ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, held a meeting with the United Arab Emirates Navy chief and discussed cooperation in maritime affairs at Dubai Naval Headquarters on an official visit to the UAE, Pakistan Navy media wing said on Monday.
On Sunday, Admiral Abbasi held talks with UAE army chief and under-secretary of the defence ministry.
“On the second leg of visit he (Admiral Abbasi) will visit different units of UAE Navy,” Pakistan Navy said and added that the visit would “improve bilateral ties specially in the file of maritime affairs.”
Pakistan and UAE navies have maintained close relations over the decades and Pakistan Navy collaborates with its UAE counterparts on various professional issues including training exercises, provision of trained manpower and port visits by fleet units in line with their long-standing collaboration.
In February, a Pakistan Navy flotilla comprising navy ships TARIQ and HIMMAT visited Abu Dhabi to participate in a leading trade show, the International Defence Exhibition/ Naval Defence Exhibition.
In the same month, both navies conducted bilateral exercises aimed at enhancing interoperability between them.
“During two days exercise, a number of evolutions pertaining to Maritime Security Operations, Search and Rescue, maneuvering drills, Maritime Infrastructure Protection, Communication, and Warfare related exercise were undertaken,” Pakistan Navy had said after the joint exercise.
Pakistani naval chief, UAE counterpart discuss maritime cooperation in Dubai
Pakistani naval chief, UAE counterpart discuss maritime cooperation in Dubai
- Pakistan’s navy chief also met with the UAE army chief for talks
- Admiral Abbasi will visit UAE Navy Units
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
