Players more hurt than fans, coach says as Pakistan crash out of Champions Trophy
Players more hurt than fans, coach says as Pakistan crash out of Champions Trophy /node/2591712/pakistan
Players more hurt than fans, coach says as Pakistan crash out of Champions Trophy
Pakistan's head coach Aaqib Javed speaks during a press conference on the eve of the ICC Champions Trophy one-day international (ODI) cricket match between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi on February 26, 2025. (AFP)
Players more hurt than fans, coach says as Pakistan crash out of Champions Trophy
Defending champions’ hopes of reaching the semifinals were ended after defeats to New Zealand and India
Defeats a disappointing conclusion to Pakistan’s first hosting of a major international cricket competition in three decades
Updated 26 February 2025
Reuters
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s hurting players will be motivated by pride in their dead rubber against Bangladesh on Thursday, head coach Aaqib Javed said, after the hosts were dumped out of the Champions Trophy in the group stage.
The defending champions’ hopes of reaching the semifinals were ended after defeats to New Zealand and India, leaving their final Group A game in Rawalpindi inconsequential.
Rain washed out the Australia-South Africa Group B match on Tuesday and more is predicted on Thursday, leaving Pakistan in danger of finishing fourth and last on net run-rate.
Whatever happens it will be a disappointing conclusion to Pakistan’s first hosting of a major international cricket competition in three decades.
“There are no excuses, there shouldn’t be any in life, but I can assure you that the players are more hurt than the fans and want to leave a mark in the last game,” said Aaqib on Wednesday.
“The players are not satisfied, no one is satisfied after losing, but everyone tries hard to win and by doing so we have recently won a series in Australia and South Africa.”
Pakistan beat Australia 2-1 in November — their first ODI series win there for 22 years — before whitewashing South Africa 3-0 in the build-up to the Champions Trophy.
“This is the Champions Trophy, where the eight best teams are playing, so after two defeats we have to start from zero,” said Aaqib.
“Every game is played for pride so we want to leave a mark on Thursday,” said Aaqib.
Their Champions Trophy flop left former Pakistan players and fans angry over the continuous failure of the team, having also crashed out of the 2023 World Cup and Twenty20 World Cup last year both in the first round.
Aaqib admitted losing to arch-rivals India left fans emotional.
“People are more involved in an India-Pakistan match and they do not accept a defeat against India and that defeat in Dubai has left them more dejected,” said Aaqib.
Pakistan were below par against a formidable India in Dubai on Sunday, losing by six wickets.
“We managed just 241 in batting and when facing a strong batting line-up you attack in order to get wickets and in the process you bowl on both sides,” said Aaqib.
A fast bowler himself, who played 22 Tests and 163 ODIs for Pakistan, Aaqib backed his struggling pace trio.
“People blamed two, three players, which is not correct,” said Aaqib. “If you assess Shaheen (Afridi), Naseem (Shah) and Haris (Rauf), they are still the best bowlers in the world.”
India approves stealth fighter program amid tensions with Pakistan
India plans to invite initial interest from defense firms for developing a prototype of a 5th generation fighter
Indian defense ministry says bids will be open for both private and state-owned firms interested in the program
Updated 19 min 51 sec ago
Reuters
NEW DELHI: India’s defense minister has approved a framework for building the country’s most advanced stealth fighter jet, the defense ministry said on Tuesday, amid a new arms race with Pakistan weeks after a military conflict between the neighbors.
Indian state-run Aeronautical Development Agency, which is executing the program, will shortly invite initial interest from defense firms for developing a prototype of the warplane, envisaged as a twin-engine 5th generation fighter, the ministry said.
The project is crucial for the Indian Air Force, whose squadrons of mainly Russian and ex-Soviet aircraft have fallen to 31 from an approved strength of 42 at a time when rival China is expanding its air force rapidly.
Pakistan has one of China’s most advanced warplanes, the J-10, in its arsenal.
Militaries of nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan faced-off in four days of fighting this month, which saw use of fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery by both sides before a ceasefire was announced by US President Donald Trump.
It was the first time both sides utilized drones at scale and the South Asian powers are now locked in a drones arms race, according to Reuters’ interviews with 15 people, including security officials, industry executives and analysts in the two countries.
India will partner with a domestic firm for the stealth fighter program, and companies can bid independently or as a joint venture, the defense ministry said in a statement, adding that the bids would be open for both private and state-owned firms.
In March, an Indian defense committee had recommended including the private sector in military aircraft manufacturing to shore up the capabilities of the Indian Air Force and reduce the burden on state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, which makes most of India’s military aircraft.
Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has previously criticized Hindustan Aeronautics for slow delivery of light combat Tejas aircraft, a 4.5 generation fighter, which the firm blamed on slow delivery of engines from General Electric due to supply chain issues faced by the US firm.
KARACHI: Pakistan has extended the deadline for expressions of interest (EOI) in purchasing Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to June 19, the country’s privatization ministry said on Tuesday.
Cash-strapped Pakistan is seeking to privatize the debt-ridden PIA to raise funds and reform state-owned enterprises, as outlined in the $7 billion International Monetary Fund program secured last year.
The earlier EOI deadline was June 3.
“The deadline for submission of Expressions of Interest and Statements of Qualification for ‘Divestment of Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited through privatization’ has been extended till 16:00 hours on Thursday, June 19, 2025,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The remaining terms and conditions shall remain the same.”
Speaking to Arab News, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity the deadline had been extended due to Eid Al-Adha next month along with “the recent crisis situation.”
Asked if by “crisis” he meant the recent India-Pakistan military standoff and the ensuing tensions, he concisely responded, “yes.”
Pakistan has been seeking to sell a 51 percent to 100 percent stake in the debt-ridden carrier to raise funds and reform cash-draining state-owned enterprises.
The final bidding round for the privatization of PIA last October drew only one offer of $36 million for a 60 percent stake in the national flag carrier.
Although the government had pre-qualified six groups in June, only the real estate firm Blue World City submitted a bid, which fell significantly short of the government’s minimum price of $303 million.
Potential bidders raised several concerns, including lack of policy continuity, uncertainty around contract enforcement, inconsistent government communication and unfavorable terms and taxation in the aviation sector.
Last year, PIA received permission to resume operations in Europe after a 2020 ban by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which had raised concerns about the oversight capabilities of Pakistani authorities and the Civil Aviation Authority in ensuring compliance with international aviation standards.
EASA and UK authorities had suspended PIA’s operations in the region following a probe into pilot licensing irregularities, launched after a 2020 crash that killed 97 people.
In March this year, the government endorsed a plan to fast-track PIA privatization while reiterating its resolve to offload loss-making public entities from the national exchequer.
ISLAMABAD: A police official providing security to a polio vaccination team was shot dead in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, the provincial administration said, highlighting the persistent threat to workers involved in the country’s polio eradication campaign.
Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic, alongside Afghanistan. Efforts to eradicate the disease have faced numerous challenges, including parental refusals, misinformation and persistent attacks by militant groups.
In many remote and volatile regions, vaccination teams operate under police protection, though security personnel themselves have frequently been targeted.
“A police officer was martyred in Nushki while guarding a polio team,” said Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind in a statement.
“The polio campaign is a national duty, and any attack on it is intolerable,” he added. “We pay tribute to the officer who embraced martyrdom in the line of duty.”
The slain officer, identified as Waheed Ahmed, was a resident of Jamalabad, Nushki, according to the provincial spokesperson.
Rind termed the shooting “a conspiracy to sabotage the national campaign and spread fear.” He also vowed stricter action against the perpetrators.
“The government will further strengthen security measures for both polio teams and the personnel assigned to protect them,” he added.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also condemned the incident, expressing sorrow over the death of the police official and extending condolences to his family.
“An attack on a polio team working to safeguard the future of our children is unacceptable,” he said. “Elements opposing the polio campaign will be dealt with firmly.”
Pakistan witnessed a sharp rise in polio cases last year, with 74 children diagnosed with the crippling disease, 27 of them from Balochistan.
So far this year, 10 cases have been reported across the country, prompting authorities to ramp up door-to-door vaccination drives despite the ongoing threat from militant groups.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday urged his party and supporters to prepare for a “full-fledged nationwide protest movement,” renewing his challenge to the country’s government in a social media message from behind bars.
Khan, a former cricket star-turned-politician, was ousted from power in April 2022 through a parliamentary no-confidence vote. He later accused his political rivals and Pakistan’s military leadership of orchestrating his removal in coordination with the United States, a charge denied by all of them.
Following his ouster, Khan led a year-long anti-government campaign, holding rallies and sharply criticizing the army’s role in politics, further escalating civil-military tensions in the country. In August 2023, he was arrested and sentenced on graft charges, and has remained incarcerated since.
“I instruct my party, workers and supporters to get ready for a vigorous, countrywide movement,” Khan said in Urdu on the social media platform X. “This time, I will call for all of Pakistan to rise, not just Islamabad.”
The remarks come amid persistent speculation of backchannel talks between Khan’s camp and the military establishment, with reports suggesting he might accept a deal to secure release. However, Khan dismissed such suggestions in the same message, saying he would never bow to tyranny or accept injustice.
“I would rather spend my entire life behind bars than kneel before oppression and authoritarianism,” he said, adding the rule of law remained the central goal of his political struggle.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has repeatedly complained about a persistent government crackdown, with dozens of its leaders and workers detained. Khan said that peaceful protest was now the only option left.
“When all doors are shut on a political party, when oppression is inflicted and the judiciary is not free, peaceful protest is the only path left,” he said.
The former prime minister also addressed his party members directly in the message, warning those who defied party discipline and appeared to be aligning with rival interests.
“None of you are ‘electable’ in your own right,” he said. “You won on the basis of an ideology. I know who’s playing both sides on the wicket. Anyone who doesn’t follow party orders has no place in PTI.”
Khan added he intends to hold intra-party elections at the first available opportunity to bring grassroots workers into leadership positions.
“Party elections are essential so that committed workers can rise to the top,” he said.
While no date or timeline for the protest movement was announced, the call raises the prospect of renewed political instability in a country still reeling from economic crisis, a fragile coalition government and volatile civil-military relations.
India and Pakistan’s drone battles mark new arms race in Asia
India plans to invest as much as $470 million on UAVs over the next 12 to 24 months
Pakistan is likely to advance domestic drone production with Turkish and Chinese help
Updated 27 May 2025
Reuters
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: A little after 8:00 p.m. on May 8, red flares streaked through the night sky over the northern Indian city of Jammu as its air-defense systems opened fire on drones from neighboring Pakistan.
The Indian and Pakistani militaries have deployed high-end fighter jets, conventional missiles and artillery during decades of clashes, but the four days of fighting in May marked the first time New Delhi and Islamabad utilized unmanned aerial vehicles at scale against each other.
The fighting halted after the US announced it brokered a ceasefire but the South Asian powers, which spent more than $96 billion on defense last year, are now locked in a drones arms race, according to Reuters’ interviews with 15 people, including security officials, industry executives and analysts in the two countries.
Two of them said they expect increased use of UAVs by the nuclear-armed neighbors because small-scale drone attacks can strike targets without risking personnel or provoking uncontrollable escalation.
India plans to invest heavily in local industry and could spend as much as $470 million on UAVs over the next 12 to 24 months, roughly three times pre-conflict levels, said Smit Shah of Drone Federation India, which represents over 550 companies and regularly interacts with the government.
The previously unreported forecast, which came as India this month approved roughly $4.6 billion in emergency military procurement funds, was corroborated by two other industry executives. The Indian military plans to use some of that additional funding on combat and surveillance drones, according to two Indian officials familiar with the matter.
Defense procurement in India tends to involve years of bureaucratic processes but officials are now calling drone makers in for trials and demonstrations at an unprecedented pace, said Vishal Saxena, a vice president at Indian UAV firm ideaForge Technology.
The Pakistan Air Force, meanwhile, is pushing to acquire more UAVs as it seeks to avoid risking its high-end aircraft, said a Pakistani source familiar with the matter. Pakistan and India both deployed cutting-edge generation 4.5 fighter jets during the latest clashes but cash-strapped Islamabad only has about 20 high-end Chinese-made J-10 fighters compared to the three dozen Rafales that Delhi can muster.
Pakistan is likely to build on existing relationships to intensify collaboration with China and Turkiye to advance domestic drone research and production capabilities, said Oishee Majumdar of defense intelligence firm Janes.
Islamabad is relying on a collaboration between Pakistan’s National Aerospace Science and Technology Park and Turkish defense contractor Baykar that locally assembles the YIHA-III drone, the Pakistani source said, adding a unit could be produced domestically in between two to three days.
Pakistan’s military declined to respond to Reuters’ questions. The Indian defense ministry and Baykar did not return requests for comment.
An Indian army soldier looks at a drone at Akhnoor sector near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu region on May 19, 2025. (AFP/File)
India and Pakistan “appear to view drone strikes as a way to apply military pressure without immediately provoking large-scale escalation,” said King’s College London political scientist Walter Ladwig III.
“UAVs allow leaders to demonstrate resolve, achieve visible effects, and manage domestic expectations — all without exposing expensive aircraft or pilots to danger,” he added.
But such skirmishes are not entirely risk-free, and Ladwig noted that countries could also send UAVs to attack contested or densely populated areas where they might not previously have used manned platforms.
DRONE SWARMS AND VINTAGE GUNS
The fighting in May, which was the fiercest in this century between the neighbors, came after an April 22 militant attack in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly Indian tourists.
Delhi blamed the killings on “terrorists” backed by Islamabad, which denied the charge. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed revenge and Delhi on May 7 launched air strikes on what it described as “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan.
The next night, Pakistan sent hordes of drones along a 1,700-kilometer (772-mile) front with India, with between 300 and 400 of them pushing in along 36 locations to probe Indian air defenses, Indian officials have said.
Pakistan depended on Turkish-origin YIHA-III and Asisguard Songar drones, as well as the Shahpar-II UAV produced domestically by the state-owned Global Industrial & Defense Solutions conglomerate, according to two Pakistani sources.
But much of this drone deployment was cut down by Cold War-era Indian anti-aircraft guns that were rigged to modern military radar and communication networks developed by state-run Bharat Electronics, according to two Indian officials.
A Pakistan source denied that large numbers of its drones were shot down on May 8, but India did not appear to sustain significant damage from that drone raid.
India’s use of the anti-aircraft guns, which had not been designed for anti-drone-warfare, turned out to be surprisingly effective, said retired Indian Brig. Anshuman Narang, now an UAV expert at Delhi’s Center for Joint Warfare Studies.
“Ten times better than what I’d expected,” he said.
India also sent Israeli HAROP, Polish WARMATE and domestically-produced UAVs into Pakistani airspace, according to one Indian and two Pakistan sources. Some of them were also used for precision attacks on what two Indian officials described as military and militant infrastructure.
The two Pakistani security sources confirmed that India deployed a large number of the HAROPs — a long-range loitering munition drone manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. Such UAVs, also known as suicide drones, stay over a target before crashing down and detonating on impact. Pakistan set up decoy radars in some areas to draw in the HAROPs, or waited for their flight time to come toward its end, so that they fell below 3,000 feet and could be shot down, a third Pakistani source said.
Drones are displayed during the International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS 2024) in Karachi, Pakistan November 21, 2024. (Reuters/File)
Both sides claim to have notched victories in their use of UAVs.
India successfully targeted infrastructure within Pakistan with minimal risk to personnel or major platforms, said KCL’s Ladwig. For Pakistan’s military, which claimed to have struck Indian defense facilities with UAVs, drone attacks allow it to signal action while drawing less international scrutiny than conventional methods, he noted.
CHEAP BUT WITH AN ACHILLES HEEL
Despite the loss of many drones, both sides are doubling down.
“We’re talking about relatively cheap technology,” said Washington-based South Asia expert Michael Kugelman. “And while UAVs don’t have the shock and awe effect of missiles and fighter jets, they can still convey a sense of power and purpose for those that launch them.”
Indian defense planners are likely to expand domestic development of loitering munitions UAVs, according to an Indian security source and Sameer Joshi of Indian UAV maker NewSpace, which is deepening its research and development on such drones.
“Their ability to loiter, evade detection, and strike with precision marked a shift toward high-value, low-cost warfare with mass produced drones,” said Joshi, whose firm supplies the Indian military.
And firms like ideaForge, which has supplied over 2,000 UAVs to the Indian security forces, are also investing on enhancing the ability of its drones to be less vulnerable to electronic warfare, said Saxena.
Another vulnerability that is harder to address is the Indian drone program’s reliance on hard-to-replace components from China, an established military partner of Pakistan, four Indian dronemakers and officials said.
India continues to depend on China-made magnets and lithium for UAV batteries, said Drone Federation India’s Shah.
“Weaponization of the supply chain is also an issue,” said ideaForge’s Saxena on the possibility of Beijing shutting the tap on components in certain situations.
For instance, Chinese restrictions on the sale of drones and components to Ukraine have weakened Kyiv’s ability to produce critical combat drones, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.
A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said in response to Reuters’ questions that Beijing has always implemented export controls on dual-use items in accordance with domestic laws and regulations as well as its international obligations.
“Diversification of supply chain is a medium to long term problem,” said Shah. “You can’t solve it in short term.”
