Pakistan

08 Dec 2022; MEMO: On the 30th anniversary of the demolition of India's historic Babri Mosque by Hindu extremists, Pakistan's Foreign Office on Tuesday urged the international community and the UN to play a role in preserving India's Islamic heritage under threat by Hindutva, which is advocated by the ruling BJP party.

ISLAMABAD, Dec 4 (APP): Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday said that he did not see the need to hold early elections in the country as was being demanded by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan.

The foreign minister, in an interview with Al-Jazeera, said that the current government inherited from its predecessor “a divided country and a collapsed economy.”

However, he said the incumbent government was looking for solutions to internal problems and consensus at the international level.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for last week’s shooting at the Pakistani embassy in Afghanistan in which the head of the mission escaped unharmed but a guard was wounded.

In a brief statement late Saturday, IS claimed two of its fighters attacked “the renegade Pakistani ambassador and his guards” while they were in the Pakistani embassy’s yard, wounding a guard and inflicting damage to the building. It gave no further details.

Dec 3 (Reuters) - Pakistan's new army chief on Saturday said the military was ready to defend "every inch of our motherland" if attacked, during a visit to the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the disputed Kashmir region, which is claimed by both Pakistan and neighbouring India.

The visit came less than a week since General Asim Munir took charge of Pakistan's powerful military, and were among his strongest public statements on arch-rival India since taking up the role.

Rawalpindi, Dec 2 (PTI) Pakistan will pull out of the Asia Cup if Asian Cricket Council decides to shift the tournament, PCB chairman Ramiz Raja said on Friday.

In October, Asian Cricket Council president and BCCI secretary Jay Shah had said that India will not travel to Pakistan next year for the 50-over Asia Cup event after which PCB had threatened to pull out of the World Cup scheduled to be held in India.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United States has added a key anti-Pakistani militant group and its al-Qaida branch to its list of “global terrorists,” triggering sanctions against the groups amid a resurgence of militant violence in this Islamic nation.

Both groups operate from Afghanistan, but they have hideouts in Pakistan’s former tribal regions in the northwest and elsewhere as well.

Thursday’s announcement by the State Department comes days after the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, known as TTP, ended a monthslong ceasefire with Pakistan and resumed attacks across the country.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A Taliban official says at least 10 students were killed Wednesday when a bomb blast hit a religious school in northern Afghanistan.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor says several others were wounded in the blast at the madrassa in Aybak, capital of the northern Samangan province.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group has been waging a campaign of violence that escalated since the Taliban took power in August 2021.

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Four people, including a policeman, were killed in two separate incidents in the last 24 hours in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, police told media on Tuesday.

A police constable was shot dead in the Jamal Garhi area of Mardan district of the province on Tuesday morning, police said.

The proscribed militant outfit Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took responsibility of the killing, local media said. However, police said it was a matter of personal enmity.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s new military chief took command of the country’s armed forces on Tuesday amid a deepening political rift between the government and the popular opposition leader, as well as a renewed threat from a key militant group that has been behind scores of deadly attacks over 15 years.

ISLAMABAD, Nov 28 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday offered condolence to Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the loss of precious lives and assets due to an earthquake that hit West Java region, last week.

In a telephone conversation held with the Indonesian president, the prime minister observed that the people of Pakistan could feel the anguish of their Indonesian brothers and sister, having recently suffered immensely due to natural calamities.