A senior journalist, Khalil Jibran of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Landi Kotal district, was killed near his residence on Wednesday, Geo News has reported.
Jirbran was heading towards his house with one of his friends when unknown men targeted him, District Police Officer (DPO) Khyber Salim Abbas confirmed.
According to the details provided by KP police, the assailants surrounded the journalist’s car, dragged him out of it and opened fire at him.
The former president of Landi Kotal press club died on the spot, while his attackers made a quick exit.
The journalism community of the district condemned the incident and criticized the authorities for failing to provide safety to journalists.
DPO Salim Abbas confirmed that the journalist had received threatening phone calls multiple times. Chief Minister KP, Ali Amin Gandapur, also directed authorities to arrest the attackers immediately.
Diplomats on Tuesday said at least 550 pilgrims died during the Haj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year.
At least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses, two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries’ responses told AFP.
“All of them (the Egyptians) died because of heat” except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said, adding the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Makkah.
At least 60 Jordanians also died, the diplomats said, up from an official tally of 41 given earlier on Tuesday by Amman.
The new deaths bring the total reported so far by multiple countries to 577, according to an AFP tally.
The diplomats said the total at the morgue in Al-Muaisem, one of the biggest in Makkah, was 550.
The Haj pilgrimage is increasingly affected by climate change, according to a Saudi study published last month that said temperatures in the area where rituals are performed were rising 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 degrees Fahrenheit) each decade.
Temperatures hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) at the Grand Mosque in Makkah on Monday, the Saudi national meteorology centre said.
Muslim pilgrims hold hands as they walk with umbrellas to the site where people take part in the Satan stoning ritual, during the annual haj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia on June 18, 2024 — Reuters
Heat stress
Earlier on Tuesday, Egypt’s foreign ministry said Cairo was collaborating with Saudi authorities on search operations for Egyptians who had gone missing during the Haj.
While a ministry statement said “a certain number of deaths” had occurred, it did not specify whether Egyptians were among them.
Saudi authorities have reported treating more than 2,000 pilgrims suffering from heat stress but have not updated that figure since Sunday and have not provided information on fatalities.
At least 240 pilgrims were reported dead by various countries last year, most of them Indonesians.
AFP journalists in Mina, outside Makkah, on Monday saw pilgrims pouring bottles of water over their heads as volunteers handed out cold drinks and fast-melting chocolate ice cream to help them keep cool.
Saudi officials had advised pilgrims to use umbrellas, drink plenty of water and avoid exposure to the sun during the hottest hours of the day.
Some pilgrims described seeing motionless bodies on the roadside and ambulance services that appeared overwhelmed at times.
Around 1.8 million pilgrims took part in the Haj this year, 1.6m of them from abroad, according to Saudi authorities.
Unregistered pilgrims
Each year tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to perform the Haj through irregular channels as they cannot afford the often costly procedures for official Haj visas.
This places these off-the-books pilgrims at risk as they cannot access air-conditioned facilities provided by Saudi authorities along the Haj route.
One of the diplomats who spoke to AFP on Tuesday said that the Egyptian death toll was “absolutely” boosted by a large number of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims.
“Irregular pilgrims caused great chaos in the Egyptian pilgrims’ camps, causing the collapse of services,” said an Egyptian official supervising the country’s Haj mission.
“The pilgrims went without food, water, or air conditioning for a long time.”
They died “from the heat because most people had no place” to take shelter.
Earlier this month, Saudi officials said they had cleared hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Makkah ahead of the Haj.
Other countries to report deaths during the Haj this year include Indonesia, Iran and Senegal.
Most countries have not specified how many deaths were heat-related.
Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdul Rahman Al-Jalajel said on Tuesday that health plans for the Haj had “been successfully carried out”, preventing major outbreaks of disease and other public health threats, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
Health officials “provided virtual consultations to over 5,800 pilgrims, primarily for heat-related illnesses, enabling prompt intervention and mitigating the potential for a surge in cases,” SPA said.
Earthquake tremors hit in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and various cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Peshawar, Swat, and Malakand on Wednesday, June 19.
According to the seismological center, the earthquake had a magnitude of 4.7. The epicentre was in the South-East region of Afghanistan, with a depth of 98 kilometres.
No loss of life and property has been recorded so far.
Tremors were also felt in North Waziristan, Parachinar, Lower Dir, Hangu, and the surrounding areas, including Charsadda and Swabi.
Calling everyone (especially Pakistani guys, who need to learn from K-Dramas, yes?) The Current interviewed Actor Kubra Khan and discovered her secret obsession – Korean dramas. The actress, who is gearing up for her upcoming film release on Eid ul Azha alongside Gohar Mumtaz, revealed her love for the foreign shows.
When asked about her favorite shows, Kubra Khan shared, “I’ve seen Boys Over Flowers 23 times! It’s a classic, and I just can’t get enough of it.” She also talked about enjoying ‘It’s Okay To Not Be Okay’, praising the show’s emotional depth.
But what caught our attention was her recommendation for two must-watch K-dramas – ‘Gyeongseong Creature’ and ‘Blood Hound’. “These shows are not only entertaining but also packed with emotions,” she said.If you’ve seen a K-Drama, you know they’re really good. One thing’s for sure, we’ll be adding Gyeongseong Creature and Blood Hound to our watchlist.
Umr-o-Ayyar is everything I could not have imagined: badly written fanfic and a thrilling display of VFX-laden action unknown to Pakistani films.
Invited to the premier on behalf of The Current, I recalled all I had ever known about the character of Umr-o-Ayyar. Having been an avid reader of the legendary series of Dastaan-e-Ameer-i-Hamza and Talism Hoshruba, I was a fan of the conniving, quirky character of Umr-o-Ayyar, a friend and close confidant of the protagonist, Ameer-i-Hamza, but a legend in himself. The expectations were a little too high. The reality was a bit of a downer.
It was a marriage of convenience between the magical world of Harry Potter and the legendary period drama of Ertugrul.
My father, a master in Arabic language and literature, always told me that the name’s correct pronunciation was Ammar-Ayyar and not Umr-o-Ayyar, as per the rules of the Arabic language. Ammar, the protagonist played by Usman Mukhtar, really marked the right box with the name, but unfortunately, that’s about it.
His portrayal of the ‘clueless chosen one’ who remained true to character till the end made him look stupid more than likeable. Just like it was said about Harry Potter that magic still surprised him, Usman embodied the same traits, keeping his quintessential baffled expression intact whether it was his Schrodinger phase or him as an Ayyar.
The hero’s entourage, comprised of Ali Kazmi Salman Shaukat and Sanam Saeed, did leave their mark. It was the story that let them down. Manzar Sehbai’s Guru is there to mentally prepare the chosen, pure-blood Ammar Ayyar just like Master Shifu did with Po in Kung Fu Panda, but his styling, like that of Ertugrul’s Ibn Arabi, seemed out of place in the uber-cool setting. His verbose speeches and boasting of the power to know it all led to an all too predictable ending.
Director Azfar Jafri, known for family entertainers like Janaan and Heer Maan Ja falls short on this period cum super-hero cum action genre. Despite the fact that the two legends featuring the titular character are quite internalised in our language and culture, the movie comes across as an adaption of foreign celluloid. It has elements of Harry Potter’s pure-bloodedness, Voldemort’s black magic, inconsequential mention of physics, a motor-bike chase, Marvel’s VFX, fight sequences, and a world of supernatural elements ironically being dealt with both guns and knives. Consequently, the original plot, if there was any, got lost.
A sign of a flawed storyline is that the movie does not reflect much on the very conflict of the plot as to why the two parties are at war with each other. Ayyars, weak enough to get possessed, riding on bikes, and combating magic with internal powers, guns, and daggers made it all funny, even funnier than the comic reliefs in the film.
The best thing about the movie was the villains. The plot was driven by Sana’s Cheno, inspired by Bellatrix Lestrange, and Laqqa-a desi Voldemort- played by Faran Tahir. They were visibly ominous, and however flawed their dialogues were, their actions made more sense as they acted their part well. At one point in the film, Laqqa, the villain, has his first showdown with Ammar Ayyar, the hero, where the former says to the latter, “I am extremely disappointed after meeting you.” As an audience, you agree with him because such is the extent of Ammar’s incorrigibility. While it is not a well-written character, it performed even worse.
Hamza Ali Abbasi’s styling and acting take the cake. During those five minutes of his guest appearance, you are reminded of the beauty of the original tale. His portrayal of the OG, vivacious and witty Umr-o-Ayyar, who has especially come to knock some sense in the hero, made me reminisce about the accessories he owned, such as “zanbeel,” a satchel he used to carry everywhere that contained all the things under the sun, including the jinns he had entrapped. Alas! Its a lost opportunity.
While the storyline keeps boggling the mind, VFX in the final showdown really gives that larger-than-life experience. It deserves all the praise for being groundbreaking in Pakistani cinema. It’s the story which is the hamartia, a fatal flaw of this presumed epic of a film. The title, Umr-o-Ayyar-A New Beginning, indicates that the makers intend to make a series under the same banner. The next effort should not be as frivolous as this one. Overall, the movie is a good one-time watch that really lacks originality.
An inflation bomb has been dropped on the Pakistani public as the government, in its new 2024-25 budget, imposed an 18 percent General Sales Tax (GST) on baby food and formula milk – a necessity for the nourishment of children.
People have strongly criticised the new tax on its probable risk of worsening malnutrition among infants and children since parents wouldn’t be able to afford baby food.
“In other countries, governments reduce taxes on such products,” said Akmal, a resident of Lahore, to DAWN.
In his budget speech Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb ironically underscored the importance of children’s nutrition in the country.
When asked about the new tax, he replied that it “was not a big deal” as formula milk is purchased by the middle and upper middle classes who can afford it.
What a hot, hot Eid ul Azha most of the country witnessed. But being the resilient country that we are, we didn’t let the weather dampen our celebrations, and that includes our celebrities.
Many actors have shared their pictures, showing off their best outfits for the first day of Eid. Some started celebrating in the evening and posted their pictures later.
Check out some of your favorite celebrities celebrating Eid:
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and son of former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Zain Qureshi, said on Monday that he hopes his father will be released from jail after Eid ul Azha, Geo News has reported.
A close aide to former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi has been in jail since last year.
“This is my second Eid without my father. He has given the ultimate sacrifice. I’m hoping that he’ll be out of jail after Eid,” Zain Qureshi told journalists after offering Eid prayers in Multan.
Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi are facing multiple cases. They were initially arrested in the cypher case and cases related to vandalism on May 9.
Zain Qureshi also that his party is always ready for dialogue.
Wind and rain are likely to descend in different cities of the country on the second day of Eid.
The Meteorological Department says storms and rain are probably coming to different cities in the country between June 18 and June 22, reports Geo News.
Clouds are expected in upper plains and hilly areas, including Islamabad, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir, as per the report.
Along with that, wind, squall and rain have been predicted in different areas of Balochistan from June 20 to 22.
Meanwhile, wind and drizzling are expected in various Sindh cities on June 21 and 22, including Sukkur, Jacobabad, Kashmore, and Larkana.
Jin from BTS has finished required military service in South Korea, leaving the military base in Yeoncheon on Wednesday, June 12.
Wearing his military uniform, Jin was welcomed back by his bandmates J-Hope, Jimin, Jungkook, V, and RM, who played the saxophone to celebrate his return.
Later, BTS posted a photo on X (formerly Twitter) showing all six members together. Jin sat in the middle on a couch with decorations that said, “Jin Is Back.”
The group wrote “I’m home!” under the photo, which got more than one million likes on the platform.
Jin also did a livestream on Weverse for 19 minutes, where he talked with fans and thanked them for supporting him while he was away.
He posted a message thanking reporters and ARMY fans who came to see him after he finished military service. He said sorry for not being able to greet everyone properly because he was worried it would get too crowded.
In January, BTS put out a video on YouTube of Jin celebrating New Year’s with fans while he was still in the military.
“Ta-da everyone! Hello! Seok-jin came to say hi for the new year,” he said. “It’s January, everyone. The new year is here. I’m getting older in January. I’d be in my mid-30s now.”
“I miss you all. I miss you a lot,” Jin added. “Guys, please wait a few more months. Now that it’s the new year, we have a few months left. Make a lot of snowmen and think of me when you make them.”
BTS said they will come back together by 2025 after everyone finishes their military service.
