World bank says economic stabilization ‘taking hold’ in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces killed six militants in an operation in the country’s northwest on Friday, the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said in a statement.
The intelligence-based operation was conducted in Ghulam Khan Kalay, an area in North Waziristan, a district bordering Afghanistan that was once a stronghold of militant groups before Pakistan launched military offensives to reclaim the region. The area, along with the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has seen a surge in militant violence since a fragile ceasefire agreement collapsed between the government and the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in late 2022.
Pakistan labels TTP fighters as “khwarij,” a historical reference to an extremist sect in early Islam known for rebelling against authority, declaring other Muslims apostates, and justifying their killing.
“On 28 February 2025, security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation in the general area of Ghulam Khan Kalay, North Waziristan District, on reported presence of khwarij,” ISPR said. “During the conduct of the operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij location, as a result of which six khwarij were sent to hell.”
The statement added that weapons and ammunition were recovered from the militants, who had been actively involved in attacks on security forces and the killing of civilians.
ISPR said a “sanitization operation” was underway to eliminate other militants in the area, reiterating that Pakistani security forces remain determined to wipe out militancy from the country.
The killing of the militants came on the same day a suicide attack at a seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa claimed six lives, including that of a prominent cleric, during the Friday prayer congregation.
In another incident, an improvised explosive device blast in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, injured nine people, including a paramilitary soldier.

ISLAMABAD: Eight Pakistan nationals residing illegally in the United States have been deported to Pakistan, Islamabad said Friday, with a diplomat calling it the first such flight since Donald Trump returned to power.
“We can confirm that eight Pakistani nationals, who were staying illegally in the US, have indeed returned yesterday,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan told a press conference.
A Pakistani diplomat confirmed that this was the first such flight since Trump’s second term began in January.
“But (it is) not the first ever as in 2019, several such flights also arrived in Pakistan,” the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States.
On his first day in office the Republican signed orders declaring a national emergency at the southern border with Mexico and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport “criminal aliens.”
The White House has also said Trump plans to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in US history.
In addition, Trump’s administration has halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border.