Five detectives searching for a thief were abducted in Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with two sniffer dogs.
According to the police, the abduction occurred in Malazai, a suburb of Tank. The kidnappers have demanded a ransom of 100 million rupees for the release of the hostages.
DPO Tank Abdul Salam Khalid told Geo News that a person named Noor Ali had hired a private company from Kohat to investigate a petty robbery incident at a house.
The team, along with two Khoji dogs, were abducted by unknown armed men when they were on their way to Kohat after the investigation.
Among the hostages, Shoaib Khan, Rafiullah, and Rais Khan belong to Kirk, while Shahid Aziz Bhatti and Majid Ali Okara are residents of Punjab.
According to the DPO, the investigation team was called without informing the police, who have now started investigating the incident.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Gohar Khan has revealed during an investigation by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) that Jibran Ilyas and Azhar Mashwani manage the party’s social media accounts from abroad, Express Tribune has reported.
FIA has initiated a probe regarding the controversial video released from Imran Khan’s social media account about the 1971 Fall of Dhaka.
During the inquiry, Barrister Gohar emphasised that he did not agree with the decision to upload the controversial video. He confirmed that Ilyas and Mashwani are primarily responsible for content creation and video production.
During the FIA’s cybercrime inquiry into the contentious video, Barrister Gohar was interrogated for two hours, while the party’s Information Secretary, Raoof Hasan, was questioned for four hours.
Meanwhile, Azhar Mashwani today posted on X, “My two elder brothers Prof. Mazhar and Prof. Zahoor Mashwani were picked up from our house in Township Lahore at 2:50 pm today by dozens of CTD uniformed and plain clothed people.”
Doctor Asim, Bushra Bibi’s physician, has said that she’s not being poisoned, contrary to her recent allegations.
Former First Lady Bushra Bibi had earlier alleged that her food was poisoned due to which she was in poor health. She is currently incarcerated in a sub-jail at her husband Imran Khan’s Bani Gala residence where she had passed the remarks.
On Wednesday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership demanded that a full medical checkup of Bibi should be conducted. Even Imran Khan, former Prime Minister, told the court that his wife was being poisoned and that she had marks on her skin and tongue.
He also requested in court that Dr Asim Yunus of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre should medically examine Bushra Bibi.
Today, her physician Dr Asim examined her and briefed the media that there were no symptoms of food poisoning at the moment.
He stated that Bushra Bibi’s health was not 100 per cent fine and detailed tests should be done. “If there was anything two months ago, I did not see it but her health is better now,” Dr Asim declared.
During an interaction with journalists in Adiala Jail today, former Prime Minister Imran Khan lauded the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges for exposing alleged interference in judicial matters and claiming judges would send him “messages of helplessness” in his cases.
Khan’s statement came after the Supreme Court of Pakistan took a Suo Moto notice of the IHC Judges’ letter to the Supreme Judicial Council urging the body to probe the serious matter.
A one-member inquiry commission was made by the federal cabinet however ex-CJP Tassaduq Hussain Jillani refused to head the said commission after he was chosen to lead it.
Khan remarked, “I salute the judges for raising their voice and hope they will save the country.” He reiterated that everyone knew about the “regime change operation” in 2022 when he was ousted from the government through a no-confidence motion.
The PTI founder gave his views about the Suo Moto notice by the SC and said, “It is a serious matter and should be heard by full court.” However, he remarked that a seven-member bench is better than the commission.
The Punjab government has initiated a thorough investigation into the burning of a church in Gujjar Khan, The News reported on Monday.
However, police of that specific location didn’t register a first information report (FIR) of the case.
Investigators explained that the church had been constructed on land owned by the National Highway Authority (NHA) many years ago. NHA authorities themselves erected a building measuring 12 marlas on Kaliam Road approximately 25 years ago and relocated the church there.
They also said that Gujjar Khan Church had been empty for more than 12 years. The elders of the Christian community started Sunday services at Kaliam Road Church peacefully around 10 years ago. A preliminary investigation report has been sent to the Punjab Home Office, but it hasn’t identified any particular group or person involved.
Regional Police Officer (RPO), Rawalpindi Region, Babar Sarfaraz Alpa, when contacted to obtain his version about the occurrence, said, “The police recovered nothing yet except that the fire erupted due to a short circuit. However, the police have not given up the probe.” The investigators have collected forensic evidence and examined it, but have gotten no clue so far, the RPO concluded.
Dr. Majeed Abel, the Executive Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, urged authorities to uncover and disclose what happened to the church. He demanded that those responsible be held accountable under the law.
Customs officials made a significant seizure of gold and cash at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on Tuesday.
Acting on a tip-off, the officials intercepted a passenger scheduled to depart for Hong Kong on Thai Airways flight TG-342, suspected of carrying a substantial amount of undeclared valuables.
Following the tip-off, Customs personnel conducted a thorough search of the passenger’s belongings, uncovering over $40,000 (PKR 11 million) in assorted foreign currencies, along with 21 tolas of gold coins and jewelry.
The combined value of the confiscated items is estimated to be approximately $56,000 (PKR 15 million).
The detained passenger failed to declare the cash and gold, a requirement for amounts exceeding $10,000 (PKR 2.78 million), when leaving Pakistan, leading to allegations of money laundering and smuggling. An FIR has been filed, and the investigation is ongoing.
The Israeli strike that killed one journalist and wounded six others in Lebanon merits a “war crime” investigation, rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) told AFP on Thursday.
Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, 37, was killed instantly in the strike on October 13 in the south of the country near the Israeli border.
The others present — two more Reuters journalists, two from Al Jazeera, and two from AFP — were all injured.
AFP photographer Christina Assi, 28, was seriously wounded, later had a leg amputated and is still in hospital.
Independent investigations by both rights groups concluded, like an AFP investigation published earlier on Thursday, that the first strike that killed Abdallah and severely wounded Assi was most likely a tank round fired from Israel.
Two Israeli strikes on a group of Lebanese, American, and Iraqi journalists in south Lebanon on October 13, 2023, were apparently deliberate attacks on civilians, which is a war crime. https://t.co/F2UmERhszApic.twitter.com/Z7gjgGW19A
Amnesty said the strikes “were likely a direct attack on civilians that must be investigated as a war crime”.
“Those responsible for Issam Abdallah’s unlawful killing and the injuring of six other journalists must be held accountable,” said Aya Majzoub, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“No journalist should ever be targeted or killed simply for carrying out their work. Israel must not be allowed to kill and attack journalists with impunity.”
HRW said the two Israeli strikes “were apparently deliberate attacks on civilians, which is a war crime”.
Under international humanitarian law, “it is forbidden in any circumstances to carry out direct attacks against civilians”, it said.
The group’s investigation indicated that the journalists were “well removed from ongoing hostilities, clearly identifiable as members of the media, and had been stationary for at least 75 minutes before they were hit”.
Amnesty said images it verified showed “the seven journalists were wearing body armour labelled ‘press’, and that the blue Reuters crew car was marked ‘TV’ with yellow tape on its hood”.
“The evidence strongly suggests that Israeli forces knew or should have known that the group that they were attacking were journalists,” HRW’s Lebanon researcher Ramzi Kaiss said.
“This is an unlawful and apparently deliberate attack on a very visible group of journalists,” he said.
In collaboration with @afp we investigated the explosions near the Lebanese-Israeli border that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six other reporters. The evidence points to Israeli responsibility and suggests that it was no misfire 1/ https://t.co/1fvL8cfdXn
Speaking at a press conference in Beirut, Dylan Collins, the other AFP journalist wounded in the attack, said: “I know they (the investigations) won’t bring Issam back to life. I know they won’t help Christina walk again.
“But what I do hope is that they at least will mark the start of some sort of process of justice and accountability,” he said.
He shared a message from Assi that said: “We chose journalism with a mission to deliver the truth, and despite the inevitable costs, our commitment remains unwavering. Nothing can silence us.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement his government would “take all measures to include” the conclusions of the investigation “in the complaint filed before the UN Security Council”.
Since Israel’s bombardment of Gaza started after Palestinian fighter group Hamas struck Israel in a surprise attack on October 7, 63 journalists and media workers have been killed — 56 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese, the Committee to Protect Journalists says.
The New York-based rights group on Thursday called for “an immediate, independent, and transparent investigation that holds the perpetrators to account” for the strike on journalists in Lebanon.
Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) has lodged a complaint against the ex-CEO of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for acquiring the position on the basis of a fake PhD degree, reports Geo.
Sheikh Akhtar Hussain remained CEO DRAP from 2018 till 2019. FIA has begun searching for Hussain to investigate the matter
The findings were discovered by the anti-corruption circle in FIA.
As the world marks the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, Pakistan’s journalistic community continues to grapple with an alarming surge in violence and impunity.
Several reports have highlighted the deteriorating situation, shedding light on the challenges faced by media professionals in the South Asian nation.
According to the recently released annual report by the Islamabad-based independent media watchdog, Freedom Network, Pakistan has failed to combat the rising impunity of crimes against journalists, painting a grim picture of the state of press freedom in the country.
The report titled ‘One Step Forward, Two Steps Back,’ outlines the harrowing experiences faced by journalists, including incidents of kidnapping, physical assaults, and unjust legal cases.
Pakistan made history in 2021 by passing two special laws to protect journalists.
The Sindh Assembly passed the “Sindh Protection of Journalists and other Media Practitioners Act-2021” while the National Assembly passed “Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act-2021” in space of few months.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab have not passed a similar law for their jurisdictions.
According to the Freedom Network’s report at least 37.5 percent of the violations in Pakistan – 93 out of the total 248 cases in the period between August 2021- August 2023 – were recorded in Islamabad alone.
The report further states that during this period there were 11 cases of murders of journalists, plus another 20 unsuccessful assassination attempts.
25 instances of legal cases registered against journalists.
11 cases of abductions, plus another case of an unsuccessful kidnapping attempt.
25 cases of arrests, detentions, or illegal confinements of journalists by the State.
59 cases of physical assaults, 26 of which caused bodily injuries.
05 cases of attacks on the homes of journalists.
30 cases of specific threats of murder or other dire consequences issued to journalists.
59 cases of harassment of journalists.
At least 37.5% of the violations (93 out of a total 248 cases) were recorded in the federal capital Islamabad alone.
Sindh was the second worst with 22.5% of the violations (56 cases) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was a close third at 18.5% (46 cases).
These were followed by Punjab with 17.3% (43 cases), Balochistan with about 2.5% (6 cases), Azad Kashmir (AJK) with 1.2% (3 cases) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) with 0.5% (1 case).
The report also cited specific incidents, such as the tragic death of Channel 5 reporter Sadaf Naeem during the coverage of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s rally in Punjab in October 2022.
The report notes that another Pakistani journalist Ashad Sharif was killed in Kenya on October 23, 2022, and there is still no clarity on his murder.
Pakistan Press Foundation has also documented at least 157 media-related attacks, including 16 instances of arrests, five instances of detention, and 44 cases of assault this year.
Between January and September 2023, PPF has documented at least 157 attacks on the media in connection with their work, including 16 instances of arrests and five instances of detention, 44 cases of assault, two cases of damage to property, four instances of raids, 18 instances of registration of cases against media professionals and two instances of legal action, 26 instances of censorship, 20 instances of harassment of journalists or media practitioners, 13 cases of threats, seven confirmed cases of kidnappings and three unconfirmed cases.
While the country witnessed an improvement in its ranking in the World Press Freedom Index, climbing from 157 in 2021 to 150 in 2023, this progress is overshadowed by the failure to effectively implement the laws designed to protect journalists.
In a significant revelation, drug trafficking operations conducted through online shopping platforms have come to light, resulting in the apprehension of 11 individuals in various cities across Pakistan. The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has been at the forefront of this enforcement effort.
According to the official spokesperson for the ANF, ongoing investigations have unearthed additional suspects connected to this illicit network, all of whom hail from different regions within the four provinces of Pakistan.
During the course of these operations, the ANF has successfully seized 33 parcels, containing a total of 53.7 kilogrammes of hashish, 1.6 kilogrammes of ice, and 1.2 kilogrammes of opium, dealing a severe blow to the illegal drug trade.
Reports of drug trafficking through online shopping platforms had been circulating for several months prior to these recent arrests.
The ANF’s spokesperson disclosed that a well-organised group had been exploiting registered companies on these platforms as a front for their drug smuggling activities.
Furthermore, the spokesperson emphasised that the ongoing investigation has revealed the existence of a far-reaching network of this criminal group, spreading its tentacles across the entire country.
As the investigation continues, concerns have been raised that employees of major e-commerce platforms may also be involved in this heinous act.
The full extent of their involvement remains under scrutiny as authorities work diligently to dismantle this dangerous network.
