PESHAWAR: A powerful car bomb accidentally detonated at the house of a Pakistani Taliban militant in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least two children and five suspected militants, police said.
The explosion took place before dawn in the city of Mir Ali in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when a man identified a local commander of the militants, Rasool Jan, was fitting a bomb in a car at his house, police official Irfan Khan said.
He said other militants from the Pakistani Taliban group quickly arrived at the scene and removed the bodies of the insurgents who died. Authorities later found the bodies of two children in the rubble of the house, which collapsed in the explosion.
The blast also badly damaged several nearby homes and wounded 14 people, including women. Some of the injured were in critical condition in a hospital, Khan said, but he did not provide details.
The Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in the region often target security forces with assault rifles, rockets, grenades and suicide car bombings, and Khan said it appeared the car bomb was being prepared for such an attack.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, are separate from the Afghan Taliban but have been emboldened by the group’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
Also Thursday, security forces raided a hideout of insurgents in Harnai, a district in restive southwestern Balochistan province, triggering an intense shootout in which a soldier and three insurgents were killed. During the operation, an army major was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle, the military said in a statement.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid tribute to whom they called the “martyred soldiers” in separate statements. They said the fight against terrorism will continue until the elimination of all insurgents.
Seven killed in Pakistan’s northwest as militant’s car bomb explodes accidentally
https://arab.news/j63ns
Seven killed in Pakistan’s northwest as militant’s car bomb explodes accidentally
- The explosion took place in Mir Ali where a militant was fitting a bomb in a car at his residence
- Blast damaged several nearby homes and wounded 14 people, with some in critical condition
US freezes visa processing for 75 countries, media reports Pakistan included
- State Department announces indefinite pause on immigrant visas starting Jan 21
- Move underscores Trump’s hard-line immigration push despite close Pakistan-US ties
ISLAMABAD: The United States will pause immigrant visa processing for applicants from 75 countries starting Jan. 21, the State Department said on Wednesday, with Fox News and other media outlets reporting that Pakistan is among the countries affected by the indefinite suspension.
The move comes as the Trump administration presses ahead with a broad immigration crackdown, with Pakistan included among the affected countries despite strong ongoing diplomatic engagement between Islamabad and Washington on economic cooperation, regional diplomacy and security matters.
Fox News, citing an internal State Department memo, said US embassies had been instructed to refuse immigrant visas under existing law while Washington reassesses screening and vetting procedures. The report said the pause would apply indefinitely and covers countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America.
“The State Department will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates. The freeze will remain active until the US can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people,” the Department of State said in a post on X.
According to Fox News and Pakistan news outlets like Dawn, the list of affected countries includes Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Nigeria, Russia, Somalia, Brazil and Thailand, among others.
“The suspension could delay travel, study, and work plans for thousands of Pakistanis who annually seek US visas. Pakistani consulates in the US are expected to provide guidance to affected applicants in the coming days,” Dawn reported.
A State Department spokesman declined comment when Arab News reached out via email to confirm if Pakistan was on the list.
The Department has not publicly released the full list of countries or clarified which visa categories would be affected, nor has it provided a timeline for when processing could resume.
Trump has made immigration enforcement a central pillar of his agenda since returning to office last year, reviving and expanding the use of the “public charge” provision of US immigration law to restrict entry by migrants deemed likely to rely on public benefits.
During his previous term as president, Trump imposed sweeping travel restrictions on several Muslim-majority countries, a policy widely referred to as a “Muslim ban,” which was challenged in US courts before a revised version was upheld by the Supreme Court. That policy was later rescinded under the President Joe Biden administration.
The latest visa freeze marks a renewed hardening of US immigration policy, raising uncertainty for migrants from affected countries as Washington reassesses its screening and vetting procedures.
The freeze on visas comes amid an intensifying crackdown on immigration enforcement by the Trump administration. In Minneapolis last week, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, a US citizen, during a federal operation, an incident that has drawn nationwide protests and scrutiny of ICE tactics. Family members and local officials have challenged the federal account of the shooting, even as Department of Homeland Security officials defended the agent’s actions. The case has prompted resignations by federal prosecutors and heightened debate over the conduct of immigration enforcement under the current administration.
