DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Militants killed three Pakistani soldiers close to the border with Afghanistan in the North Waziristan tribal region, where Pakistani Taliban fighters have been targeting the Pakistan military, security sources told Reuters.
The militants fired on a checkpost in Spinwam district, in the latest of a spate of attacks on security forces, government officials and suspected collaborators in North Waziristan. The Pakistani military said it was looking into the report.
The rash of violence in Pakistan’s tribal lands has coincided with the Afghan Taliban’s offensive against the government in Kabul, as the United States hastens its departure from Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s government has regularly accused Pakistan’s military of providing covert support for the Afghan Taliban, which the Pakistani government denies, saying Afghanistan has provided safe havens to anti-Pakistani militants.
The Pakistan government has said any peace deal with the Afghan Taliban should ensure groups, like the Pakistan Taliban, do not use Afghanistan as a safe haven for attacks on Pakistan once Western forces withdraw.
On June 30, two soldiers were killed in the Dwatoi district of North Waziristan, after militants opened fire from across the Afghanistan border, Pakistan’s military said.
On June 20, a Pakistan soldier was killed in another attack in Spinwam district. In May, militants ambushed and killed four Pakistani soldiers fencing the disputed border with Afghanistan in the southwest province of Balochistan..
In April, a car bomb at a luxury hotel in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, killed four people in an attack later claimed by the Pakistani Taliban that was meant to target the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan. And in March, a blast killed three Pakistani soldiers near the Chaman border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Militants kill three Pakistani soldiers near Afghan border
https://arab.news/r3tbr
Militants kill three Pakistani soldiers near Afghan border
- Militants fired on checkpost in latest of spate of attacks on security forces, government officials and suspected collaborators in North Waziristan
- Rash of violence in Pakistan’s tribal lands has coincided with the Afghan Taliban’s offensive against the government in Kabul
Imran Khan’s party shutdown draws mixed response; government calls it ‘ineffective’
- Ex-PM Khan’s PTI party had called for a ‘shutter-down strike’ to protest Feb. 8, 2024 general election results
- While businesses reportedly remained closed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they continued as normal elsewhere
ISLAMABAD: A nationwide “shutter-down strike” called by former prime minister Imran Khan’s party drew a mixed response in Pakistan on Sunday, underscoring political polarization in the country two years after a controversial general election.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PIT) opposition party had urged the masses to shut businesses across the country to protest alleged rigging on the second anniversary of the Feb. 8, 2024 general election.
Local media reported a majority of businesses remained closed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, governed by the PTI, while business continued as normal in other provinces as several trade associations distanced themselves from the strike call.
Arab News visited major markets in Islamabad’s G-6, G-9, I-8 and F-6 sectors, as well as commercial hubs in Rawalpindi, which largely remained operational on Sunday, a public holiday when shops, restaurants and malls typically remain open in Pakistan.
“Pakistan’s constitution says people will elect their representatives. But on 8th February 2024, people were barred from exercising their voting right freely,” Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri, the PTI opposition leader in the Senate, said at a protest march near Islamabad’s iconic Faisal Mosque.
Millions of Pakistanis voted for national and provincial candidates during the Feb. 8, 2024 election, which was marred by a nationwide shutdown of cellphone networks and delayed results, leading to widespread allegations of election manipulation by the PTI and other opposition parties. The caretaker government at the time and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) both rejected the allegations.
Khan’s PTI candidates contested the Feb. 8 elections as independents after the party was barred from the polls. They won the most seats but fell short of the majority needed to form a government, which was made by a smattering of rival political parties led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The government insists the polling was conducted transparently and that Khan’s party was not denied a fair chance.
Authorities in the Pakistani capital deployed a heavy police contingent on the main road leading to the Faisal Mosque on Sunday. Despite police presence and the reported arrest of some PTI workers, Jafri led local PTI members and dozens of supporters who chanted slogans against the government at the march.
“We promise we will never forget 8th February,” Jafri said.
The PTI said its strike call was “successful” and shared videos on official social media accounts showing closed shops and markets in various parts of the country.
The government, however, dismissed the protest as “ineffective.”
“The public is fed up with protest politics and has strongly rejected PTI’s call,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on X.
“It’s Sunday, yet there is still hustle and bustle.”
Ajmal Baloch, All Pakistan Traders Association president, said they neither support such protest calls, nor prevent individuals from closing shops based on personal political affiliation.
“It’s a call from a political party and we do not close businesses on calls of any political party,” Baloch told Arab News.
“We only give calls of strike on issues related to traders.”
Khan was ousted from power in April 2022 after what is widely believed to be a falling out with the country’s powerful generals. The army denies it interferes in politics. Khan has been in prison since August 2023 and faces a slew of legal challenges that ruled him out of the Feb. 8 general elections and which he says are politically motivated to keep him and his party away from power.
In Jan. 2025, an accountability court convicted Khan and his wife in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust land corruption case, sentencing him to 14 years and her to seven years after finding that the trust was used to acquire land and funds in exchange for alleged favors. The couple denies any wrongdoing.
