TEHRAN: The United Nations and the United States appealed for restraint on Thursday after Iran and Pakistan traded deadly air strikes on militant targets on each other’s territory.
The rare military action across the porous border between the heavily armed neighbors has further stoked tensions already enflamed by the Israel-Hamas war.
Pakistan’s strikes against militant targets in Iran early on Thursday came two days after similar Iranian strikes on its territory, and prompted Tehran to summon Islamabad’s envoy.
At least nine people were killed in the strikes in restive Sistan-Baluchestan province, most of them women or children, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
They came after Iran carried out raids on what it described as “terrorist” targets in Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least two children.
While Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan often accuse each other of allowing militants to operate from the other’s territory, cross-border operations by government forces have been rare.
UN chief Antonio Guterres called on the two governments to “exercise maximum restraint.”
“The secretary general is deeply concerned about the recent exchange of military strikes between Iran and Pakistan, which have reportedly caused casualties on both sides,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the United States was monitoring the situation “very, very closely” and was in touch with Pakistani officials.
“These are two well-armed nations and again we don’t want to see an escalation,” Kirby told reporters.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller echoed his comments.
“We don’t believe this should escalate in any way, shape or form. Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally of the United States, that will remain the case, but we would urge restraint in this case.”
Kirby said he was “not aware” that Islamabad had notified Washington before striking Iran. He would not comment when asked if the United States would provide support for Pakistan.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry described Thursday’s raids as a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts” in Sistan-Baluchistan.
The strikes took place at around 4:30 am (0100 GMT), with three drones destroying four houses in a village near the city of Saravan, IRNA said, citing Alireza Marhamati, deputy governor of the province.
Iranian media carried images showing severely damaged homes, with one video showing people gathered around a crater.
All of those killed were Pakistanis, and investigations were under way to determine why they were in the Iranian village, Marhamati said.
The raids targeted Baloch separatists, according to the Pakistani army. The military has been waging a decades-long fight against separatist groups in its sparsely populated border region.
Iran condemned the action, and summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires “to protest and request an explanation from the Pakistani government,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
The ministry described Pakistan’s strikes as “unbalanced and unacceptable,” and said Iran expects Pakistan “to adhere to its obligations in preventing the establishment of bases and armed terrorist groups in Pakistan.”
Militant group Jaish Al-Adl (Army of Justice) has carried out repeated deadly attacks on Iranian security forces in recent months, and Tehran has long alleged that it operates out of rear bases across the border.
Pakistan delivered a strong rebuke to Iran over its strikes, recalling its ambassador from Tehran and blocking Iran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad.
China offered to mediate between the neighbors, both close economic partners of Beijing.
The European Union expressed concern about the “spiral of violence in the Middle East and beyond.”
Rising Iran-Pakistan tensions add to multiple crises in the region, with Israel waging a war against Hamas in Gaza and Houthi rebels in Yemen attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
Meanwhile Afghanistan, which borders both Iran and Pakistan, and is home to a small Baloch minority, said the violence between its neighbors was “alarming” and urged them to “exercise restraint.”
On Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar would cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “in view of the ongoing developments.”
Hours before the strike, Kakar had met Iran’s foreign minister on the sidelines of the forum and posed for photographs.
Sistan-Baluchestan province is one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran and has seen persistent unrest involving cross-border drug-smuggling gangs and rebels from the Baloch ethnic minority as well as other militants.
International calls for calm after Iran, Pakistan trade strikes on militants
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International calls for calm after Iran, Pakistan trade strikes on militants
- UN chief Antonio Guterres called on the two governments to “exercise maximum restraint”
- US says monitoring situation “very, very closely” and was in touch with Pakistani officials
Hundreds of students, civil society activists rally in Karachi to mark ‘Nakba Day’
- Pro-Palestinian supporters mark May 15 as “Nakba Day” when over 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their lands in 1948
- Pakistani civil society members call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza, boycott against Israeli brands and those that support war in Gaza
KARACHI: Hundreds of Pakistani students and civil society activists on Wednesday rallied in the southern port city of Karachi to mark 76 years of Palestinians displaced from their homeland, calling for an end to the “genocide” in Gaza as Israel escalates military tensions in the Middle East.
Palestinians refer to May 15 as the “Nakba,” Arabic for “catastrophe” when some 700,000 Palestinians in 1948 fled or were driven from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s establishment.
Protest rallies in several parts of the world were held on Wednesday amid Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, where the Israeli military has killed at least 35,173 people and injured 79,061 others since October 7, 2023.
Nearly a dozen civil and women’s rights organizations took part in the protest rally which began at Do Talwar roundabout in Karachi till Teen Talwar, another important landmark of the city.
“The civil society of Karachi is marking Nakba Day today and the purpose for that is to identify that Palestinians were the actual residents or the actual people who can lay claim to the land that Israel lays claim to at this point in time,” Ahmed Shabbar, one the organizers, told Arab News.
He called on students from other parts of the country to join the protest campaign for Gaza.
“There are multiple layers to this campaign and we invite the civil societies of Lahore and Islamabad and Quetta and students across Pakistan as well to unite because this is just the first event,” Shabbar said. He vowed that more protests would be held in the coming days.
Shabbar said the foremost demand of the protesters was for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine and for Israel to be held accountable for its actions.
He said Pakistan’s civil societies’ demands also include that Pakistan join South Africa in the International Court of Justice to hold Israel and its supporters accountable for its crimes in Gaza.
Shabbar said protesters were also seeking an apology from the German ambassador to Pakistan, who had shouted at a Pakistani student for interrupting him during his speech at a conference last month. The pro-Palestinian supporter had questioned the ambassador for Germany’s support for Israel’s controversial actions in Gaza.
He said the civil societies were also calling for a boycott of Israeli products or those brands that support Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Mehnaz Rehman, a leader of the Aurat Foundation rights movement, said protesters had gathered to protest against Israel’s atrocities, particularly against women and children.
“They are killing children,” Rehman told Arab News. “They [people] should come forward and protest against Israel and demand a ceasefire. We demand ceasefire immediately,” she said, praising American students for raising their voices for Palestine.
Naureen Fatima, a protester, said Palestinians were driven out of their land over seven decades ago. She lamented that history was repeating itself.
“This is happening once again,” Fatima told Arab News. You know? And we see it’s happening under the backdrop of our complete genocide. This is happening in the year 2024.”
She criticized the international community for staying silent over Israel’s massacres in Gaza.
“Has mankind regressed? We think we have completely regressed,” she lamented.
“What is the point when we see that babies are being killed and they are dying? And there is no accountability, and this genocide continues.
“We are here to protest that. We are here because we don’t want this to happen.”
Separately, hundreds of students and teachers rallied at Karachi University to protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and support American students protesting across Europe and the US
Pakistan, China to finalize modalities for third party participation in CPEC
- In the past, Pakistan has invited Saudi Arabia, Turkiye Germany, UAE, Iran, Indonesia, Afghanistan to join CPEC
- Pakistani deputy prime minister is on four-day visit to Beijing to discuss second phase of multi-billion CPEC initiative
KARACHI: Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday Islamabad and China needed to finalize the modalities for other countries to be part of the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, as Islamabad seeks to attract foreign investment into Pakistan.
Dar, who is also Pakistan’s foreign minister, was speaking at a joint press conference with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing, which the Pakistani official is visiting on a four-day official trip as Pakistan moves into phase two of CPEC, an initiative in which Beijing has pledged to invest $65 billion.
The project spans several phases, each with distinct goals and impacts on the region. The first phase began in 2015 and mainly focused on building critical infrastructure, particularly in the transportation and energy sectors. The second phase expands the focus to include industrial cooperation, agricultural development and the promotion of social and economic development. This phase is also expected to include the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), efforts to boost green energy production like hydropower and solar energy, and initiatives to modernize agriculture and increase exports.
In the past, Pakistan has invited Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Germany, UAE, Iran, Indonesia and Afghanistan to join CPEC but there has been no progress on the invitation.
“As we embark on phase two of CPEC we look forward to developing corridors of growth, livelihood, innovation, green development, and inclusivity to carry forward our shared vision of making CPEC an inclusive and transparent project,” Dar said at the press conference.
“We also need to finalize the modalities for third party participation in CPEC.”
In 2022, then former prime minister Imran Khan welcomed all countries and international organizations to participate in the flagship project. PM Shehbaz Sharif has also invited other nations to join the project.
“We appreciate China’s development assistance to Pakistan and look forward to further enhancing China’s development footprint in Pakistan, to attract foreign investment in diverse sectors under the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC),” Dar said, referring to a special body set up last year to oversee foreign investments. “I commend China’s readiness to deepen our financial bilateral trade and investment.”
Dar said his visit would help in accelerating the implementation of the Mainline-1 (ML-1) railway project, a $6.8 billion project to upgrade its railway lines, along with the realignment of the Karakoram Highway and strengthening “cooperation in agriculture, mining, minerals, energy, information technology and industrial sectors.”
The Pakistani official also condoled on behalf of the Pakistani leadership and people over the killing of five Chinese workers in a suicide bombing in Pakistan in March.
Vowing to bring the planners, financiers and perpetrators of the attack to justice, Dar said China and Pakistan would maintain close cooperation through bilateral channels in this regard.
“I have shared with his Excellency, the foreign minister, extensive and deliberate measures we have taken to protect Chinese interests in Pakistan while thanking China for acknowledging the sacrifices Pakistan has made against terrorism,” he said.
“Let me express our focus on that. We will not rest until the last menace of terrorism is finally eliminated from Pakistan.”
Veon, partners to bridge online ‘AI language gap’ in Pakistan, other countries
- Language models often rely on swathes of online data to generate human-like responses
- Veon and partners to develop tools in Pakistan, Ukraine, Bangladesh and other countries
Telecom company Veon, mobile operator Beeline Kazakhstan, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the GSMA lobby group said on Wednesday they would work together to bridge an “AI language gap” for under-represented languages.
Large language models powering ‘bots’ like chatGPT often rely on swathes of online data, such as digital books, websites, articles and blogs to learn how to generate human-like responses. But data and resources in some languages are limited.
“Out of nearly 7000 languages spoken around the globe, only seven are considered high-resource languages in the digital world: English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Arabic, German and Japanese,” the groups said in a joint statement.
They will collaborate on developing tools and language model documentation in under-represented languages, including those spoken in the countries where Veon operates — Pakistan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Another language was Catalan, which is spoken by around 10 million people, the statement said.
“The lack of resources in other languages results in an AI language gap which leads to sub-optimal user experience in AI applications, deepens the bias in AI models and risks deepening the digital divide in AI technologies,” they added.
Major cases keeping former Pakistan PM Imran Khan in jail
- Khan is serving 10 years on charges he leaked a classified cable and seven years in another
- Former prime minister denies wrongdoing, says cases against him are politically motivated
ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was granted bail in a land corruption case on Wednesday, but will remain in prison on other charges.
The 71-year-old former cricket star who has been in jail since August last year has been convicted in four cases, of which sentences in two have been suspended.
Details of the convictions and some important cases follow:
STATE SECRETS CASE
Khan is serving 10 years in prison on charges of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022, in what is commonly known as the cipher case. An appeal seeking to suspend the sentence is being heard by the Islamabad High Court.
Khan has said the cable was proof of a conspiracy by the Pakistan military and US government to topple his government in 2022 after he visited Moscow just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington and Pakistan’s military deny that accusation.
UNLAWFUL MARRIAGE CASE
Khan and his wife, Bushra Khan, also known as Bushra Bibi, are serving seven-year jail terms after a trial court ruled that their 2018 marriage broke the law. An appeal against this case is being heard by a sessions court.
They were charged with not completing the waiting period mandated by Islam, called “Iddat,” after Bibi divorced her previous husband. They signed their marriage contract, or “Nikkah,” in January 2018 in a secret ceremony.
STATE GIFTS CASES
Khan was handed jail sentences — one of 14 years and the other three years — in two cases pertaining to illegally acquiring and selling state gifts. Both sentences have been suspended by high courts while his appeals are heard.
Also known as the Toshakhana or state treasury case, Khan and his wife are charged with selling gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) in state possession, which he received during his 2018-2022 premiership.
The gifts included diamond jewelry and seven watches, six of them Rolexes — the most expensive being valued at 85 million rupees ($304,000).
ABETTING VIOLENCE
Khan is facing a trial under anti-terrorism charges in connection with violence against the military and other state installations that erupted following his brief arrest in May last year.
A number of Khan’s supporters have been sentenced by military courts, but the case against Khan is ongoing.
Pakistani firm partners with UAE’s NymCard to promote fintech innovation in MENAP
- Dellsons Associates is a Pakistani consultancy firm while Nymcard is a UAE-based financial services provider
- Dellsons to act as a partner agent and refer new business opportunities to Nymcard, says press release
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani financial consultancy firm Dellsons Associates has partnered with NymCard, a leading financial services provider in the UAE, to promote innovation in the fintech landscape and empower businesses in Pakistan and the Middle East, Nymcard said on Wednesday.
NymCard is a leading provider of end-to-end embedded finance solutions, simplifying payments with its modern platform since 2018. It empowers businesses of all sizes to launch new payment products quickly, including prepaid cards, multi-currency offerings and credit cards.
Dellsons Associates is a leading provider of strategic banking consultancy, training, conferences, event management, IT services, and more, its website says.
The partnership between the two entities was signed at the Dubai Fintech Summit, a press statement from NymCard said, adding that the strategic alliance would synergize NymCard’s cutting-edge technology with Dellsons’ regional expertise and industry connections in the financial and banking sectors.
“We are excited to partner with Dellsons Associates, believing the synergies from this collaboration would catalyze cross-regional expansion for both institutions,” Shiraz Ali, the chief business officer at NymCard, was quoted as saying in the press release.
The press release said Dellsons would act as a partner agent and refer new business opportunities to NymCard, focusing on the fintech and banking sectors in the UAE and Pakistan. It said the partnership would create a powerful alliance to “revolutionize the financial services landscape.”
Dellsons Associates Chairman Ibrahim Amin said his firm was working in Pakistan and the Middle East to promote fintech innovation, financial inclusion, and digitization of cross-border channels of remittances to facilitate different states.
“Our key objective is to bring social and economic development through technological solutions, collaborations with emerging players, and networking with communities in Pakistan, the UAE, and different countries of the Middle East and South Asia,” Amin was quoted as saying by the press release.
