Fasting on the frontline: Karachi ambulance driver navigates chaos to save lives during Ramadan

The Edhi Foundation, one of the world’s largest charities, operates nearly 1,800 ambulances. (Supplied)
The Edhi Foundation, one of the world’s largest charities, operates nearly 1,800 ambulances. (Supplied)
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Updated 15 March 2025
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Fasting on the frontline: Karachi ambulance driver navigates chaos to save lives during Ramadan

The Edhi Foundation, one of the world’s largest charities, operates nearly 1,800 ambulances. (Supplied)
  • For Ghulam Nabi and hundreds of other Edhi ambulance drivers, Ramadan does not change their daily duties
  • Nabi says his iftar often consists of just dates and water, eaten on the road between emergencies

KARACHI: In Karachi, where traffic is relentless and sirens are a constant, 63-year-old Ghulam Nabi has spent the past 14 years behind the wheel of an Edhi Foundation ambulance, responding to emergencies in a city where every second can mean the difference between life and death.

The Edhi Foundation, one of the world’s largest charities, operates nearly 1,800 ambulances, including over 200 in Karachi, where it was founded by the late veteran philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, who passed away in July 2016. Nabi is one of the hundreds of drivers keeping the wheels of these ambulances going.

Even during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, he remains committed to his duty. Often, his iftar — the evening meal to break the fast, which most people share with their families at home — happens on the road, between dispatches.

“Whether it’s sunny, hot, stormy, rainy, Ramadan or Eid, no matter what, we have to do our duty and serve humanity,” he said in a recent conversation with Arab News.

Living in an old apartment in the city’s historic Kharadar area, he begins his day by walking to the Edhi headquarters nearly a kilometer away. From there, his shift unfolds unpredictably, sometimes requiring him to attend to road accidents, rush cardiac arrest patients to hospitals or transport the deceased to their final resting places.

“Just yesterday, it was time to break the fast. Five-to-ten minutes before iftar, we were informed that an accident had occurred on Mai Kolachi Road,” Nabi recalled, adding that he had to leave iftar and rush to the spot.

“On the way, someone gave us dates, and we broke our fast with them,” he added.

Nabi recalled that at one point during Ramadan, he was asked to pick up a corpse from a house where it had remained unattended for nearly a week. As he reached the place, he realized it was decomposed and in such a condition that no one wanted to go near it.

But Nabi handled it, giving it to the relatives in a casket after completing the required legal procedures.

“We had to carry the body while fasting,” he said.

‘FRONTLINE HEROES’

Muhammad Amin, who oversees the Karachi Control Room at the Edhi Foundation, holds his team, particularly Nabi, in high esteem.

“He is an excellent driver, and all the qualities required in his job are found in him,” he told Arab News. “From keeping the ambulance clean to its general upkeep, following driving protocols and handling emergencies, Ghulam Nabi excels in all these aspects.”

Amin noted Ramadan always brought unique challenges to the drivers since their workload never decreased.

“There was a fire near Chakar Hotel on the Super Highway (yesterday), where our team, which included the drivers, went,” he said. “The drivers were fasting, but they worked through the fire and performed their duties.

“If you look at it, these drivers can truly be called our frontline heroes,” he added.

Nabi said his entry into this line of work was unexpected. He used to run a small business that suffered losses, forcing him to shut it down. As he started looking for employment opportunities, a friend referred him to Edhi in 2010.

“Since that day, I have been engaged in humanitarian work,” he said.

‘SAVING HUMANITY’

Karachi, a megacity with over 20 million people, suffers from broken roads, congested streets and widespread disregard for traffic rules. These conditions significantly increase the challenges of Nabi’s job, making him fear that he might not be able to reach people in need on time.

Despite such hardships, he said he was proud of his work and found fulfillment in transporting patients and the injured to hospitals for treatment.

“Whoever saves a life, saves all of humanity,” he said, his eyes shining.

To Nabi, his work is a continuation of the legacy of Abdul Sattar Edhi, the late humanitarian whose foundation has provided free ambulance services for decades.

“Here, we are carrying forward Edhi Sahib’s mission,” he said. “Humanitarian work will never stop.”

As dusk falls and families across Karachi gather for iftar at home, Nabi finds himself away from his loved ones.

“Our hearts also long to break our fast with our children, but our iftar is often on the road or in the ambulance, and we have to break our fast with dates or water,” he said, as he ended his fast with the evening prayer call while sitting on a roadside bench in a Karachi street.

 


Texas officials face scrutiny over response to catastrophic

A drone view shows the swollen San Gabriel River, in Georgetown, Texas, US, on Saturday. (Reuters)
A drone view shows the swollen San Gabriel River, in Georgetown, Texas, US, on Saturday. (Reuters)
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Texas officials face scrutiny over response to catastrophic

A drone view shows the swollen San Gabriel River, in Georgetown, Texas, US, on Saturday. (Reuters)
  • The destructive fast-moving waters that began before sunrise Friday in the Texas Hill Country killed at least 43 people in Kerr County, authorities said Saturday, and an unknown number of people remained missing

KERRVILLE: Before heading to bed before the Fourth of July holiday, Christopher Flowers checked the weather while staying at a friend’s house along the Guadalupe River. Nothing in the forecast alarmed him. Hours later, he was rushing to safety: He woke up in darkness to electrical sockets popping and ankle-deep water. Quickly, his family scrambled nine people into the attic. Phones buzzed with alerts, Flowers recalled Saturday, but he did not remember when in the chaos they started.

“What they need is some kind of external system, like a tornado warning that tells people to get out now,” Flowers, 44, said.

The destructive fast-moving waters that began before sunrise Friday in the Texas Hill Country killed at least 43 people in Kerr County, authorities said Saturday, and an unknown number of people remained missing. Those still unaccounted for included 27 girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along a river in Kerr County where most of the dead were recovered.

But as authorities launch one of the largest search-and-rescue efforts in recent Texas history, they have come under intensifying scrutiny over preparations and why residents and youth summer camps that are dotted along the river were not alerted sooner or told to evacuate.

The National Weather Service sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.

Local officials have insisted that no one saw the flood potential coming and have defended their actions.

“There’s going to be a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of second-guessing and Monday morning quarterbacking,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, whose district includes Kerr County. “There’s a lot of people saying ‘why’ and ‘how,’ and I understand that.”

 


Germany to deport convicted Syrians

Police officers stand guard in Solingen, Germany, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP file photo)
Police officers stand guard in Solingen, Germany, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP file photo)
Updated 06 July 2025
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Germany to deport convicted Syrians

Police officers stand guard in Solingen, Germany, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP file photo)
  • An agreement reached by the coalition made up of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the Social Democrats provided for deportations to Afghanistan and Syria “starting with delinquents and people considered a threat,” the spokesman added

BERLIN: Germany is to start deporting Syrians with criminal records, the Interior Ministry has said, days after Austria became the first EU country to do so in recent years.

The ministry had instructed the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees to take action against “dangerous Syrian individuals and delinquents,” a spokesman said.

The spokesman stressed that committing serious crimes meant one was excluded from the protection afforded by asylum and could lead to the revocation of any such status already granted.

An agreement reached by the coalition made up of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the Social Democrats provided for deportations to Afghanistan and Syria “starting with delinquents and people considered a threat,” the spokesman added.

To that end, the ministry was in contact with the relevant Syrian authorities, he said.

Between January and May, the Federal Office has opened more than 3,500 procedures that could lead to the revocation of asylum rights granted to Syrian nationals, the ministry said in an answer to a question in parliament.

Refugee status had been withdrawn in 57 cases and lower-level protection in 22 other cases, said the ministry.

During the same period, around 800 Syrians have returned home as part of a voluntary repatriation program funded by Germany, to which 2,000 have so far signed up.

Around a million Syrians live in Germany, most of whom arrived during the major exodus between 2015 and 2016.

But since the December 2024 fall of President Bashar Assad, several European countries, including Austria and Germany, have suspended asylum procedures as far-right parties have campaigned on the issue.

Austria’s Interior Ministry on Thursday deported a Syrian criminal convict back to Syria, saying it was the first EU country to do so officially “in recent years.”

 


Migrants cast a shadow on Starmer-Macron summit

Migrants cast a shadow on Starmer-Macron summit
Updated 06 July 2025
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Migrants cast a shadow on Starmer-Macron summit

Migrants cast a shadow on Starmer-Macron summit
  • Record number of refugees crossing the English Channel remains a major point of friction

LONDON: Britain and France are friends again following the rancour of Brexit, but the record number of irregular migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats remains a major point of friction.

The issue will feature during a state visit to Britain by French President Emmanuel Macron starting Tuesday and new measures to curb the dangerous journeys are expected to be announced on Thursday following talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

More than 21,000 migrants have crossed from northern France to southeast England in rudimentary vessels this year, providing a massive headache for Starmer as the far-right soars in popularity.

Images of overloaded vessels leaving French beaches with law enforcement officers appearing to just watch on exasperate UK politicians and the unforgiving tabloid press.

HIGHLIGHTS

• More than 21,000 migrants have crossed from northern France to southeast England in rudimentary vessels this year, providing a massive headache for the UK prime minister.

• Starmer, who led his Labour party to a sweeping victory in an election last year following 14 years of Conservative rule, has vowed to ‘take back control’ of Britain’s borders.

• But in the first six months of 2025, there was a 48 percent increase in the number of people arriving on small boats compared to last year.

“We pay for French cops’ buggy, 4x4s and drones, but migrants still sailing,” complained The Sun newspaper on Wednesday, in a reference to the so-called Sandhurst Treaty.

The 2018 agreement, that runs until 2027, sees Britain finance actions taken in France to stop the migrants.

Starmer, who led his Labour Party to a sweeping victory in an election last year following 14 years of Conservative rule, has vowed to “take back control” of Britain’s borders.

But in the first six months of 2025, there was a 48 percent increase in the number of people arriving on small boats compared to last year, with the government blaming extended dry weather.

The annual record of 45,774 reached in 2022 could be broken this year, which would deal a massive blow to Starmer as Euroskeptic Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party leads national polls.

A new border control law going through Britain’s Parliament would give law enforcement counter-terror style powers to combat people-smuggling gangs.

The UK has also signed agreements with countries on migrant transit routes, including Iraq, Serbia, and Germany.

But Starmer needs strengthened cooperation with France, and key announcements were expected following their talks.

Under pressure from London, Paris is considering tweaking its laws to allow police to intercept migrant boats up to 300 meters from France’s shoreline. Currently, French law enforcement only intervene at sea to rescue passengers at risk of drowning.

The two governments are also working on a migrant exchange program.

A pilot project would see Britain capable of returning to France someone who has crossed the Channel by boat, according to several media sources.

France in exchange could deport an equivalent number of people to Britian, provided they have the right to live there, such as through family reunification.

Paris wants to expand the agreement to the EU so that readmissions can be shared among several countries.

According to Britain’s Interior Ministry, migrants who crossed the Channel between March 2024 and March 2025 were mainly Afghans, Syrians, Eritreans, Iranians, and Sudanese.

French officials have claimed that Britain attracts migrants because the lack of a national identity card makes it easier to work illegally.

Starmer’s government has cracked down on illegal work — arrests increased by 51 percent from July 2024 to the end of May, compared to the previous year, it says.

But Peter Walsh, a researcher at Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, doubts that it is easier to work illegally in Britain than in France.

“You have to demonstrate that you have the right to work. If an employer doesn’t carry out those checks, then they can face serious sanctions, fines and imprisonment. That’s the same in France and the UK,” he said.

Walsh believes the English language and presence of family members in Britain are key attractions, as well as Britain’s departure from the EU.

“If you’ve claimed asylum in the EU and been refused, you can actually come to the UK and have another shot because we will not know that you’ve actually been refused in the EU,” he said.

Last year, she became a British citizen and now works as a nurse.

Tsegay says there is a “hostile environment” toward irregular migrants in Britain, saying they were often presented as “criminals” rather than people “contributing to society.”

She wants Starmer and Macron to focus on improving safe routes for migrants fleeing war-torn countries as a way to stop them risking the Channel crossings. “These people come here to seek safety,” Tsegay said.

 


Death toll rises to 27 in Pakistan building collapse as rescue ends

Rescue workers recover a victim's body during a search operation amid the debris of a collapsed residential building in Karachi
Rescue workers recover a victim's body during a search operation amid the debris of a collapsed residential building in Karachi
Updated 06 July 2025
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Death toll rises to 27 in Pakistan building collapse as rescue ends

Rescue workers recover a victim's body during a search operation amid the debris of a collapsed residential building in Karachi
  • Rescuers pulled 11 more bodies from the rubble of the building that collapsed on Friday, according to a Karachi police surgeon

KARACHI: The death toll from a collapsed multistory residential building in Pakistan’s Karachi city rose to 27 on Sunday as a three-day rescue operation ended, officials said.

Rescuers pulled 11 more bodies from the rubble of the building that collapsed on Friday, according to Dr. Summayya Tariq, the Karachi police surgeon. Ten people were injured and one of them died at a hospital, she said.

Authorities said they were investigating the cause of the collapse.

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction standards are often poorly enforced. Many structures are built with substandard materials, and safety regulations are often overlooked to reduce costs.

In June 2020, an apartment building collapsed in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, killing 22 people.


Iraq War a factor in 2005 London bombings: Ex-counterterror chief

Iraq War a factor in 2005 London bombings: Ex-counterterror chief
Updated 06 July 2025
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Iraq War a factor in 2005 London bombings: Ex-counterterror chief

Iraq War a factor in 2005 London bombings: Ex-counterterror chief
  • Neil Basu warns of ‘soul-destroying’ legacy of hate ahead of 20th anniversary of attacks
  • ‘Foreign policy and Iraq ... radicalized and made extremists of people,’ he tells The Guardian

LONDON: British foreign policy, including the Iraq War, contributed to motivations for the attacks in London on July 7, 2005, a former counterterrorism chief has said, warning that the atrocity left a “soul-destroying” legacy of hate.

Neil Basu’s remarks were made to The Guardian ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attacks, which were carried out by Islamist extremists and left 52 people dead and more than 750 injured.

British foreign policy has a direct effect on domestic security, said Basu, adding that one driver of the attacks was “foreign policy and Iraq,” referring to Britain’s central role in the conflict alongside the US.

“That does not excuse in any way what they did. That foreign policy decision has radicalized and made extremists of people who might not have been radicalized or extreme,” he said.

In the wake of the attacks, the shock in Britain was compounded by the revelation that the group of suicide bombers had been supported by Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terror group.

“All terrorists will have a freedom fighter story,” Basu said: “Bin Laden would have had a freedom fighter story. We might think it’s crap. We might think it’s self-justification, but he will have had a story about liberating his lands from the great invaders.”

The ringleader of the attacks was Mohammed Sidique Khan. The husband and father said in a self-recorded video before his death by suicide: “We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you, too, will taste the reality of this situation.”

Basu warned that the new threat level to the UK from terrorism is far higher than in 2005. “There is no one path for any single individual to go down a terrorist route. There’s a multiplicity of paths, and one of them is: ‘I’m right, you’re wrong.’ Now that looks obscene to us … they are on God’s side. We are on Satan’s side,” he said.

“When terrorists hide behind a religion to commit an atrocity, people blame every follower of the religion and the religion itself. We ought to stop doing that.”

As a result of that behavior on a national scale, people in Britain are suspicious of those who “don’t look like you, think like you, eat like you, worship like you,” Basu said.

“That has got worse, not better, and that has been caused exactly as terrorists want, by dividing a society by committing the shocking act.”

The attacks also led to a reversal of decades of progress in race and religious relations, Basu said, highlighting a surging suspicion of Muslims in Britain in the decades since.

The “trajectory of tolerance” seen in the UK since the 1980s has been wiped out, he added, citing the July 7 bombings and 9/11 attacks in the US as crucial factors.

“That’s what I think has been most soul-destroying … It has interrupted a trajectory of tolerance that I was becoming very familiar and happy with,” Basu said.

“It started with 9/11 … 7/7 accelerated that in this country. The relationship between races is worse today, or as bad today as it was in the 70s and 80s. That period of tolerance is over, and feels very much over.”

For Muslims in Britain, the events of that decade led to wider damage within the community as members risked being tarred with suspicion by the public, Basu said.

A cycle of hatred and intolerance had been set in motion as a result, he added, warning of surging right-wing extremism and racism.

“I look at the rise of extreme right-wing terrorism in this country … of right-wing, racist attitudes toward black and brown people, and I look at the rise in hate crime reporting … and can’t help but think we’ve got a vicious cycle that started when certain vicious groups started killing people on western soil. I think they were intending to do that, and they have succeeded,” he said.