ISLAMABAD: Unidentified men on Thursday kidnapped two Pakistan Customs officials and president of a local chambers of commerce and industry in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a senior administration official said.
Pakistan has struggled to contain surging militancy in KP since a fragile truce between the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the state broke down in November 2022.
The TTP and other militant groups have frequently targeted security forces convoys and check-posts, besides targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials in recent months.
Unidentified suspects kidnapped Pakistan Customs Superintendent Nisar Abbasi, Inspector Khushal and traders’ representative Saif-ur-Rehman from the South Waziristan district, according to Deputy Commissioner Nasir Khan.
“Customs officers and the [Waziristan] Chambers of Commerce president were kidnapped in Sholam area on their return from Angor Adda,” Khan said.
“The district administration and police have kicked off an investigation.”
While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban.
Recently, Khan said, unidentified suspects also kidnapped Dr. Nauman, who worked with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), from Azam Warsak area of the restive district, which borders Afghanistan.
On Jan. 9, the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up their attacks in KP, kidnapped more than a dozen workers of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), which is responsible for nuclear energy projects, from the volatile Lakki Marwat district, according to Lakki Marwat police spokesperson Shahid Marwat.
Eight of the abductees were released shortly after the kidnapping, while the militants released one more and body of another hostage on Jan. 25. The fate of the remaining captives remains unknown.
Islamabad has frequently blamed the surge in militant activities on Afghanistan, accusing it of sheltering and supporting militant groups that launch cross-border attacks.
Afghan officials deny involvement and insist that Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.
Traders’ union president, two customs officials kidnapped in Pakistan’s northwest
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Traders’ union president, two customs officials kidnapped in Pakistan’s northwest
- Unidentified men kidnapped Customs Superintendent Nisar Abbasi, Inspector Khushal and Saif-ur-Rehman from South Waziristan district
- Islamabad blames a surge in militant activities in Pakistan’s northwest on groups operating out of Afghanistan, Kabul denies the allegation
Pakistan PM vows stronger defense, tech ties with Belarus in meeting with visiting minister
- Shehbaz Sharif briefs Belarusian defense minister on Pakistan’s stance after standoff with India
- He hopes for expanded bilateral engagement following April’s memoranda of understanding
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday vowed to strengthen Pakistan’s bilateral ties with Belarus in the fields of defense and technology, during a meeting with Belarusian Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Victor Khrenin in Islamabad.
The meeting follows Sharif’s official visit to Belarus in April, where both countries signed a roadmap for military-technical cooperation between 2025 and 2027, as well as multiple agreements on trade, defense and industrial collaboration.
The two sides have since reaffirmed their commitment to expanding economic and strategic cooperation, with Pakistan aiming to attract foreign investment and benefit from Belarus’s manufacturing expertise, particularly in agriculture and heavy machinery.
“Pakistan and Belarus enjoy excellent bilateral relations that are growing stronger with time,” Sharif said, according to a statement from his office. “We wish to further promote economic partnership with Belarus.”
“We want to benefit from Belarus’s expertise in the manufacturing of agricultural machinery,” he continued. “Cooperation with Belarus in the fields of information technology and defense will also be further strengthened.”
The Pakistani leader also recalled the signing of several memorandums of understanding during his April visit, which he said would help expand bilateral engagement.
Sharif took the opportunity to brief the Belarusian delegation on recent regional tensions, including the April 22 Pahalgam incident, in which India accused Pakistan of involvement in an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The prime minister reiterated Islamabad’s position that it had offered an impartial investigation, but instead faced military aggression from New Delhi.
“India responded by targeting civilian populations, killing innocent people,” Sharif told the delegation. “On May 10, Pakistan responded decisively in self-defense.”
The Belarusian defense minister conveyed a message of goodwill from President Aleksandr Lukashenko and thanked the Pakistani side for its warm hospitality.
“We want peace and stability in South Asia,” Khrenin said, adding the purpose of his visit was to follow up on the agreements signed during Sharif’s earlier trip and advance military and technical cooperation.
The meeting was also attended by Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Minister for Defense Production Raza Hayat Hiraj along with other senior officials.
200,000 Afghans left Pakistan since deportation drive renewed in April
- Pakistan has launched strict campaign to evict over 800,000 Afghans who have had their residence permits canceled
- In total, more than one million Afghans have left Pakistan since expulsion drive was first launched in November 2023
ISLAMABAD: More than 200,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the government renewed a deportation drive in April, Islamabad’s interior ministry told AFP.
Pakistan has launched a strict campaign to evict more than 800,000 Afghans who have had their residence permits canceled, including some who were born in Pakistan or lived there for decades.
According to the ministry, more than 135,000 Afghans left Pakistan in April, while the number dropped to 67,000 in May and more than 3,000 were sent back in the first two days of June.
Millions of Afghans have poured into Pakistan over the past several decades, fleeing successive wars, as well hundreds of thousands who arrived after the return of the Taliban government in 2021.
A campaign to evict them began in 2023, prompting hundreds of thousands to cross the border in the span of a few days, fearing harassment or arrest.
In total, more than one million Afghans have left Pakistan.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration on Tuesday voiced concern over a surge in Afghan families being deported from Iran, recording 15,675 crossing in May, a more than two-fold increase from the previous month.
The influx across both borders threatens to strain Afghanistan’s already “fragile reception and reintegration systems,” IOM said in a statement.
Islamabad has labelled Afghans “terrorists and criminals,” but analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure neighboring Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to control militancy in the border regions.
Last year, Pakistan recorded the highest number of deaths from attacks in a decade.
Pakistan’s security forces are under enormous pressure along the border with Afghanistan, battling a growing insurgency by ethnic nationalists in Balochistan in the southwest, and the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates in the northwest.
The government frequently accuses Afghan nationals of taking part in attacks and blames Kabul for allowing militants to take refuge on its soil, a charge Taliban leaders deny.
Some Pakistanis have grown weary of hosting a large Afghan population as security and economic woes deepen, and the deportation campaign has widespread support.
Pakistan is now threatening to lift the protection granted to the 1.3 million Afghans holding refugee cards issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees at the end of June.
Pakistan blockchain chief meets US counterpart amid digital assets adoption push
- Bilal Bin Saqib meets the director of Trump’s Council of Advisers for Digital Assets in Washington
- He says Pakistan is building a real framework for digital asset adoption and economic modernization
KARACHI: Pakistan’s top blockchain policymaker on Wednesday expressed the country’s ambition to become the Global South’s leader in digital assets during a meeting with his American counterpart at the White House in Washington.
Bilal Bin Saqib, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Crypto & Blockchain and CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council, met with Robert ‘Bo’ Hines, Executive Director of the US President’s Council of Advisers for Digital Assets. The meeting marked a deepening of bilateral engagement on cryptocurrency strategy and blockchain integration between the two countries.
In March, the administration in Islamabad established the Pakistan Crypto Council to help guide national policy on blockchain, digital currencies and crypto-related investments. This was followed by the government’s announcement of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas, making Pakistan one of the first Asian countries to integrate Bitcoin into its sovereign asset strategy.
The government also plans to establish an autonomous regulatory body to oversee the country’s digital finance and crypto ecosystem.
“I envision Pakistan to be a leader in the Global South for digital assets,” Saqib said according to a statement circulated after the meeting. “From launching our Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to unlocking national infrastructure for crypto mining and AI data zones, Pakistan is building a real framework for digital asset adoption and economic modernization.”
During the meeting, both officials discussed aligning national strategies on decentralized technologies, fostering regulatory coherence and building innovation ecosystems to promote youth engagement and financial inclusion.
Bo Hines, appointed in January by President Donald Trump, heads US policy development on digital assets and works alongside Council Chair David Sacks to position the United States as a global leader in the sector.
Saqib also held a separate meeting with officials from the White House Counsel’s Office to discuss legal frameworks around blockchain governance.
Pakistan’s broader digital asset strategy includes allocating 2,000 megawatts of surplus power to support Bitcoin mining and AI-driven data zones, aiming to turn untapped energy into economic productivity, job creation and digital infrastructure growth.
As regulatory frameworks continue to evolve globally, Pakistan says it is taking proactive steps to integrate private sector innovation with state policy and international partnerships, positioning itself as a key player in the next phase of the global digital economy.
Pakistan army says 14 militants killed in counterterror operation in northwest
- Security forces killed the militants in an intelligence-based operation in North Waziristan district
- The prime minister applauds the security forces for their ‘professional excellence’ after the operation
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s security forces killed 14 militants this week in the country’s volatile northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military’s media wing said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif pledged to completely eradicate militancy from the country.
The operation comes amid a noticeable uptick in militant attacks in Pakistan, particularly in the border regions near Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, Pakistani officials have increasingly blamed India for backing the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an outlawed umbrella group of militant factions responsible for a majority of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Islamabad refers to the TTP as Fitna Al-Khawarij, a term rooted in Islamic history that denotes an extremist sect that rebelled against legitimate authority and declared other Muslims as apostates. It also describes the group as an Indian proxy.
“On 2-3 June 2025, an intelligence-based operation was conducted by the security forces in general area Datta Khel, North Waziristan District, on reported presence of Khawarij belonging to Indian proxy, Fitna Al-Khawarij,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
“During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged the Indian-sponsored Khawarij location, and after an intense exchange of fire, fourteen Indian-sponsored Khawarij were sent to hell,” it added.
The ISPR said “sanitization operations” were ongoing to clear the area of any remaining militants, reaffirming the military’s commitment to “wipe out the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country.”
Prime Minister Sharif also praised the security forces for their “professional excellence” in the North Waziristan operation, saying such efforts were critical to eliminating the threat posed by what he called enemies of humanity.
“We will crush the nefarious designs of these terrorists,” Sharif said in a statement issued by his office. “With the professional capability of our security forces, we will uproot the monster of terrorism once and for all.”
He said the government and the armed forces were fully committed to ensuring the complete elimination of militant violence from Pakistan.
Soaring prices put damper on Eid Al-Adha sales at Asia’s largest cattle market in Karachi
- Prices of small animals have risen by $72, big animals by as much as $251.80, market spokesman says
- Analysts say Pakistan’s increasing meat exports have constrained supply, driven cattle prices up this year
KARACHI: The Eid Al-Adha festival should be the busiest time of the year at Asia’s largest cattle market in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth area. But soaring prices have driven away many of the people who would usually buy cows and goats to sacrifice on the Muslim holiday.
One of Islam’s two main festivals, Eid Al-Adha marks the climax of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, when Muslims slaughter animals to commemorate the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham, to sacrifice his son on God’s command, often distributing meat to the poor.
But this year, people like Nasir Khan, 25, say higher prices mean they cannot afford to carry out the important ritual.
“I can’t afford it this time,” Khan told Arab News, saying he had opted out of a seven-member group he had been a part of for years, which pooled money to buy sacrificial animals as a collective activity.
This year, the price of an average-sized cow or bull at the Sohrab Goth market had risen by around 94 percent to Rs330,000 [$1,201], said Abdul Jabbar, another buyer who did not disclose his age or profession and had decided against buying once he discovered the steep prices.
On a hot afternoon earlier this month, Jabbar strolled through the Karachi market as hundreds of cattle sat idle under makeshift tents.
“The price trend is very high, almost double from last year,” he said.
“The animal we had bought at Rs 170,000 ($611.51) last year is now up for sale at as much as Rs330,000 ($1,187.05).”
“MEAT EXPORTS”
Inflation in Pakistan peaked as high as 38 percent in May 2023. In May 2025, it rose to 3.5 percent, following a significant drop to 0.3 percent in April. But while food and fuel prices have somewhat decreased, financial experts say the prices of sacrificial animals have gone up, mainly due to increasing meat exports.
In the fiscal year 2023-24, Pakistan’s meat exports reached a record $512 million, a 20 percent increase from the previous year. This growth was driven by a 24 percent increase in export volume, reaching 123,515 tones.
While the majority of Pakistan’s meat production is consumed domestically, the country has seen significant growth in exports, particularly to Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and China.
Increasing meat exports reduces the number of cattle available domestically and during Eid Al-Adha season, when demand is seasonal and peaks sharply, supply becomes constrained.
“Price hike is due to meat exports and inflation in previous years,” Ahsan Mehanti, chief executive officer at Arif Habib Commodities Limited, explained.
“We have seen that there is a major increase in the export of livestock in the past three years, around more than 50 percent.”
Zaki Abro, a spokesperson for the Sohrab Goth cattle market, attributed the surge in prices to the availability of fewer animals due to thousands being killed in recent floods.
In 2022, Pakistan experienced devastating floods that resulted in the loss of over 1.1 million livestock. This figure includes approximately 500,000 livestock in Balochistan, over 428,000 in Sindh, and over 205,100 in Punjab provinces.
“On average the prices of small animals have risen by as much as Rs20,000 [$71.94] while the big animals have gone pricier by Rs 70,000 [$251.80],” Abro said.
“MARKET IS DULL”
The effects of high prices were visible at the Karachi cattle market last week, with few buyers present despite it being spread over an area of around 1,200 acres and 175,000 cattle up for sale.
Livestock merchants Muhammad Ismail and Obaidullah confirmed a drop in the number of buyers.
“We have a lot of animals still unsold,” Ismail, 26, said. “This could be maybe because of inflation.”
The traders blamed the high rates they were charging on the higher rates they had to pay wholesalers and the cattle market’s administration. The cost of animal feed had also sky-rocketed, they said. Global supply chain disruptions, local market volatility, inflation, and currency devaluation have all contributed to this rise.
The cost of fodder had surged by nearly 50 percent, impacting cattle farming, merchants said.
“Our eight to nine months farming cost for each of these animals this year increased to Rs250,000 [$899.28] from Rs150,000 [$539.57] a year ago,” Ismail explained.
Trader Obaidullah said sellers also had to pay a fee of Rs30,000 [$107.91] per animal to the cattle market authorities.
“Last year the market performed well,” Ismail added.
“All of our animals had sold out. More than half of the market had emptied by this time last year. This year the market is dull.”
