Gunmen kill two traffic police officers in Pakistan’s restive northwest
Gunmen kill two traffic police officers in Pakistan’s restive northwest/node/2606481/pakistan
Gunmen kill two traffic police officers in Pakistan’s restive northwest
Policemen stand guard along a barricaded street near an army cantonment, a day after it was attacked by a militant suicide squad in Bannu on July 16, 2024. (AFP/File)
PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen shot dead two traffic police officers in Pakistan’s northwestern district of Lakki Marwat on Tuesday, the latest in a series of attacks in a region with a long history of militant violence, according to an official statement.
The officers were ambushed on Longkhel Road near Gulbaz Dehqan village while they were en route to duty.
No group has claimed responsibility, but similar shootings in the past have frequently been carried out by militants from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which remains active in the area.
“We share the grief of the bereaved families,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said in a statement, confirming that two traffic police officers had been killed “after unidentified assailants opened fire on them.”
“The families of the martyrs will not be left alone and will be fully supported,” he added while directing law enforcement agencies to arrest those responsible without delay.
Lakki Marwat, located near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, has witnessed repeated assaults on police along with other government functionaries and residents in recent years.
In 2022, six officers were killed in a TTP-claimed ambush, and in 2023, a police station was attacked with guns and explosives, killing four.
The district was also the site of one of Pakistan’s deadliest militant attacks in 2010, when a suicide bomber targeted a volleyball match, killing over 100 people.
Authorities in the area have struggled to maintain security amid a resurgence of insurgent violence I recent years.
KARACHI: Pakistan witnessed a decline in militant violence by nearly 32% during the second quarter of 2025, an Islamabad-based think tank said in its report this week, pointing out that the attacks have spread to the country’s “new or less prepared regions.”
Pakistan has seen an uptick in violence in its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, both bordering Afghanistan, in recent months. The Pakistani Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) regularly target security forces in their bid to impose their strict brand of Islam across the country. In Balochistan, separatist ethnic militants demand independence from the center, whom they accuse of exploiting the province’s natural resources. Islamabad denies the allegations.
The Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) said in its report on Monday that the number of casualties during the second quarter dropped to 615 from 900 in the first quarter.
“With at least 615 fatalities and 388 injuries — among civilians, security personnel, and outlaws — in about 273 incidents of violence, including terror attacks and counterterror operations, Pakistan witnessed a nearly 32% decline in overall violence, and several other promising trends in its security landscape for the second quarter of 2025,” the report said.
The report pointed out that the casualties suffered by security personnel and civilians combined during the second quarter, 282, were still less than the total number of outlaws’ fatalities, 333, in the same period. It said this amounted to over 15% less comparative losses among civilians and security officials.
The CRSS report also said Pakistan’s Balochistan and KP provinces saw 40% and 32% less violence, respectively, compared to the first quarter. It added that violence-linked fatalities dropped from 567 to 389 in KP and from 317 to 190 in Balochistan, indicating a possible strategic breakthrough on the back of a “proactive hunt-neutralize-capture campaign.”
“While the terrorism and insurgency-induced violence receded in these conflict-hit provinces, both regions continued to bear the brunt of violence, accounting for over 94% of the total fatalities and 93% incidents of violence recorded in this quarter,” the report said.
The CRSS said that while the TTP continued to lead the violence in KP, Balochistan remained a “parallel epicenter of unrest” marked by a mix of separatist militancy and targeted violence, particularly against state forces.
“The spread of militancy into previously calmer areas is also concerning,” the report said, pointing out that Punjab recorded a surge in fatalities by 162% during the second quarter. The number of casualties in Punjab rose from 8 in the first quarter to 21 in the second one.
The Azad Kashmir region, which reported zero fatalities in the first quarter, recorded six casualties in the second one while Islamabad and Sindh remained largely unaffected.
“While the intensity of violence has eased in traditional hotspots, its spread into new or less prepared regions will require continued attention and policy adjustments,” the report said.
The outlaws suffered the majority of all fatalities in this quarter, over 54%, which the report said amounts to 333. Civilians suffered 153 casualties or 25% of the total while security and government officials suffered 129 fatalities at 21% during the second quarter.
Civilians suffered 107 terror attacks compared to security officials who suffered 91 while the outlaws were targeted in 75 security operations. Moreover, civilians suffered 249 injuries compared to security officials, who suffered 120 injuries and outlaws with only 19, the report shared.
CRSS said that the least amount of injuries suffered by militants indicates “a high degree of lethal precision in state-led counter-terrorism operations.”
KARACHI: Russia expects to finalize an agreement with Pakistan this summer to build a new steel mill in Karachi, Consul-General Andrey V. Fedorov said on Monday, the first time a Russian official has publicly confirmed the planned project.
The new project will mark the revival of Cold War-era industrial cooperation as Islamabad seeks fresh foreign investment and closer ties with Moscow.
The Soviet Union built the original Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) in Karachi in the 1970s as the country’s flagship state-run industrial complex. Once a symbol of national self-sufficiency, PSM has remained dormant since 2015 due to years of mismanagement, political interference and financial decline. By the end of fiscal year 2024, the mill had posted cumulative losses of Rs255.8 billion ($902 million), with liabilities reaching Rs359.9 billion ($1.27 billion). Despite being non-operational, it still employs more than 3,500 workers.
Now, Russian and Pakistani officials are engaged in technical and diplomatic discussions to finalize the framework for a new steel mill. Technical experts from Russia have already inspected the proposed site in Karachi, and another team is expected shortly to advance planning and draft a detailed roadmap.
“The last negotiations were on May 27, so we are working on the final agreement,” Fedorov told Arab News in an interview when asked about the status of the new steel deal.
Andrey V. Fedorov, consul-general of Russia in Karachi, speaks during an interview with Arab News in Karachi on June 30, 2025. (AN Photo)
“Our technical experts examined the facility, so maybe one more team would come soon, just to fix out all the preparations and some of the proposals are on the tables, both of Russian and Pakistani sides … We are ready to prepare a roadmap for the constructions of a new steel mill in Karachi.”
Fedorov declined to put a date on when construction would begin but said the teams had discussed a summer deal:
“They were discussing summer, you know, we are in the beginning of summer, so I hope this summer they would come … We would see in nearest time some positive conclusions and we will reach some agreements.”
A man walks past machines at the hot strip mill department of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan, on February 8, 2016. (REUTERS/File)
The envoy did not share the volume of investment Russia would look to make in the project but said the two sides would be working together now to prepare “mutually beneficial contracts and agreements.”
“Practically, a new factory must be erected,” he said. “Now we should, on the level of experts, discuss that.”
PAKISTAN STREAM GAS PIPELINE PROJECT
Russia has also built other major industrial facilities in Pakistan, including the Guddu Power Station in Sindh in the 1980s, one of the country’s largest electricity sources.
Moscow and Islamabad have expanded cooperation in recent years despite geopolitical tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both countries are exploring deeper energy ties, oil and gas supplies, and even tabled a trilateral Russia-Pakistan-China resolution in the UN Security Council last month, seeking a ceasefire in the Middle East.
Pakistan, a net energy importer, relies on foreign petroleum and LNG supplies to meet domestic demand. Last year, Islamabad received its first-ever shipment of discounted Russian crude oil, marking a shift from its traditional reliance on Middle Eastern suppliers.
Pakistan’s local gas reserves are fast depleting. It imported over $4 billion worth of liquefied petroleum and natural gas through May last fiscal year and $4.7 billion in LNG and LPG imports the year earlier (FY24), mostly from Qatar.
Russia and Pakistan also held the ninth meeting of their intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation in December and agreed to move ahead with the long-delayed Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline project.
This handout photograph, taken and released by Karachi Port Trust on June 11, 2023, shows a Russian ship, Pure Point, anchored at the OP2 in Karachi. (Photo courtesy: KPT/File)
The pipeline, signed in 2015 but delayed for years, aims to transport imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Karachi to Pakistan’s Punjab province and other energy-deficient regions.
Federov said both sides knew the delays in, and challenges with, the pipeline “must be fixed,” adding:
“We are working ... and I hope that in the nearest time we can prepare some positive surprises for Pakistani people, for Russian people, and for the world.”
Asked what was delaying the pipeline, Federov declined to share details, saying it could “spoil the game” as such projects “do not like a lot of noise and discussions around it.”
“There are nothing that can be a firewall between Russia and Pakistan in implementing this project,” he said.
The main challenges to building the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline include unresolved disagreements over project structure, financing terms, and US sanctions on Russian entities involved in the project. Regulatory hurdles and Pakistan’s weak fiscal position have also contributed to repeated delays since the agreement was signed a decade ago.
But despite the challenges, Federov said the two sides remained committed to finding “positive conclusions” on both the new steel mill and the pipeline.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad this week called on the international community to support the Arab League's and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) plan to reconstruct Gaza, saying it is essential to lay the foundations of lasting peace in the Middle East.
In March, the Arab League ratified its plan to reconstruct Gaza, proposing to rebuild the Palestinian territory without displacing its 2.4 million residents at a cost of $53 billion. Days later the OIC endorsed the plan, which was a counterproposal to a controversial one by US President Donald Trump in which he suggested to take over Gaza and displace its residents.
At a UN Security Council briefing on the Middle East, Ahmad urged the Security Council to "act with urgency and clarity" to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"We call for international support to the Arab League–OIC Plan for Recovery and Reconstruction in Gaza," Ahmad said. "This plan is essential not only for rebuilding Gaza but also for restoring hope and laying the foundation for lasting peace."
The Pakistani envoy said Israel must immediately cease its military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, adding that a permanent ceasefire must be established without further delay.
"Second, the blockade on humanitarian aid must be lifted fully and unconditionally," Ahmad said. "The UN and humanitarian organizations must be granted safe and unimpeded access."
Ahmad demanded a "credible and irreversible political process" for the two-state solution in the Middle East, reiterating Pakistan's demand for a separate and independent Palestinian state based on the pre-June 1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
"We support the earliest resumption of the high-level international conference to advance this goal," he said.
Israel's military has renewed its focus on Gaza after its 12-day conflict with Iran. The Jewish state's retaliatory military campaign against Hamas has killed at least 56,412 people in Gaza since October 2023. Most of the dead are civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.
Pakistan, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, has condemned its war on Gaza since it began in 2023 and has called on the international community to intervene to stop Palestinian civilians from getting killed.
KARACHI: Torrential monsoon rains have killed at least 57 people and injured 99 across Pakistan since June 26, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said, warning of continued downpours, flash floods and landslides through July 5.
According to the NDMA, 28 children, 17 men and 12 women were among the dead, while the injured included 39 children, 33 men and 27 women. Most casualties were caused by flash floods, followed by roof collapses, drowning, lightning strikes, electrocution and landslides.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province reported the highest number of fatalities, 22, followed by Punjab with 17, Sindh with 13 and Balochistan with five. Punjab also recorded the most injuries, 50, followed by 33 in Sindh, 11 in KP, three in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and two in Balochistan.
“Moderate rainfall with one or two heavy falls is expected over the upper catchments of all the major rivers along with north and northeast Punjab,” the NDMA said in its latest situation report on Monday, warning of more downpours until July 5.
The authority said weather conditions could disrupt transport in hilly regions and damage communication and electricity infrastructure.
The NDMA has urged provincial and local authorities to stay on high alert throughout the monsoon season, particularly in mountainous and low-lying areas. Citizens have been advised to avoid unnecessary travel to tourist sites and monitor weather updates via the NDMA’s mobile app.
The warnings follow a deadly flash flood last week in Swat Valley that swept away 17 members of a single tourist family during a sudden rise in water levels. Twelve bodies have been recovered so far, according to rescue officials, with search operations ongoing for the remaining person. The slow emergency response to the incident triggered widespread condemnation in the media and online.
As monsoon activity intensifies, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) in Punjab also issued an emergency directive to district authorities in Sialkot, Narowal, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur to prepare for possible flash flooding.
The order, issued on Tuesday, instructs district commissioners and emergency services to activate 24-hour emergency operation centers, conduct patrols at vulnerable riverine and hilly sites, and ban public swimming at rivers, canals and picnic spots.
“All relevant departments must remain alert during the monsoon season,”Director General PDMA Irfan Ali Kathia said in the directive, adding that rescue boats, life jackets, ropes and emergency medicine should be pre-positioned in high-risk zones.
The PDMA also imposed Section 144 to prohibit river crossings without life jackets and overloading of passenger boats, warning of strict legal action against violators.
Pakistan, home to over 240 million people, is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, facing increasingly frequent and intense weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and torrential rains.
In 2022, a combination of heavy monsoon rains and glacial melt caused catastrophic floods that killed more than 1,700 people and caused damage estimated at over $33 billion.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s benchmark KSE-100 Index rose by 60 percent during the outgoing fiscal year, a top brokerage firm said in its report this week, crediting the stock market’s impressive performance to macroeconomic stability, improved credit ratings and “aggressive” easing of the monetary policy.
Pakistan has undertaken a series of International Monetary Fund-recommended structural reforms and fiscal adjustments aimed at stabilizing the economy since it came to the brink of a sovereign default in 2023. These measures have led to increasing macroeconomic stability, reduced inflation and improved ratings from international credit agencies.
“Pakistan’s benchmark KSE-100 index is up 60 percent YoY in PKR terms and 57 percent in USD terms in FY25,” Topline Securities, a Karachi-based top brokerage firm, said on Monday.
The report said that over the past two fiscal years (FY24 and FY25), the PSX has recorded a total gain of 203 percent in terms of the Pakistani rupee and 206 percent in terms of the US dollar. It credited the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) rise to macroeconomic stability achieved by the country after it secured a $7 billion International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) loan program.
Topline Securities said other factors contributing to the “remarkable rally” at the stock market are the completion of the IMF’s first review by Pakistan in March, the central bank’s “aggressive” monetary easing from 20.5 percent to 11 percent, and improvement in the country’s credit rating by Fitch from CCC+ to B-.
“As per Bloomberg data, Pakistan’s market was the 8th best performer in FY25 with a total USD return of 57 percent,” the report said. “However, over the cumulative two-year period (FY24 and FY25), it ranked as the best-performing market in the world.”
The report noted that average traded volumes in the cash/ready market increased by 37 percent YoY to an average of 631 million shares per day during FY25, adding that the average traded value also jumped by 80 percent YoY to Rs28 billion per day.
The report warned Pakistan may face pressure in achieving its revenue targets for FY26 but said it expected the government to pass the IMF’s program reviews in a timely manner by meeting the lender’s objectives. This, the report said, Islamabad would achieve through cutting development and other non-essential expenditures.
Topline Securities said it also expected a credit rating upgrade for Pakistan in the current fiscal year.
“The rating upgrade in our view is quite likely as debt ratios and FX reserves are showing improvements,” the report said. “With the credit rating upgrade to ‘B’ category, Pakistan may resort to the international bond market by issuing Eurobond and Sukuks which will further support FX reserves and strengthen the debt maturity profile of the country,” it added.
The report pointed out that any developments in Pakistan–US relations under President Donald Trump’s administration, along with regional tensions, could “significantly influence market sentiment.”
“Currently, a ceasefire is in place between India and Pakistan; however, any escalation could negatively affect investor confidence,” it said.
It also warned that any further conflict in the Middle East is likely to have broader macroeconomic implications for Pakistan amidst its dependency on oil imports, which could then weigh on the stock market’s performance.
