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Pakistan army says officer, three soldiers killed in anti-militant operations in northwest

Pakistan army says officer, three soldiers killed in anti-militant operations in northwest
In this handout photo, taken and released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (2R) arrives at the funeral prayer of a Pakistan army officer, Lt. Muhammad Hassaan Arshaf, who was killed during the operation against militants in North Waziristan District, at the Lahore Garrison in Lahore on February 15, 2025. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)
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Updated 15 February 2025
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Pakistan army says officer, three soldiers killed in anti-militant operations in northwest

Pakistan army says officer, three soldiers killed in anti-militant operations in northwest
  • Security forces killed 15 Pakistani Taliban in two separate operations in Dera Ismail Khan and North Waziristan
  • The militants were involved in numerous violet activities in the area and were wanted by law enforcement agencies
Updated 15 February 2025
Arab News Pakistan
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ISLAMABAD: An officer and three soldiers were killed on Saturday as security forces launched two separate operations against militants in Pakistan’s northwest, the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said in a statement.
The intelligence-based operations took place in Hathala, Dera Ismail Khan District, and Miran Shah, North Waziristan District. Both the areas, along with the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, have seen a surge in militant violence since the collapse of a fragile ceasefire agreement between the government and the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in late 2022.
Pakistan brands TTP fighters as “khwarij,” a historical reference to an extremist sect in early Islam known for rebelling against authority, declaring other Muslims as apostates, and justifying their killing.
“An intelligence-based operation was conducted by the Security Forces in general area Hathala, Dera Ismail Khan District, on reported presence of Khwarij,” the ISPR said. “During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij location and resultantly, nine khwarij including Kharji ring leaders HVT [high-value targets] Farman [alias] Saqib, Kharji Amanullah [alias] Toori, Kharji Saeed [alias] Liaqat, and Kharji Bilal were sent to hell.”




In this handout photo, taken and released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (2R) offers funeral prayer of a Pakistan army officer, Lt. Muhammad Hassaan Arshaf, who was killed during the operation against militants in North Waziristan District, at the Lahore Garrison in Lahore on February 15, 2025. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)

The statement added all these militants were involved in numerous violet activities and were wanted by law enforcement agencies.
“In another operation conducted in general area Miran Shah, North Waziristan District, six khwarij were effectively neutralized by the security forces,” the statement continued.
“However, during intense fire exchange, Lt. Muhammad Hassaan Arshaf (age: 21 years, resident of District Lahore) leading his troops from the front, fought gallantly and embraced Shahadat along with his three men,” it added.




In this handout photo, taken and released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meets father of a Pakistan army officer, Lt. Muhammad Hassaan Arshaf, who was killed during the operation against militants in North Waziristan District, during his funeral prayer at the Lahore Garrison in Lahore on February 15, 2025. (Photo courtesy: ISPR)

The military said sanitization operations were underway to clear any remaining militants, reiterating its determination to eliminate militancy from the region.
The Pakistani military has intensified operations against TTP hideouts, vowing to wipe out the group, which Islamabad accuses of carrying out cross-border attacks from Afghanistan. The Taliban-led government in Kabul, however, denies providing safe havens to Pakistani militants.

Topics: North Waziristan Pakistan Army ISPR

Thousands attend funeral for senior Taliban-linked cleric slain in Pakistan’s northwest

Thousands attend funeral for senior Taliban-linked cleric slain in Pakistan’s northwest
Updated 01 March 2025
AP
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Thousands attend funeral for senior Taliban-linked cleric slain in Pakistan’s northwest

Thousands attend funeral for senior Taliban-linked cleric slain in Pakistan’s northwest
  • Hamidul Haq, the head of Jamia Haqqania seminary, was one of seven people killed in a suicide bombing a day earlier
  • Haq was the son of the late Maulana Samiul Haq, who is considered a founding figure for the Afghan Taliban movement
Updated 01 March 2025
AP

AKORA KHATTAK: Thousands of mourners attended a funeral Saturday for a Taliban-linked cleric slain in Pakistan’s northwest.
Hamidul Haq, the head of Jamia Haqqania seminary, was one of seven people killed in a suicide bombing a day earlier at a mosque inside a seminary compound. Police said Haq was the target of the attack.
He was the son of the late Maulana Samiul Haq, who is considered a founding figure for the Afghan Taliban movement. Many Afghan Taliban have studied at Jamia Haqqania in the past few decades.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.
Authorities issued a photo of the alleged suicide bomber and urged the public to identify him, offering a reward of 500,000 rupees, or $1,787, for information on his name, parentage and place of residence.
Mourners packed into the main hall of the seminary for Haq’s funeral, with more praying on the street. The prayers passed without incident due to a heavy police deployment and seminary students guarding the venue.
The bombing at Jamia Haqqania seminary was one of four attacks in Pakistan on Friday, two of them at mosques, which were unusual both in their number and timing, just before the holy month of Ramadan.

Topics: militancy in Pakistan KP militancy terrorist attacks

KSrelief, WHO sign $300 million deal to fight polio in Pakistan, Afghanistan

KSrelief, WHO sign $300 million deal to fight polio in Pakistan, Afghanistan
Updated 01 March 2025
SPA
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KSrelief, WHO sign $300 million deal to fight polio in Pakistan, Afghanistan

KSrelief, WHO sign $300 million deal to fight polio in Pakistan, Afghanistan
  • The deal was agreed on the sidelines of Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum
  • It includes a series of preventive activities to eradicate polio in settlement areas
Updated 01 March 2025
SPA

RIYADH: The Saudi aid agency KSrelief recently signed a $300 million cooperation agreement with the World Health Organization to develop a strategy for eradicating polio around the world.

The deal, agreed on the sidelines of the 4th Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum, was signed by Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, the agency’s supervisor general and adviser to the Royal Court, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

It includes a series of preventive activities that will help eradicate polio in settlement areas in target countries, notably Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Pakistan reports sixth case of polio virus this year

Pakistan reports sixth case of polio virus this year
Updated 01 March 2025
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Pakistan reports sixth case of polio virus this year

Pakistan reports sixth case of polio virus this year
  • The latest polio case was reported in the Thatta district, which is the fourth case in Sindh this year
  • Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains an endemic
Updated 01 March 2025
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: Health authorities have confirmed another case of polio virus in Pakistan, the country’s polio program said on Saturday, taking this year’s nationwide tally to six.
Polio is a paralyzing disease that has no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of 5 is essential to provide children high immunity against the disease.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad confirmed the polio virus in a child in Thatta district of the southern Sindh province, according to the Pakistan polio program.
“This is the fourth polio case from Sindh and the sixth case from Pakistan at large this year,” it said in a statement.
“The polio program urges all parents to get their children vaccinated against polio at every opportunity to keep them protected from this devastating disease.”
Pakistan witnessed an intense resurgence of polio virus last year, with a total of 74 cases reported nationwide. Of these, 27 were from Balochistan, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 23 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
The South Asian country last month concluded its first nationwide anti-polio campaign of 2025, with 99 percent of the targets achieved, according to the polio program. The campaign, conducted on Feb. 3-9, vaccinated more than 45 million children.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in the world where polio remains an endemic.
Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain. In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.

Topics: Polio Polio cases in Pakistan Polio case polio attack polio virus

Pakistan launches Rs20 billion Ramadan relief package for needy families

Pakistan launches Rs20 billion Ramadan relief package for needy families
Updated 01 March 2025
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Pakistan launches Rs20 billion Ramadan relief package for needy families

Pakistan launches Rs20 billion Ramadan relief package for needy families
  • Development comes amid a decline in consumer inflation in the South Asian country
  • But many Pakistanis say they are still feeling the pinch ahead of the start of Ramadan
Updated 01 March 2025
Usama Iqbal Khawaja

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday launched a Rs20 billion ($71.4 million) relief package for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Pakistan, which aims to benefit 4 million families across the South Asian country.
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, wherein Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise till sunset for a month. The holy month begins in Pakistan on Sunday.
While consumer inflation in Pakistan declined to 2.4 percent in Jan., compared to 24 percent in the same period last year, many Pakistanis say they are still feeling the pinch.
The Pakistani government has decided to provide Rs5,000 ($17.87) each to around 4 million families across the country to support them during the month of Ramadan, according to officials.
“It is a great blessing of Almighty Allah that inflation has dropped down in this Ramadan as compared to the last year. This year, around Rs20 billion have been allocated for this package, which would benefit 40 lakh families,” Sharif said at the launching ceremony.
“This would cover the whole of Pakistan, all provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. This amount will be distributed among deserving people in all these areas through the digital [wallet] system.”
The development comes as Pakistan treads a long path to economic recovery after being stabilized under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program secured last year. An IMF mission is due to arrive in Islamabad next week for the first review of the facility.
Pakistan’s consumer inflation is expected to remain stable and maintain a downward trajectory compared to the previous year, the finance ministry said in its monthly economic outlook report on Feb. 27.
Sharif thanked all government institutions, international partners and tech companies for their efforts in distributing the funds among deserving families under the Ramadan relief package.
“All those tech companies, which provided their technical support in implementing this system, I thank them all,” Sharif said.
“I believe there are our foreign partners, also international partners, also sitting here. I would like to also thank them for their cooperation and partnership in this very noble cause.”

Topics: Ramadan in Pakistan Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Ramadan relief package

Three cops injured in grenade attack in Pakistan’s Karachi day after deadly bombing in northwest

Three cops injured in grenade attack in Pakistan’s Karachi day after deadly bombing in northwest
Updated 01 March 2025
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Three cops injured in grenade attack in Pakistan’s Karachi day after deadly bombing in northwest

Three cops injured in grenade attack in Pakistan’s Karachi day after deadly bombing in northwest
  • No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack on the police station in Karachi’s Saddar
  • Pakistan, battling twin insurgencies, has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent months
Updated 01 March 2025
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: Three policemen were injured in a grenade attack on a police station in Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi, police said on Saturday, a day after a deadly bombing in the country’s northwest killed six people.
Karachi, which is home to over 15 million people, has a history of attacks on police by organized gangs involved in drug trafficking and land grabbing as well as by militant groups.
Mehzor Ali, a senior superintendent of police (SSP), said unidentified men lobbed a hand grenade incident the Preedy police station in Karachi’s Saddar business district at 12:16am on Saturday.
“No group has claimed responsibility for the attack,” he told reporters in Karachi. “Bomb disposal squad has been summoned and the incident is being investigated.”
The development came a day after a deadly bombing killed a top cleric among six people at a mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, according to officials.
The blast occurred during Friday prayers at Darul Uloom Haqqania, one of Pakistan’s largest and most influential religious seminaries.
Separately on Friday, nine people, including a paramilitary troop, were injured in a roadside blast in Quetta in the southwestern Balochistan province, police said.
No group has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attacks either, but Pakistan has been battling twin insurgencies — one mounted by religiously motivated groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the country’s northwest and the other by ethnic Baloch separatists in Balochistan.

Topics: Karachi attack militancy in Pakistan attack on karachi police Karachi Police

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