Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir has said that Pakistan Army, with the unwavering support of the nation and the brave Baloch people, would confront and crush every enemy, foreign or domestic, that dares to challenge our sovereignty.
Addressing a grand jirga in Quetta on Saturday, organised to interact with tribal leadership and discuss the evolving security situation in Balochistan, the field marshal said this Indian-sponsored proxy war is n/o longer hidden, Radio Pakistan reported.
“It is an open malicious act of terrorism waged on our people, our progress, and our peace,”
He said Pakistan has concrete proof of India’s involvement behind terrorist networks operating in Balochistan, adding that these nefarious attempts of the enemy would fail.
The army chief emphasised that the Pakistan Army remains fully alert and prepared to respond decisively to any threat. He reiterated that peace in Balochistan is non-negotiable and that the future of Pakistan is directly linked to a stable, prosperous Balochistan.
Addressing the Jirga, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif highlighted that Indian-sponsored proxies operating in Balochistan have intensified their efforts to undermine peace, destabilise the province, and disrupt development initiatives led by the government and the armed forces.
He underscored that terrorists groups like “Fitna Al-Hindustan” seek support of the locals which must be denied to them.
Praising the leadership and constructive role of the elders, PM Shehbaz reiterated the persistent need for engaging at the grassroots level and ensuring that terrorists find no social space.
The premier said enemies of peace will find no space to operate within Pakistan. In a clear message to foes of the country, he said the government, armed forces, law enforcement agencies and administrative apparatus, with complete support of the Pakistan, will take the nation’s fight against terrorism to its logical conclusion, defeating terrorism in a decisive manner.
Highlighting series of monumental developmental packages for prosperity in Balochistan, PM Shehbaz emphasised the need for ensuring trickledown effect of government initiatives to the populace.
He commended the people of Balochistan for their historic role in safeguarding national unity and urged them to remain vigilant against foreign-backed subversion and sabotage orchestrated and sponsored by India.
A “mass casualty influx” of people, many with gunshot or shrapnel wounds, was received at a Red Cross field hospital in southern Gaza, the organisation said, following disputed reports about an incident near an aid distribution centre in Rafah.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said 21 people were “declared dead upon arrival” while women and children were among 179 cases.
The organisation’s statement came after the Hamas-run civil defence agency in Gaza said at least 31 people were killed and many more wounded in the incident, which it blamed on “Israeli gunfire” targeting civilians.
But the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said findings from an initial inquiry showed its forces had not fired at people while they were near or within the aid centre.
The IDF also released drone footage it said showed armed and masked men throwing stones and shooting at civilians while they were collecting aid in the nearby city of Khan Younis. The BBC could not immediately verify the footage.
Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza, making verifying what is happening in the territory difficult.
The group that runs the aid distribution centre, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), also denied the claims of injuries and casualties at its site and said they had been spread by Hamas.
As of Sunday evening, the situation on the ground remained unclear.
In its statement, the ICRC said the “Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah received a mass casualty influx of 179 cases, including women and children” early in the morning on Sunday.
It said “the majority suffered gunshot or shrapnel wounds”, and “twenty-one patients were declared dead upon arrival”. It is unclear if the number of people killed reported by the ICRC is separate to the Hamas health ministry’s reports.
“All patients said they had been trying to reach an aid distribution site,” the ICRC said.
The ICRC said it was the “highest number of weapon-wounded in a single incident since the establishment of the field hospital over a year ago”, and that it “far surpassed” the capacity of the 60-bed facility.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a statement that it had also responded to the “mass casualty” incident, and that the blood bank at Nasser hospital, where the injured were treated, was almost empty, with medical staff donating blood themselves to help the injured.
Claire Manera, the organisation’s emergency co-ordinator, said that the incident had “shown once again that this new system of aid delivery is dehumanising, dangerous and severely ineffective”.
The IDF said in a statement: “In recent hours, false reports have been spread, including serious allegations against the IDF regarding fire toward Gazan residents in the area of the humanitarian aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip.
“Findings from an initial inquiry indicate that the IDF did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false,” it added.
MSF said at least two patients told them they and others had been shot while trying to get aid. MSF communications officer Nour Alsaqa said in a statement that as MSF staff were treating patients, they also “received confirmation that a colleague’s brother had been killed while attempting to collect aid from the centre”.
Another incident was said to have happened near a separate aid centre in the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, with the Palestinian Red Crescent reporting 14 injured.
The BBC was contacted by doctors at the Nasser hospital who said they had received about 200 people with injuries caused by bullets or shrapnel.
Local journalists and activists shared footage of bodies and wounded people being transported on donkey carts to the Red Cross field hospital in the al-Mawasi area.
The BBC has examined footage of bodies being carried on carts and in the back of lorries to Nasser Hospital.
Gaza’s health ministry said more than 200 cases had arrived at hospitals, including 31 dead.
Seventy-nine of the injured were brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to the emergency department, medical staff from British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians reported.
Those killed and injured “were primarily struck by live gunfire, with many victims sustaining direct shots to the head or chest”, the charity’s staff said.
Injured Palestinians were being brought to the Nasser Hospital after the incident
Victoria Rose, a British surgeon who has been working at Nasser Hospital, recorded a video mid-morning in which she motions to the beds with patients behind her and says “all the bays are full and they’re all gunshot wounds”.
The GHF, which distributes aid at these sites, denied any incident occurred near its distribution centres.
An IDF soldier in Rafah contacted the BBC to say that Israeli soldiers did fire near the crowd, but not at them, and that no-one was hit.
Mohammed Ghareeb, a journalist in Rafah, told the BBC that Palestinians had gathered near the aid centre run by the GHF when Israeli tanks approached and opened fire on the crowd.
Mr Ghareeb said the crowd of Palestinians were near Al-Alam roundabout around 04:30 local time (02:30 BST), close to the aid centre run by GHF, shortly before Israeli tanks appeared and opened fire.
“The dead and wounded lay on the ground for a long time,” he said.
“Rescue crews could not access the area, which is under Israeli control. This forced residents to use donkey carts to transport victims to the field hospital.”
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s main emergency service the Civil Defence, told AFP news agency that more than 100 people were wounded “due to gunfire from Israeli vehicles towards thousands of citizens”.
The incidents underscore the dire humanitarian conditions in Rafah, where recent Israeli military operations have severely limited access to aid and emergency services.
On Saturday, crowds of civilians rushed aid trucks into Gaza, the World Food Programme said, as hunger and desperation created chaotic scenes.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a new US and Israeli-backed organisation that has been distributing food at designated sites across Gaza. Israel set up the plan after accusing Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies.
The GHF said it had distributed 4.7 million meals this week, which the BBC has not been able to independently verify.
A military campaign was launched by Israel in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 54,418 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory’s health ministry.
With all votes counted, right-wing historian Karol Nawrocki has been elected Poland’s new president, the state electoral commission (PKW) said.
PKW said Nawrocki won 50.9% percent of the votes – ahead of Warsaw’s liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski on 49.1% percent.
It’s a sensational turnaround from the result of the first exit poll – published immediately after voting ended at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Sunday – that showed Trzaskowski winning on 50.3% to Nawrocki’s 49.7%.
Trzaskowski had claimed victory after the first exit poll, while Nawrocki cautioned that the results were too close to call.
“We won, although the phrase ‘razor’s edge’ will forever enter the Polish language and politics,” Trzaskowski told his supporters.
His wife, Malgorzata, jokingly told the crowd, “I’m close to having a heart attack”.
Nawrocki, had said after the result of the first exit poll, “Let’s not lose hope for this night. We will win during the night, the difference is minimal. I believe that we will wake up tomorrow with President Karol Nawrocki.”
As Poland’s new president, Nawrocki is likely to continue to use his presidential power of veto to block Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-EU programme.
The result is also likely to re-energise Nawrocki’s supporters, the national conservative Law and Justice (PiS) opposition, which lost power eighteen months ago, giving them renewed belief they will be able to defeat Tusk’s coalition in 2027 parliamentary elections.
Nawrocki supports traditional Catholic and family values and is a strong supporter of Polish sovereignty within the EU.
He backs continued support for Ukraine, but has said he does not want to see the country joining NATO and the EU during Russia’s ongoing aggression.
Poland’s president is a largely ceremonial role with limited influence on foreign policy and defence, but the president can veto legislation. Tusk’s pro-EU coalition government lacks a large enough parliamentary majority to overturn it.
The current conservative incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, has used his powers to prevent Prime Minister Tusk delivering key campaign promises, including removing political influence from the judiciary and liberalising the country’s strict abortion law.
Duda, who could not run for re-election having already served two consecutive terms, congratulated Nawrocki.
“It was a difficult, sometimes painful but incredibly courageous fight for Poland, for how the affairs of our homeland are to be conducted. Thank you for this heroic fight until the last minute of the campaign!” Duda said.
Both presidential candidates support continued assistance for neighbouring Ukraine, but they differ over their approach to the EU. Trzaskowski, a former Europe minister, supports Tusk’s vision of a Poland at the heart of the European mainstream, influencing decisions through strong relations with Germany and France.
Nawrocki, 42, supports a strong sovereign Poland and does not want the country to cede any more powers to Brussels. He opposes the EU’s climate and migration policies.
He was relatively unknown nationally before he was selected by opposition party PiS to be their “unofficial” candidate.
A keen amateur boxer and footballer, he often posts images of himself working out. PiS presented him as a strong candidate who would stand up for ordinary Poles and the country’s national interests.
A fan of President Donald Trump, he flew to Washington during the Polish election campaign for an extremely brief meeting – and to get a thumbs-up photo of himself with Trump in the Oval Office.
During the campaign, questions were raised over the number of apartments Nawrocki owned after he said in a presidential debate, that he, like most Poles, owned one.
However, it later emerged he owned a second apartment which he had acquired from a pensioner at a discount in exchange for promises of care.
This led to accusations that he had taken advantage of a vulnerable senior citizen and failed to fulfil his promises.
Following the scandal, Nawrocki said he would donate the council flat to charity and he denied he did not provide the care.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said “the sooner” his government provides clarity on changes to the winter fuel payment “the better”.
He reiterated that ministers were reviewing which pensioners should receive the payment but added he wanted to be “absolutely clear where the money is coming from” before setting out the details.
After coming to power in July last year, the Labour government announced it was withdrawing the annual payment – worth up to £300 – from more than 10 million pensioners.
However, last month Sir Keir said he would be partially reversing that decision, making changes to allow “more pensioners” to qualify again.
The government is yet to spell out which pensioners will regain their entitlement to the money, although Treasury Minister Darren Jones has said millionaires should not be getting “subsidy for their energy bills” and that payments would be “targeted to those that need it the most”.
Asked if he still believed his government had been right to restrict winter fuel payments last summer, Sir Keir said he had inherited an economy that was “completely broken”.
“It was our duty to stabilise the economy and to fill in that £22bn black hole. I’m not going to resile from that.”
His U-turn came after pressure from some Labour MPs, who are also expressing concern about the two-child benefit cap and proposed cuts to disability benefits.
Pressed on whether he would consider increasing taxes to raise more money, the prime minister said the UK’s underlying problem in recent years had been “flat or anaemic growth”.
“I don’t think you can tax yourself to growth – we have got high taxes as it is.”
Reform UK, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have called for the winter fuel payments to be restored to all pensioners.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said “millionaire” pensioners should not be eligible.
Previously, the winter fuel payment had been paid to all pensioners regardless of income or wealth. Households with a pensioner under 80 received an annual lump sum of £200, rising to £300 for pensioners over 80.
On taking office, Labour restricted the payment to those pensioners who qualify for pension credit and other income-related benefits – a move which saved an estimated £1.4bn.
The income threshold for pension credit, the main benefit to qualify to continue to receive winter fuel payments, is currently £11,800 a year for individuals and £18,023 for pensioner couples.
Designing a new way of increasing the number of eligible pensioners is likely to be tricky for the government.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said creating a new means-test would create “hassle” for pensioners and result in many not claiming the payment.
Another think tank, the Resolution Foundation, has estimated that expanding the threshold pension credit by 10% could cost £2.5bn.
