Indian Sub-continent

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani authorities have stepped up security at military and other sensitive installations following the weekend attack by militants on an air base that damaged three grounded aircraft and destroyed a fuel tanker, security officials said Monday.

A recently formed group, Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack in Mianwali, a city in eastern Punjab province, where police have repulsed multiple attacks by another group, the Pakistani Taliban, in recent months.

KABUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has dropped by an estimated 95 percent since the country's caretaker government imposed a drug ban in April 2022, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said Sunday.

According to the organization's report, the opium cultivation of the once world's biggest opium producer fell from 233,000 hectares to just 10,800 hectares in 2023, leading to a 95-percent drop in the supply of opium, from 6,200 tonnes in 2022 to 333 tonnes in 2023.

ISLAMABAD, Nov 3 (NNN-APP) – Pakistan’s total foreign exchange reserves have increased 14 million U.S. dollars, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a statement, yesterday.

With the increase, total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stand at 12.6 billion dollars, as of Oct 27, the statement said.

Reserves held by the SBP were calculated as 7.5 billion dollars, and commercial banks have 5.1 billion dollars, it added.

NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (NNN-PTI) – India’s Commission for Air Quality Management, has banned construction and demolition activities in and around the national capital city, except for essential government projects, with immediate effect.

The restrictions were also imposed on mining and stone-crushing. Strict restrictions covered on plying of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel light motor vehicles in Delhi and several nearby districts.

Delhi’s air quality turned “hazardous,” media reported.

ISLAMABAD, Nov 3 (NNN-APP) – The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) of Pakistan, seized 1,079 kg of narcotics and arrested 45 drug peddlers, in separate operations across the country last month, the ANF said in a statement, yesterday.

The ANF widened its trap around drug dealers across the country, and conducted operations on reports by intelligence agencies in Oct, the statement said.

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Six terrorists were killed during a clash between security forces and terrorists in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, the military said on Wednesday.

The security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation in the Sambaza area of Zhob district of the province, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement.

"During the conduct of the operation, intense fire exchange took place between own troops and terrorists as a result of which six terrorists were killed," the ISPR said.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani security forces on Wednesday detained and deported dozens of Afghans who were living in the country illegally, after a government-set deadline for them to leave expired, authorities said.

The sweep is part of a new anti-migrant crackdown that targets all undocumented or unregistered foreigners, according to Islamabad, though it mostly affects some 2 million Afghans in Pakistan without documentation.

The crackdown has drawn widespread criticism from U.N. agencies, rights groups and the Taliban-led administration in Afghanistan.

01 November 2023; MEMO: Pakistani officials have reported that more than 100,000 Afghan nationals have returned to their Taliban-ruled homeland in the past two weeks, as a deadline for undocumented immigrants to leave Pakistan expires by the end of today, Reuters has reported.

NEW DELHI, Oct 31 (NNN-PTI) – Delhi’s air quality remained in the “Very Poor” category, for the third consecutive day yesterday, as the national capital’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 322 over the past three days.

Several areas in the city recorded even worse AQI of over 350, which is dubbed as hazardous for human life.

On Sunday, Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area recorded its highest AQI of 566 for the season.

KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct 31 (Reuters) - As the clock ticked down to the Nov. 1 deadline Pakistan set for undocumented migrants to leave the country, Muhammad Rahim boarded a bus from Karachi to the Afghan border.

"We'd live here our whole life if they didn't send us back," said the 35-year-old Afghan national, who was born in Pakistan, married a Pakistani woman and raised his Pakistan-born children in the port city - but has no Pakistani identity documents.