A police officer was wounded on Saturday when an unidentified assailant hurled a hand grenade at the Smart Police Station, Civil Lines, in Quetta.
The injured officer has been identified as Abdul Saboor.
According to the police, an unidentified motorcyclist carrying a hand grenade attacked the police station located in the White Road area of Quetta.
The hand grenade resulted in a powerful explosion. As per local authorities the attacker managed to flee the scene.
In Balochistan’s capital of Quetta, a shortage of flour has led to skyrocketing prices for 20kg bags of the commodity. According to reports, profiteers are taking advantage of the situation and selling flour bags for between Rs2,640 to Rs2,800 in Quetta and surrounding areas.
The residents of Quetta are frustrated that they are unable to obtain flour at the government’s fixed rate and are instead forced to pay an excessive price. They are calling on the provincial government to take action against the profiteers and ensure the availability of flour.
According to ARY News, the President of Flour Mills Association Balochistan, Nasir Agha, has also weighed in on the crisis. He stated that the supply of wheat to the mills has been suspended for the last ten days, and he blamed the incompetence of the Balochistan food department for the current situation.
With prices for flour continuing to rise, it remains to be seen how the provincial government will respond to the demands of the residents and the Flour Mills Association.
Tournament favourites Lahore Qalandars will face a team in trouble on Thursday. Quetta Gladiators are at the bottom of the points table while Qalandars are right on top.
Lahore Qalandars fans are excited to watch Lahore vs Quetta in their home ground, but they are likely relaxed too after their team performed extraordinarily well in their first 4 games.
Last time Lahore palyed against Quetta at the National Stadium, Qalandars thrashed the Gladiators, winning the match by 63 runs. Now Quetta Gladiators are ready to take revenge.
Experts say that there is a strong chance of Lahore Qalandars maintaining their winning streak, with a complete batting and bowling line up. Spinner Rashid Khan can change the game single handedly, Shaheen Afridi is famous for grabbing first over wickets and the king of seam, Haris Rauf.
Their batting line up is also strong in term of hitting in power play, with powerful hitters Fakhar Zaman and Kamran Ghulam.
Shaheen Afridi’s team heads into the fixture after thumping Islamabad United by 110 runs in their previous outing. Quetta Gladiators have managed to win just one match in the tournament so far, with their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition looking increasingly bleak with each passing game.
An inquiry committee has gathered testimony from at least 10 victims during its investigation into the alleged existence of an organised gang that reportedly forced nurses and other staff members at the Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Quetta into prostitution, SAMAA has reported.
Atiq Ullah Khan, the additional secretary for health in Balochistan, stated that some women had offered to testify over the phone in order to safeguard their identities and to share their experiences with the vicious cycle that was being controlled by a strong group.
Atiq said that he was taking the situation very seriously and that he had visited the hospital to reassure the employees that action would be taken against the offenders.
He claimed that girls who complied with the gang’s demands while retaining their control were believed to receive unusual privileges from the group which is accused of running the hospital’s prostitution network. Those who disobeyed were subject to the gang’s wrath in one way or another.
“We have submitted the initial report to the secretary health with several recommendations,” he stated.
Senator Azam Swati of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has finally been released from sub-jail after remaining behind bars for more than a month.
The senator had been in the custody of law enforcing agencies since November 27 last year, after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) booked him in Islamabad over a “campaign of intimidating tweets against state institutions”, including the former chief of army staff General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa.
On Monday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted bail to Swati after he filed a petition seeking post-arrest bail.
In December, PTI chief Imran Khan had said that Swati had been “taken away by Quetta police” from Islamabad despite health concerns.
According to media reports, the arrest was made over different cases registered against the senator across Balochistan. However, Balochistan High Court (BHC) later ordered that no more cases should be registered against him.
Later, Swati was brought to the capital via a special plane from Sukkur.
Swati had criticised persons within the establishment in tweets posted from his account.
The Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Friday ordered that all first information reports (FIR) registered against Senator Azam Swati of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for his controversial tweets against senior military officers should be cancelled.
Five FIRs were registered in Balochistan against Swati for tweeting against army officials.
Balochistan police had arrested the PTI senator last week from Islamabad, detaining him in their custody after a local court in Quetta approved the law enforcement agency’s request for a physical remand.
The court has directed police to quash all FIRs registered against the senator in the province and release him if he was not booked in any other cases.
Swati was first arrested by the FIA on charges of posting controversial tweets about the armed forces in October and was later released on bail.
The senator has since alleged that he was tortured in custody and demanded the removal of two military officials, one of whom he used foul language against in his tweet on November 26.
On November 27, the FIA arrested Swati for the second time over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions”.
The United States (US) has warned of action if the superpower sees “international terrorists regrouping in Afghanistan” while saying that US’ broader goal was to make sure that “terrorists and others aren’t able to use Afghanistan as a launch pad for attacks on Pakistan.”
US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price, in a press briefing, stated: “We also have capabilities when it comes to counterterrorism in the region that does not leave us entirely beholden to the Taliban.”
He also mentioned the killing of the al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri by a US strike in August this year to prove the superpower’s capabilities to act against terrorists.
The spokesperson also added that the Afghan Taliban had been “either unable or unwilling to live up to the commitments that they’ve made in a number of areas.”
Answering a question, Price said, “Of course, we’ve seen other groups also active. You mentioned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), among others. We are determined to work with our partners in the region, including Pakistan, to do what we can to take on the threat of terrorism in the region, and certainly the threat of terrorism that extends well beyond the region.”
Terming Pakistan an “important partner”, Price said that the US values its bilateral relationship with the country. “We welcome opportunities to expand cooperation in areas that are of mutual interest to us and to Pakistan. That, of course, does include when it comes to counterterrorism”, he added.
Earlier this week, Pakistan’s Head of Mission to Kabul Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani escaped an assassination bid in Afghanistan. Last month, a suicide attack— for which TTP claimed responsibility— rammed a police escort for a polio vaccination team in Quetta.
An explosion in Quetta’s Baleli area on Tuesday left one policeman and one child dead. The explosion also left 23 people injured including 20 police men.
Police said that a truck of Frontier Constabulary (FC) was targeted in the explosion. They said that the injured cops and civilians were rushed to a nearby hospital.
Emergency responders and police rushed to the scene to provide rescue assistance. Police said, adding 16 Balochistan constabulary also suffered multiple injuries.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed the attack. This is the third attack by the militant organisation since they announced an end to ceasefire on Monday.
Pakistan Customs has impounded 67 non-custom paid vehicles in a crackdown against the smugglers in Quetta.
67 non-custom paid vehicles, sugar, and fertiliser valued at approximately Rs336 million were confiscated in accordance with the Prime Minister’s goal to eradicate smuggling.
The Customs team launched a crackdown in Nokandi, Quetta, and thwarted the attempt to smuggle goods across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Earlier, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said on February 21 that non-custom paid vehicles worth Rs11.2 billion were seized between July 2021 and January 2022.
During the July–January 2020–2021 period, smuggled goods worth a total of Rs35 billion were discovered, compared to Rs22 billion during the same time the previous year.
Many people in Quetta continue to purchase non-custom vehicles despite the fact that they are illegal since they are much more expensive than legal or custom-paid vehicles.
For instance, if a car is sold for Rs5 million at a dealership or local car market, it may be offered by smugglers for Rs2.5 million or even less. As these are smuggled vehicles, non-custom-paid automobiles are less expensive and lack the necessary paperwork or legal documents.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Azam Swati has submitted an application to the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court (SC), requesting to “safeguard sanctity, honour, privacy and respect of the Senator after the leak of him and his wife’s private recorded video.”
In the petition, it is stated that the “applicant brought the honorable court’s attention towards this most inhuman and unethical incident.”
Swati narrated the incident including details of how he got to know about the video when an unknown number sent the clip to his wife. He said that the “main part of the video is genuine and it was taken when the couple was staying in Quetta.”
After watching the video, Swati said, “My wife called me after watching, remembering and confirming the details of the video. She was sobbing uncontrollably and was hardly able to utter any words.”
Moreover, the senator named Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Assistant Director Ayaz, D.G, FIA, DGC Faisal Naseer and Brig. Fahim and others “who are involved in committing the heinous crime, violation of human rights, privacy and dignity of man.”
He said that the people who were involved in his earlier custodial torture had sent this private video to his wife and son to blackmail him.
On November 8, during the hearing of PTI chief Imran Khan’s contempt of court case in SC, when Swati appeared before the court, Chief Justice (CJ) Umar Ata Bandial spoke to him that “What happened to you is very tragic”.
The Chief Justice corrected Swati that he had never stayed in the rest house of the SC, to which Azam Swati replied, “Yes, you are right, I had stayed in Quetta Federal Lodge.”
“Your case is ongoing in Human Rights Cell. The court is careful in this matter, the case will be seen according to the law,” said the CJP.
Swati asked whether he can show the alleged video to anyone other than the judges. To this, the CJ directed Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to remove the alleged video of the senator To this, the PTI leader said that “The video that will be removed may not be the one that was sent to me”.
The same day Swati said that he will show the recorded private video of him and his wife to the SC and will tell the court which clips of the video are fabricated and which are real.
Talking to media outside of the apex court, Azam dismissed the FIA assessment of the video as being “fake and edited”.
“Why did we [me and my wife] say that the recorded video is of Quetta,” the senator added.
Moreover, the senator appealed to CJ for justice. He also urged the Chairman of the Senate, Sadiq Sanjrani, to follow the constitution.
Prior to this, Swati had alleged that the video was recorded when he and his wife had visited Quetta where he stayed at the Supreme Court Judicial Lodges. According to Swati, Chairman Sanjrani had arranged his stay. However, the SC issued a clarification stating that Senator Azam Swati “Never used/stayed in Supreme Court Judges Rest House at Quetta”, adding that according to the Balochistan Special Branch, Swati stayed at the Balochistan Judicial Academy (Judicial Complex Quetta), which is not under the SC’s control.
Chairman Sanjrani had also issued a statement where he condemned the video and also said that he provided Swati and his wife with the best and safest accommodation as guests in Quetta.
Pointing fingers towards FIA’s Assistant Director Ayaz Khan, the senator said General Headquarters (GHQ) should summon him [Ayaz] so that he can reveal the truth “that on whose orders he arrested me and raided my house.”
Earlier, Chairman Sanjrani formed a 14-member special committee to probe the alleged “obscene video” of Swati.
On November 5, Swati broke into tears during a press conference, alleging that he and his wife were secretly recorded in a room and he was informed about it by his daughter.