Mufti Taqi Usmani survived a knife attack on Thursday after his guards arrested a man carrying a knife.
Usmani was walking with his guards by his side after Fajr prayers at Dar ul Uloom Korangi when a suspicious man started to follow him.
The scholar’s guards captured the suspect, who has been identified as a 35-year-old man named Asim Laeeq. It was found that Asim was carrying a knife, confirmed Dar ul Uloom sources.
SSP Korangi Shahjahan said the suspect did not attack Usmani. He said the suspect had asked for a meeting with the scholar after Fajr prayers.
“The suspect has been taken into custody, we are continuing with further investigation into the incident,” said SSP Korangi.
Shortly after the incident, Mufti Taqi Usmani released an audio message in which he confirmed most details of the incident, reassuring his followers that he is safe.
“A suspect came to me after the Fajr prayers and asked to speak to me in private,” he said. “I had just gotten up to speak to him when the suspect pulled out a knife from his pocket,” revealed the scholar.
Two pet dogs attacked and injured a resident of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in Karachi on Monday.
The video circulating on social media shows the two dogs rushed towards the resident when he was walking in the street. The pet sitter at first tried to pull off the dogs from the man but upon seeing the dogs out of control , he ran away from the scene leaving the victim to defend for himself.
Another man, who appears to be the caretaker of the dogs tried hard to separate the animals from Ali but was unsuccessful.
As per reports, the victim, Mirza Akhtar Ali is a lawyer by profession later registered a complaint with Darakshan police station.
The two caretakers of the dogs, identified as Fahad and Ali, left the advocate injured on the road. The victim said a passer-by took him to a hospital.
The delegation was led by the Jamiat Ulema-i- Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, General Secretary PDM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Usman Kakkar, Attaullah Tarar, Shah Awais Noorani, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidari, and others from the PDM were also part of the delegation.
Maryam Nawaz said, “It hurts my heart when journalists are punished for writing the truth and telling the truth.”
A pet lion cub attacked a 10-year-old boy in Karachi’s residential area.
A video that is widely circulating on social media shows a lion suddenly attacking a young kid as he walks by, despite having a leash tied around its neck.
The boy was taken to a nearby hospital where he has been declared to be out of danger.
The police have arrested a security guard and a man identified as Saad. The lion’s owner has allegedly escaped and has been identified as Usama. The police are conducting raids to arrest him. A case will be registered after police arrest the owner.
Talking to Samaa, the investigating officer said: “Usama is involved in the illegal trade of wild animals,” the investigating officer said. The suspect’s brother was taking the animal to his friend’s house when the incident took place.
“Usama has escaped along with the lion,” the officer added.
According to wildlife conservator Javed Mahar, the case has been taken up by the Sindh Wildlife Department. An inquiry is in progress and legal action will be taken.
As per reports, police have received information that the owner of the lion and the boy have reached a compromise and that the owner of the lion did not have a permit to keep the animal.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said on Thursday that the blast at Serena Hotel in Quetta was a suicide attack. He said this was a foreign attempt to destabilise Pakistan. “Pakistan Army and the people of Pakistan will defeat such designs.” Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed the responsibility for the Quetta blast yesterday. Five people were killed and more than a dozen injured in the deadly attack.
All law enforcement agencies are on high alert at the instructions of the Interior Ministry. Talking about the attack, Sheikh Rasheed said the suicide bomber stayed inside the car. “C4 explosives weighing between 60 to 70 kilogrammes were used in the attack”. Evidence has been sent for forensic analysis.
The interior minister also said that social media was misused during the past few days by foreign elements who are behind efforts to destabilise Pakistan. “An estimated 250,000-300,000 social media accounts were created in India.” “These foreign forces cannot see Pakistan prosper and progress,” said the minister.
China strongly condemned the terrorist attack. A statement by the Chinese embassy in Pakistan said that Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong was leading a delegation on a visit to Quetta on the same day. “When the attack occurred, the Chinese delegation was not in the hotel. Till present, no reports of casualties of Chinese citizens in the attack have been received.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted that he is deeply saddened by the loss of innocent lives in the condemnable and cowardly terrorist attack in Quetta yesterday. “Our nation has made great sacrifices in defeating terrorism and we will not to allow this scourge to rise again. We remain alert to all internal and external threats.”
I am deeply saddened by the loss of innocent lives in the condemnable & cowardly terrorist attack in Quetta yesterday. Our nation has made great sacrifices in defeating terrorism & we will not to allow this scourge to rise again. We remain alert to all internal & external threats
The Pakistani man who attacked the former offices of French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, last September was radicalised by videos of preachers in his home country and anti-France demonstrations at the time, AFP reported, citing a local newspaper.
According to Le Parisien, police investigation has revealed the 26-year-old had spent the days leading up to his knife attack watching extremist preachers on YouTube and TikTok denouncing France and Charlie Hebdo.
“I couldn’t eat. I was crying watching the videos,” Zaheer Hassan Mahmood told investigators.
Weeks before, the magazine had republished sketches of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which were considered blasphemous by Muslims, to mark the start of a trial of men linked to a 2015 attack on its offices.
Mahmood said he did not realise the magazine had moved offices after the 2015 attack and presumed the two people he slashed with a meat cleaver were employees of the publication, the report said.
Both victims, who worked for a TV production company with no links to Charlie Hebdo, sustained serious injuries.
Mahmood, from the village of Kothli Qazi in Punjab province, had entered France with false papers showing him as an unaccompanied minor, enabling him to claim asylum.
Islamist groups organised demonstrations in Pakistan in September against Charlie Hebdo and French President Emmanuel Macron, who defended freedom of expression and blasphemy, which is legal in France.
Mahmood watched videos by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the late founder of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, and other radical preachers.
He was also influenced by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who accused Macron of “attacking Islam”, the newspaper said.
Blasphemy is a criminal act in Pakistan, where laws allow death penalty for anyone deemed to have insulted Islam or Islamic personalities.
Mahmood said he initially intended to damage the office building, rather than attack people, and has offered to apologise to his victims.
Investigators have found a video he sent to a friend the day before his attack which called for the decapitation of blasphemers, and he received a call from Greece the same day which appeared to refer to a pre-meditated assault.
He has been charged with “attempted murder with relation to a terrorist enterprise”.
A knifeman on Thursday beheaded a woman besides killing two others and injuring dozens of worshippers in an attack inside a church in Nice on the Côte d’Azur — the Mediterranean coast of southeastern France.
According to reports, the killings happened at 9 am inside the Notre-Dame basilica in the city centre. There were unconfirmed reports in the French media that at least one of the victims had been beheaded.
Police described the scene as a “vision of horror”.
The attacker was shot and injured by police and was taken to hospital.
The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said the attacker had repeated “Allahu Akbar” several times while he was being arrested and handcuffed by police.
He said a woman victim had been decapitated but he had no details of how the two others were killed.
The attack comes less than two weeks after history teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded outside his high school after showing his class blasphemous caricatures, including one of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) during a discussion on free speech.
Police have arrested shopkeepers who were abusing women in Hyderi Market, Karachi for not buying anything after making him unfold too many clothes from the stack.
According to details, the incident took place in a cloth shop located in Karachi’s famous Hyderi market. The seller got angry at the women and started physically assaulting them after a heated argument.
The female buyers also beat up the shopkeeper and slapped him while the shopkeeper pushed the woman down.
Police after being informed about the incident reached there and arrested the shopkeeper. However, the victims refused to register a first information report (FIR) against the shopkeeper.
Video of the incident has gone viral on social media.
Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shoaib Dastgir has dismissed reports of bullets being fired at the vehicle of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz last week when she was to appear before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Lahore.
Many police officials were injured when a scuffle broke out last week between policemen and PML-N workers ahead of Maryam’s appearance. Footage of the incident suggested that workers had brought bags full of stones which were pelted at police and security officials.
Former senator Sajid Mir, after meeting Maryam on Sunday, claimed she had been targeted by some sniper during her appearance, saying the windscreen of her bullet-proof vehicle could not be smashed by a stone.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Dastgir said no evidence was offered to back up claims asserted through reports and social media.
He also said the institution of police is an independent one and has no tussle with any political party. However, he warned, those who took the law into their hands will be punished.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president and former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, was on Tuesday caught in a clash between party workers and Punjab Police as she arrived at the Lahore office of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the case pertaining to receipt of 200 acres of what was supposed to be government land in Raiwind.
To show solidarity, PML-N workers in the form of a procession had accompanied the party leader as she left for the NAB’s office in Thokar Niaz Baig. She was, however, told to head back as the situation deteriorated outside the anti-graft body’s office when party workers and police clashed.
In two videos that she posted on Twitter, Maryam alleged that police pelted stones at her car which cracked her bulletproof vehicle’s windshield. “Pelting stones at my car, police have broken its windshield. This is a bulletproof car and police are pelting stones and shelling [PML-N workers] in front of NAB’s office to instigate workers. Why do you call us if you are so scared of us?” she was heard as saying in one of the videos.
Speaking to party workers after the clash, Maryam said she had been summoned from her home so that she could be harmed. “I am standing here, if I have been called, then listen to me as well,” she said.
The PML-N leader said that she had arrived outside the NAB office to “answer lies” and will not head back home; however, the doors of the NAB office remained closed and no official of responded to Maryam’s statement.
The incident was followed by Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar taking notice of the clash and ordering the chief secretary as well as the inspector general to submit a report on the matter. “No one can be allowed to take the law into their hands,” said the chief minister. “Action should be taken against those who violated the law,” reports quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, support poured in for Maryam as Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari among many others voiced their concerns.
Condemn the unnecessary use of force, teargas & stone pelting on @MaryamNSharif & her party workers by police in Lahore today.
“Condemn the unnecessary use of force, teargas & stone pelting on @MaryamNSharif & her party workers by police in Lahore today [sic],” Bilawal tweeted.
THE CASE AGAINST MARYAM:
According to Geo, NAB has accused Maryam of receiving 200 acres of what was supposed to be government land in Raiwind. Reports claim that the transfer was made during former Lahore deputy commissioner (DC) Noorul Amin Mengal and former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general (DG) Ahad Cheema’s tenure.
NAB had also summoned Mengal along with the LDA officials of that time with records.
A tract of land, stretching over 3,568 kanals, was bought by the Sharif family in 2013. The largest part of the property, 1,936 kanals, was transferred to the name of Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif’s mother, Shamim Bibi. The land that was transferred to Maryam from that tract was 1,440 kanals.
