatively moderate, was elected as the president on July 6. The election was called after President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in May.

Following Pezeshkian’s victory, President Asif Ali Zardari had congratulated the newly elected president in a post on X. “Pakistan and Iran enjoy fraternal ties & I hope that under your leadership our relations will grow further stronger,” he said.

“Looking forward to working together for the peace and prosperity of the region,” he added.

 

 

PM Shehbaz had also felicitated Pezeshkian and said that as neighbouring countries, Pakistan and Iran enjoy a close and historic relationship.

“We must ensure a bright future for our two peoples through mutually beneficial cooperation,” he posted on X.

While responding to questions from reporters, the spokesperson said that the FO has been in contact with German authorities regarding the attack on the consulate in Frankfurt.

Earlier this week, “a gang of extremists” — reportedly Afghan nationals — allegedly threw stones at the building and even tore down the Pakistani flag.

“We have urged them (German authorities) to ensure the security of the Pakistani mission,” Baloch said.

The FO, she added, had requested that the suspects be arrested and prosecuted swiftly, echoing a statement from Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar requesting the same.

Moreover, the spokesperson said that the FO will launch an investigation into the security lapse at the consulate in Frankfurt.

Netanyahu, Biden meet for tense ceasefire talks

WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he was ready to work with Joe Biden for the rest of his presidency, as the two leaders met for the first time at the White House for talks on a Gaza ceasefire.

“I want to thank you for the 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said after they shook hands in the historic setting of the Oval Office.

“And I look forward to discussing with you today and working with you in the months ahead.” Biden stunned the world on Sunday when he announced that he was bowing out of the US presidential election, with Vice President Kamala Harris now set to be the Democratic Party’s candidate.

Relations between Biden and Netanyahu are tense over Israel’s conduct in their campaign.

White House has been surrounded by metal barriers and police presence, after rowdy protests broke out near the Capitol

They have met just three times during his presidency, once in September last year in New York, and then when Biden travelled to Israel after the attacks and hugged Netanyahu on the airport tarmac at Tel Aviv.

The meetings come after Netanyahu vowed “total victory” against Hamas in a fiery speech Wednesday to the US Congress.

The White House was surrounded by metal barriers and a heavy police presence, after rowdy protests broke out near the Capitol following Netanyahu’s speech.

Harris on Thursday condemned the “despicable” and “unpatriotic” burning of an American flag by protesters, after attempts by Donald Trump’s Republicans to paint Democrats as pro-Hamas.

 

In a primetime speech explaining his decision on Sunday to bow out of the US presidential election, Biden made clear that resolving the conflict would remain a top priority.

“I’m going to keep working to end the war on Gaza, bring home all the hostages to bring peace and security to the Middle East and end this war,” the US president said.

A senior US administration official said that negotiations on a Gaza deal were in the “closing stages” and that Biden would try to close some “final gaps” with Netanyahu.

Harris has previously been more outspoken about Israel’s conduct in their operations, prompting speculation she will shift her policy as presidential nominee.

Netanyahu will meet Republican contender Donald Trump on Friday at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

The ex-president on Thursday morning urged Israel to quickly “finish up” its conflict in Gaza, warning its global image was being tarnished. Biden has offered Israel steadfast support since October 7.

But the US president has been increasingly critical of Israel over the Palestinian death toll in its offensive in Gaza, and criticised restrictions on the amount of aid getting through to the territory, much of which has been reduced to rubble.

PTI’s ‘new tactics’ to malign armed forces won’t be tolerated, vows PM

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that the government will not tolerate any propaganda against the armed forces of Pakistan, warning the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against running smear campaign targeting the country and the army chief.

“The perpetrators of the May 9 riots, who had also attacked parliament and PTV and besieged the PM House in the past, have resorted to new tactics to malign the country and its armed forces as a malicious campaign was run against Army Chief General Asim Munir from the official website of the PTI,” said PM Shehbaz, while chairing a meeting of the federal cabinet on Wednesday.

“We will not tolerate any such steps against the country, its innocent people, and its armed forces.”

The prime minister’s remarks came two days after Inter-Services Public Relations Director-General (DG ISPR) Lt General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry called on the nation to stand up against militants and “digital terrorists”.

“Digital terrorism is being done on social media. The army is standing up against terrorists and digital terrorists. The time has come for the entire nation to stand up against them,” the chief military spokesperson stated on Monday.

On the same day, PTI’s Information Secretary Raoof Hasan was arrested from the party’s central secretariat in the federal capital for being allegedly involved in propaganda against the country and its integrity.

In today’s cabinet meeting, the premier also reiterated his call for national unity to protect the national interest.

The federal cabinet did not discuss about the government’s decision to ban the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) during its meeting, sources told Geo News on Wednesday.

However, the federal cabinet huddle did not discuss the much-hyped matter of imposing ban on the opposition PTI and invoking Article 6 (high treason) against the former prime minister Imran Khan, ex-president Arif Alvi and former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri.

There were reports that the matter of banning the Imran Khan-founded party will come under cabinet’s discussion today after Information Minister Attaullah Tarar recently announced that the federal government would impose a ban on the PTI over its alleged involvement in the anti-state activities.

PM Shehbaz also pointed out the surge in terror incidents, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, resulting in the martyrdom of the personnel of the security forces and the law enforcement agencies.

He condemned the recent terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of some personnel of armed forces in Pakistan, saying these incidents that indicate the involvement of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) holed up in Afghanistan are “unacceptable”.

He said Pakistan was fully prepared to protect its citizens but desired to resolve the matter peacefully.

Two days earlier, the Pakistan Army killed three terrorists who were trying to infiltrate the Pak-Afghan border from Afghanistan, in the Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Moreover, two terrorist attacks took place last week, one in DI Khan and the other in Bannu. Two soldiers and five civilians were martyred in DI Khan while eight other soldiers were martyred while trying to foil a terrorist infiltration into the Bannu Cantonment in the wee hours of July 15.

PM Shehbaz termed this current wave of terrorism a machination against the country, arguing that it was taking place at a time when the coalition government was making efforts for development as it reached a staff level-agreement with IMF despite challenges and announced a three-month relief package for 96% of domestic power consumers.

Highlighting the role of Afghanistan in the wave of terrorism, the prime minister said the government was in interaction with them as Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif also visited there.

He highlighted that the country was hosting Afghan refugees only to be rewarded with the attacks by terrorists from the Afghan soil.

“But how is it possible that we hosted millions of their people here without any complaint? We treated them like our brothers and never considered them as a burden. But we were rewarded in the form of TTP attacks on our citizens to mar the country’s peace and business. This is not acceptable,” he remarked.

Visa fee to be abolished for 126 countries

The prime minister apprised the members of a decision to abolish visa fees for 126 countries as a “quantum jump” to bring ease of doing business and attract businessmen, tourists and travellers to Pakistan.

The decision, made after a threadbare discussion, would be tabled before the cabinet for its consideration, he added.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that visitors would get visas within 24 hours through the electronic travel authorisation form. Besides, E-gates would be set up at Gwadar Port and nine airports – initially at the Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi airports.

The prime minister also strongly condemned the unprecedented human rights abuses of Israel against Palestinians as around 40,000 Palestinians had been killed including thousands of children and women.

He said despite the resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council and UN General Assembly and the decision by the International Court of Justice, Israel remained adamant on its oppression which was highly condemnable.

The prime minister drew attention to the attacks on Pakistan’s missions in Germany and London. He said the Foreign Office had timely taken up the matter and that the envoys of the countries concerned should be given demarches to seek the protection of Pakistan’s missions.

Pakistan Army rescues three foreign mountaineers trapped on K2

AZAD KASHMIR: The Pakistan Army rescued three foreign mountaineers who got stranded while trying to scale K2, the world’s second-highest peak.

The mountaineers, hailing from the Netherlands, Singapore, and Ecuador, had come to Pakistan to enter their names in history by surmounting the peak, also known as Savage Mountain due to difficulty of ascent and the second-highest fatality rate among the eight-thousanders.

“I came here to Pakistan to climb K2. I fell from the glacier and struck my arm. I was rescued by a Pakistan Army helicopter,” one of the mountaineers said after the rescue.

 

Speaking about her stressful experience, another climber said: “I came here to K2 base camp. However, due to bad weather conditions, I fell ill. I had a really bad cough and flu and was then rescued by the army.”

“I fell from the glacier and the Pakistan Army rescued me from the glacier,” another climber added sharing their harrowig experience.

After the rescue operation, the army rescuers provided immediate medical aid and warmth to the climbers, who were grateful to their saviours for bringing them to safety.

Adventurous climbers consider Pakistan a significant mountainous location as the country hosts five of the world’s 14 mountains above 8,000 meters — thus eight-thousanders. However, some mountaineers in their challenging endeavours face dire situations and sometimes even death.

Earlier in 2023, a Pakistani porter died as hundreds ascended the K2 summit, including Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Nepali guide Tenjin “Lama” Sherpa.

Additionally, well-known Mohammad Ali Sadpara and two others went missing in 2021 when they attempted to scale the K2 mountain.

They were then officially declared dead by the authorities. Notably, Sadpara is the only Pakistani to have climbed eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains.

K2 is located around 10 kilometres north of Gasherbrum IV in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, where the Karakoram mountain range is located. It is one of the deadliest mountains in the world as many climbers have lost their lives trying to reach its peak.

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