MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistani officials evacuated more than 50 Chinese nationals working near the Kashmir frontier, authorities said Wednesday, after skirmishes with India killed at least three people and injured dozens.
The Chinese were working on a dam being constructed in Azad Kashmir along the confluence of the Neelam and Jhelum rivers when firing pushed authorities to move the workers late Tuesday, according to Akhtar Ayub from the local disaster management authority.
Another local official Raja Shahid Mahmood said the decision was made after Indian security forces fired a volley of “indiscriminate fire that killed three people including a woman and a child and wounded 31 others during the last 24 hours.”
Tensions remain high with arch-rival India after the nuclear armed neighbors launched tit-for-tat air strikes in February following a suicide bombing in Indian administered Kashmir which was claimed by Pakistan-based militants.
Since then they have stepped back from the brink, but firing between the two sides across the de-facto border dividing Kashmir has continued.
Kashmir is ruled in part but claimed in full by both countries, who have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over it.
The latest incident comes after US President Donald Trump Trump triggered a political fiasco in India last week by claiming during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan that Indian leader Narendra Modi had asked him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute.
India vehemently denied that Modi had made any such request, saying the Kashmir issue must be resolved bilaterally between the two countries.
Pakistan evacuates Chinese nationals as firing in disputed Kashmir kills three
Pakistan evacuates Chinese nationals as firing in disputed Kashmir kills three
- The Chinese were working on a dam being constructed along the confluence of Neelam and Jhelum rivers
- Casualties resulted from firing of Indian forces inside Pakistan administered territory
Bangladesh-Pakistan flights resume after 14 years
- National carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines departed for Pakistan’s Karachi city with 150 passengers
- Since 2012, travelers between both nations have used connecting flights to reach their destinations
DHAKA, Bangladesh: Direct flights between Bangladesh and Pakistan resumed on Thursday after more than a decade, as ties warm between the two nations that have long had an uneasy relationship.
Bangladesh and Pakistan — geographically divided by about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) of Indian territory — were once one nation. They split after a bitter war in 1971.
Since 2012, travelers between Bangladesh and Pakistan had to use connecting flights through Gulf hubs such as Dubai and Doha.
On Thursday national carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines departed for the Pakistani city of Karachi, the first regular flight since 2012.
Mohammad Shahid, one of 150 Karachi-bound passengers on board, said he was happy to be able to travel more frequently than before, when he could only make the journey once every two or three years.
“We had been waiting for such an opportunity because we travel continuously,” he told AFP in Dhaka.
“There are so many people waiting in Pakistan to come here, and some waiting here to go there.”
Direct flights will now operate twice weekly.
Biman said in a statement that their resumption would “play a significant role in promoting trade and commerce, expanding educational exchanges, and fostering cultural ties between the two countries.”
Ties with fellow Muslim-majority nation Pakistan have warmed since a student-led revolt in Bangladesh overthrew Sheikh Hasina in 2024, ending her autocratic 15-year rule.
Over the same period, relations between Bangladesh and Hasina’s old ally India have turned frosty.
Cargo ships resumed sailing from Karachi to Bangladesh’s key port of Chittagong in November 2024.
Trade has risen since then and cultural ties have grown, with popular Pakistani singers performing in Dhaka, while Bangladeshi patients have traveled to Pakistan for medical care.
