ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, parliamentarians and thousands of people on Friday offered funeral prayers in absentia for Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, condemning Israeli military actions in Palestinian territories.
Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in the pre-dawn attack on their accommodation in Tehran early on Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said. He had traveled to Iran to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Hamas leader’s assassination came just hours after Israel struck a southern suburb of Beirut, killing Fuad Shukr, the military commander of Hamas-allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, deepening fears of a wider regional escalation.
Sharif along with Pakistani lawmakers offered prayers at Parliament House in Islamabad, which were broadcast live by the state television. Separately, hundreds of people offered funeral prayers in absentia for Haniyeh at Islamabad’s iconic Faisal Mosque.
“An incident of worst brutality has come to the fore, which the entire world, including Pakistan, Turkiye, Malaysia, China and Russia, has condemned in the strongest words,” Sharif said at an earlier press talk on Friday, referring to Haniyeh’s assassination.
“The world peace institutions, which were formed decades ago to establish law and order, I believe their conscience must be awaken today.”
Funeral prayers for the slain Hamas chief were offered elsewhere in the South Asian country as well.
Separately, Pakistan’s National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, passed a unanimous resolution expressing its “unified grief and anger” over the ongoing Israeli oppression and brutality against Palestinians for the last nine months.
“This house strongly condemns the ongoing state oppression and brutality by Israel in Palestine as a tragedy for the Muslim Ummah and the world,” read the resolution passed by the National Assembly, expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and extending condolences to the family of Haniyeh.
The resolution called on the international community to take “collective action” to halt Israel’s oppression and brutalities and deliver justice to the Palestinian people.
“This house calls for the immediate admission of the State of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations,” the resolution added.
The Pakistan parliament also decided to continue to supply aid to Palestine and take effective measures for medical assistance to the oppressed Palestinian brothers and sisters, including treatment in Pakistan.
Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters” and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza in October last year, Pakistan has repeatedly raised the issue at the United Nations and demanded international powers and multilateral bodies stop Israeli military actions in Gaza. The South Asian country has also dispatched several aid consignments for the Palestinians.
Separately, Sharif told Pakistan’s parliament on Friday that his country would continue to provide relief goods and medical assistance to the Palestinians.
“It has been decided to continue providing relief goods to Palestine and will undertake measures for the wounded Palestinians through which arrangements will be made to bring them to Pakistan for treatment,” he said.
“We have also decided Palestinian medical students will be admitted to Pakistani medical colleges.”
Israel launched a war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 in response to an attack by Hamas that resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures. Militants also took around 200 Israelis hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,480 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
PM among thousands at Islamabad funeral in absentia for slain Hamas leader
https://arab.news/2jse7
PM among thousands at Islamabad funeral in absentia for slain Hamas leader
- Pakistan observes ‘Day of Mourning’ in solidarity with Palestine after killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran
- Pakistan parliament passes resolution demanding global community deliver justice to Palestinian people
Too warm to freeze: Climate shift threatens ice hockey in Pakistan’s Hunza Valley
- Rising temperatures, falling snowfall disrupt community-run tournament dependent on natural ice
- Scientists report shorter snow seasons across Hindu Kush-Himalayan region as climate risks grow
HUNZA, Pakistan: Aleena Gul used to watch the pool beside her home in Pakistan’s Hunza Valley freeze solid each winter, transforming it into a makeshift ice hockey rink.
This year, it barely froze at all.
“If we see, there’s a big difference between 2018 and now in 2026,” said Gul, a local player whose family has hosted the community tournament for eight seasons.
“Winter used to begin in November and everything would freeze, . It’s January now and the ice still hasn’t frozen properly,” said Gul, a local player whose family has hosted the community tournament for eight seasons.
The change has disrupted a small but growing winter sports tradition in the mountainous region near the Chinese border, where residents say colder, longer winters once provided reliable natural ice.
Scientists studying the wider Hindu Kush-Himalayan region have reported fewer extreme cold events and shorter snow seasons, with snowfall increasingly failing to settle. Weather data for Hunza shows winter precipitation down by about 30 percent since the late 2010s, with some recent winters two to three degrees Celsius warmer.
That is a challenge for a region reliant on visitors, where winter tourism depends heavily on snowfall and freezing temperatures.
The community-run ice hockey tournament in Hunza depends entirely on natural ice. When Gul’s pool failed to freeze properly this year, organizers scrambled to find an alternative venue nearly two hours north, in a town close to the Chinese border.
Even there, conditions were difficult.
“I expected better ice conditions, but when I saw the rink I felt a bit sad. Many of our players fell. The surface had too many bumps and wasn’t strong,” said Yahya Karim, another player.
Of three matches scheduled on the first day, only one went ahead.
“Today, we got ready at almost around 9 o’clock. When we got called for the match, we saw that the ice was not in a good condition. So, all these things are very unexpected for us. And this is a side effect of climate change,” Gul said.
Naseer Uddin, co-founder of the youth organization SCARF, said volunteers had worked for about a week preparing the arena.
“We worked on this arena for about a week. We had planned [a match] here. Then, suddenly, when the sun came out today, so we had to switch suddenly because the ice in this arena has been spoiled,” he said.
Sadiq Saleem, president of the Altit Town Management Society, said residents were witnessing a noticeable change.
“We are witnessing a sudden shift in Hunza’s weather pattern, [both] in the snowfall and freezing [temperature] here. We are seeing a big shift in the intensity of winter here,” he said.
The girls’ match eventually went ahead, and Gul’s team emerged victorious. But the uncertainty over ice conditions has left many wondering how long the tradition can survive.
Climate change has become a growing concern for Pakistan, which contributes less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions yet is frequently ranked among the countries most vulnerable to global warming.
This week, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority warned of an elevated risk of glacial lake outburst floods in the north as rising temperatures threaten to accelerate snow and glacier melt. Seasonal forecasts point to higher-than-normal temperatures and possible early heatwave conditions in Gilgit-Baltistan and upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, regions that include Hunza.
For now, players in the valley are making do with what winter brings. But as temperatures rise, even a simple backyard rink is no longer guaranteed.
