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brexiiton · 6 months

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Dozens dead after blast in Pakistan at a rally celebrating birthday of Islam's prophet

By Associated Press, 6:38pm Sep 30, 2023

A powerful bomb exploded in a crowd of people celebrating the Prophet Muhammad's birthday in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding nearly 70 others, authorities said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in recent years.

TV footage and videos on social media showed an open area near a mosque strewn with the shoes of the dead and wounded. Some of the bodies had been covered with bedsheets. Residents and rescuers were seen rushing the wounded to hospitals, where a state of emergency had been declared and appeals were being issued for blood donations.

The bombing occurred in Mastung, a district in Baluchistan province, which has witnessed scores of attacks by insurgents. However, the militants normally target the security forces. The Pakistan Taliban have repeatedly said that they do not target places of worship or civilians.

TV footage and videos on social media showed an open area near a mosque strewn with the shoes of the dead and wounded. (AP)

Around 500 people had gathered for a procession from the mosque to celebrate the birth of the prophet, known as Mawlid an-Nabi, an occasion marked by rallies and the distribution of free meals.

Some of the wounded were in a critical condition, government administrator Atta Ullah said. Thirty bodies were taken to one hospital and 22 were counted at another, Abdul Rasheed, the District Health Officer in Mastung, said.

A senior police officer, Mohammad Nawaz, was among the dead, Ullah said. Officers were investigating whether the bombing was a suicide attack, he added.

Friday's bombing came days after authorities asked police to remain on maximum alert, saying militants could target rallies for Mawlid an-Nabi.

Also Friday, a blast ripped through a mosque located on the premises of a police station in Hangu, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing at least two people and wounding seven, said Shah Raz Khan, a local police officer.

He said the mud-brick mosque collapsed because of the impact of the blast and rescuers were pulling worshippers from the rubble. Police say it was not immediately clear what caused the blast.

A boy injured by the explosion receives treatment at a hospital in Mastung near Quetta, Pakistan. (AP)

No one claimed responsibility for the blast in Hangu, and the cause was unclear. About 40 people were praying at the mosque at the time, most of them police officers.

Pakistan's President Arif Alvi condemned the attacks and asked authorities to provide all possible assistance to the wounded and the victims' families.

In a statement, caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti denounced the bombing, calling it a "heinous act" to target people in the Mawlid an-Nabi procession.

Youngsters in traditional dress take part in a ceremony celebrating the birthday of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in Karachi, Pakistan. (AP)

The government had declared Friday a national holiday. President Alvi and caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-haq-Kakar in separate messages had called for unity and for people to adhere to the teachings of Islam's prophet.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Friday's bombing, but Pakistani Taliban quickly distanced themselves from it. Known at Tehreek-e-Taliban, or TTP, the Pakistani Taliban is separate from the Afghan Taliban but closely allied to the group which seized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

The Islamic State group has claimed previous deadly attacks in Baluchistan and elsewhere.

Also Friday, the military said two soldiers were killed in a shootout with Pakistani Taliban after insurgents tried to sneak into southwestern district of Zhob in Baluchistan province. Three militants were killed in the exchange, a military statement said.

The gas-rich southwestern Baluchistan province at the border of Afghanistan and Iran has been the site of a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for more than two decades. Baluch nationalists initially wanted a share of provincial resources, but they later launched an insurgency calling for independence.

Muslims chant religious slogans during a rally celebrating the birthday of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (AP)

Friday's bombing was one of the worst in Pakistan in the last decade. In 2014, 147 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

In February, more than 100 people, mostly policemen, died in a bombing at a mosque inside a high-security compound housing Peshawar police headquarters. In January, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. And in July, at least 54 people were killed when a suicide bomber dispatched by an Afghan branch of the Islamic State group targeted an election rally by a pro-Taliban party in northwest Pakistan.

#terrorwave #terror wave #terror #news #wave #pakistan #Mawlid an-Nabi #Khyber Pakhtunkhwa #President Arif Alvi #Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti #bombing #islam #Tehreek-e-Taliban #Afghan Taliban #NATO #UN #Baluchistan

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collapsedsquid · 6 months

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Located at the western edge of the famed Khyber Pass, Torkham has seen generations of Afghans flee and return during the tumultuous four decades of war that have blighted the nation. Many fled the Soviet invasion in the 1980s and the mujahideen’s long, eventually successful fight back. Others took flight during the civil war that erupted following the Soviet retreat that led to the Taliban’s initial rise. A new generation went to Pakistan in the aftermath of September 11 attacks, ebbing and flowing during the near two decades of conflict that followed. The Taliban’s return to power in 2021 following the United States’ chaotic withdrawal sparked another wave of some 600,000 refugees. Now Afghans from all those different generations are being told to go back. Pakistan’s caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti has previously said security concerns were behind the deportation order, claiming that Afghan nationals had carried out 14 of the 24 major terrorist attacks that have taken place in Pakistan this year.

Been trying to check if the refugees fled Afghanistan due to some sort of ethnic hatred but haven't seen that mentioned as a reason so far.

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mariacallous · 6 months

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Afghan refugees who fled their country to escape from decades of war and terrorism have become the unwitting pawns in a cruel and crude political tussle between Pakistan’s government and the extremist Taliban as their once-close relationship disintegrates amid mutual recrimination.

On Oct. 3, Pakistan’s government announced that mass deportations of illegal immigrants, mostly Afghans, would start on Nov. 1. So far, at least 300,000 Afghans have already been ejected, and more than a million others face the same fate as the expulsions continue.

The bilateral fight appears to center on Kabul’s support for extremists who have wreaked havoc and killed hundreds in Pakistan over the last two years—or at least that is how Islamabad sees it, arguing that it is simply applying its own laws. The Taliban deny accusations that they are behind the uptick of terrorism in Pakistan by affiliates that they protect, train, arm, and direct.

Mass deportations are a sign that Pakistan is “putting its house in order,” said Pakistan’s caretaker minister of interior, Sarfraz Bugti. “Pakistan is the only country hosting four million refugees for the last 40 years and still hosting them,” he said via text. “Whoever wanted to stay in our country must stay legally.” Of the 300,000 Afghans already ejected, none have faced any problems upon returning, he told Foreign Policy. As the Taliban are claiming that Afghanistan is now peaceful, he said, “they should help their countrymen to settle themselves.”

“We are not a cruel state,” he said, adding: “Pakistanis are more important.”

The Taliban—who, since returning to power in August 2021, have been responsible for U.N.-documented arbitrary detentions and killings, as well forcing women and girls out of work and education—have called Pakistan’s deportations “inhumane” and “rushed.” Taliban figures have said that the billions of dollars of international aid they still receive are insufficient to deal with the country’s prior economic and humanitarian crises, let alone a mass influx of penniless refugees.

The expulsions come after earlier efforts by Pakistan, such as trade restrictions, to exert pressure on Kabul to rein in the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, whose attacks on military and police present a severe security challenge to the Pakistani state. Acting Prime Minister Anwar ul-Haq Kakar said earlier this month that TTP attacks have risen by 60 percent since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, with 2,267 people killed.

The irony is that Pakistan bankrolled the Taliban throughout their 20-year insurgency following their ouster from power during the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Taliban leaders found sanctuary and funding from Pakistan’s military and intelligence services. When the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, then-Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated them, as did groups such as al Qaeda and Hamas. But rather than continuing as Islamabad’s proxy, the Taliban have reversed roles, providing safe haven for terrorist and jihadi groups, including the TTP.

“While it’s still too early to draw any conclusions on policy shifts in Islamabad, it appears that the initial excitement about the Taliban’s return to power has now turned into frustration,” said Abdullah Khenjani, a former deputy minister of peace in the previous Afghan government. “Consequently, these traditional [Pakistani state] allies of the Taliban are systematically reassessing their leverage to be prepared for potentially worse scenarios.”

Since the Taliban’s return, around 600,000 Afghans made their way into Pakistan, swelling the number of Afghan refugees in the country to an estimated 3.7 million, with 1.32 million registered with the U.N. High Commission on Refugees. Many face destitution, unable to find work or even send their children to local schools. The situation may be even worse after the deportations: Pakistan is reportedly confiscating most of the refugees’ money on the way out, leaving them in a precarious situation in a country already struggling to create jobs for its people or deal with its own humanitarian crises.

Border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been clogged in recent weeks, as many Afghan refugees preempted the police round-up and began making their way back. Media have reported that some of the undocumented Afghans were born in Pakistan, their parents having fled the uninterrupted conflict at home since the former Soviet Union invaded in 1979. Many of the births were not registered.

Meanwhile, some groups among those being expelled are especially vulnerable. Hundreds of Afghans could face retribution from the Taliban they left the country to escape. Journalists, women, civil and human rights activists, LGBTQ+ advocates, judges, police, former military and government personnel, and Shiite Hazaras have all been targeted by the Taliban, and many escaped to Pakistan, with and without official documents.

Some efforts have been made to help Afghans regarded as vulnerable to Taliban excess if they are returned. Qamar Yousafzai set up the Pakistan-Afghanistan International Federation of Journalists at the National Press Club of Pakistan, in Islamabad, to verify the identities of hundreds of Afghan journalists, issue them with ID cards, and help with housing and health care. He has also interceded for journalists detained by police for a lack of papers. Yet that might not be enough to prevent their deportation.

Amnesty International called for a “halt [to] the continued detentions, deportations, and widespread harassment of Afghan refugees.” If not, it said, “it will be denying thousands of at-risk Afghans, especially women and girls, access to safety, education and livelihood.” The UNHCR and International Organization for Migration, the U.N.’s migration agency, said the forced repatriations had “the potential to result in severe human rights violations, including the separation of families and deportation of minors.”

Once back in Afghanistan, returnees have found the going tough, arriving in a country they hardly know, without resources to restart their lives, many facing a harsh Himalayan winter in camps set up by a Taliban administration ill-equipped to provide for them.

Fariba Faizi, 29, is from the southwestern Afghanistan city of Farah, where she was a journalist with a private radio station. Her mother, Shirin, was a prosecutor for the Farah provincial attorney general’s office, specializing in domestic violence cases. Once the Taliban returned to power, they were both out of their jobs, since women are not permitted to work in the new Afghanistan. They also faced the possibility of detention, beating, rape, and killing.

Along with her family of 10 (parents, siblings, husband, and toddler), Faizi, now eight months pregnant with her second child, moved to Islamabad in April 2022, hoping they’d be safe enough. Once the government announced the deportations, landlords who had been renting to Afghans began to evict them; Faizi’s landlord said he wanted the house back for himself. Her family is now living with friends of Yousafzai, who also arranged charitable support to cover their living costs for six months, she said.

With no work in either Pakistan or Afghanistan, Faizi said, they faced a similar economic situation on either side of the border. In Pakistan, however, the women in the family could at least look for work, she said; their preference would be to stay in Pakistan. As it is, they remain in hiding, afraid of being detained by police and forced over the border once their visas expire.

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head-post · 6 months

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Pakistan deports undocumented Afghans

Pakistani authorities on Wednesday began arresting and deporting Afghan refugees who had failed to leave the country, according to Acting Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti.

Pakistan is carrying out a crackdown on undocumented foreigners in Pakistan. This measure is part of Pakistan’s new anti-migration policy and affects about 2 million Afghans. Sarfraz Bugti said:

“There will be no compromise against illegal refugees. We have the data on who are staying illegally in Pakistan. We are going door to door, and we have done geofencing. We will detain and deport them. We have arrested dozens across the country so far, including in the capital.”

Bugti said the Afghans would be taken to the border in buses, trucks or any other means of transport and authorities would monitor them to ensure they do not return. He condemned the West for not doing enough to resettle the Afghans, who face retaliation from the Taliban if they return.

Read more HERE

#world news #world politics #news #afghanistan news #afghanistan #afghan refugees #afghan women #taliban #pakistan #pakistan news

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recentlyheardcom · 7 months

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By Asif ShahzadISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan on Tuesday ordered all illegal immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghan nationals, to leave the country or face expulsion after revealing that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in the country this year were carried out by Afghan nationals.It was not immediately clear how Pakistani authorities could ensure the illegal immigrants leave, or how they could find them to expel them.Islamabad's announcement marks a new low in its relations with Kabul that deteriorated after border clashes between the South Asian neighbours last month."We have given them a November 1 deadline," said Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti, adding that all illegal immigrants should leave voluntarily or face forcible expulsion after that date.Bugti said some 1.73 million Afghan nationals in Pakistan had no legal documents to stay, adding a total of 4.4 million Afghan refugees lived in Pakistan."There are no two opinions that we are attacked from within Afghanistan and Afghan nationals are involved in attacks on us," he said. "We have evidence."Islamabad has received the largest influx of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979.Bugti was speaking in Islamabad after civil and military leaders met the prime minister and army chief to discuss law and order after a recent spate of militant attacks.The violence has seen an unusual uptick since local Taliban militants known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of hardline Sunni Islamist militants, revoked a ceasefire with the government late last year.The TTP wants to overthrow the Pakistani government to replace it with its strict rule under Islamic law.Two suicide bombings targeted religious gatherings in Pakistan last week, killing at least 57 people. The TTP denied involvement. Bugti said that one of the suicide bombers had been identified as an Afghan national.Islamist State also operates in the Afghan border regions and has been involved in attacks in Pakistan.The Pakistani military has conducted several offensives against Islamist militants, mainly in the rugged mountainous region along the Afghan border, which it says forced them to flee to Afghanistan.Islamabad alleges that the militants use Afghan soil to train fighters and plan attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies, saying Pakistani security is a domestic issue.There was no immediate response from Kabul to Bugti's comments.(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Jon Boyle and Nick Macfie)

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shahananasrin-blog · 7 months

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[ad_1] Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said Saturday that the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), is involved in carrying out terror incidents in Pakistan. On Friday, the county was rocked by two suicide blasts in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which caused several casualties and left many others injured. Addressing a press conference in Quetta, Bugti vowed to establish the writ of the state at all costs. Bugti said that the authorities knew who was involved in these activities and would avenge every drop of blood of Pakistanis. The minister also pledged to utilise all resources to eliminate terrorism, stressing that there’s no place for militants and their facilitators in the country. “We know who is doing it and from where,” Bugti maintained. At least 52 people including a cop died and 60 others were injured when a suicide bomber targeted an Eid Milad un Nabi procession in the remote district of Mastung, Balochistan. Meanwhile in KP's Hangu, another suicide blast ripped through a mosque, leaving five dead — including a policeman — and 12 injured. Both attacks took place on Friday during the preparations for Friday prayers and celebrations of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) birth anniversary. Meanwhile, a case against the suicide attack during the preparation for the Eid Miladun Nabi procession in Balochistan's Mastung district has been registered against unknown attackers at the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) police station in Quetta. [ad_2]

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workersolidarity · 7 months

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🇵🇰 💥 BREAKING: SUICIDE BLAST IN MASTUNG, PAKISTAN. AT LEAST 10 DEAD AND 40 INJURED

A suicide bomber shook both the ground and the population of the Balochistan Province district of Mastung, Pakistan Friday morning after setting off an explosion that killed at least 52 and injured another 70 people.

As many as 500 people were gathered outside a Mosque in the Balochistan Province of southwestern Pakistan when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a crowd of people celebrating Mawlid an-Nabi, or the birth of the Profit Mohammed.

What should have been a celebratory day spent with family, friends and neighbors was instead marked by one of the deadliest attacks in months in the troubled Balochistan region.

Although no one has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, the suspicion of authorities is that the bombing was likely conducted by the Pakistan offshoot of Daesh, or the Islamic State. Allegedly IS was responsible for a smaller attack just days ago in the same region after one of its commanders was killed.

According to local authorities, at least one senior Police officer, Mohammed Nawaz, was killed in the blast, and children were among the wounded, with video emerging of young boys wrapped up in bloody bandages.

Another blast that also occured on Friday on the premises of a police station in Hangu, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan killed 5 and wounded another 7 according to Shah Raz Khan, a local police officer.

The bombings come just days after local authorities warned citizens to remain vigilant, concerned that Militants could target public crowds on Mawlid an-Nabi.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban, or TTP, which has waged a campaign of violence that normally targets government offices and security targets, denied responsibility for the attacks in Mastung and Hangu.

Pakistan's acting Interior Minister, Sarfraz Bugti called the bombing in Mastung a "heinous act" to target families on Mawlid an-Nabi, “The attack on innocent people who came to participate in the procession of Eid Milad-un-Nabi is a very heinous act."

US Ambassador to Pakistan, Donald Blome, issued a statement Friday saying, “The Pakistani people deserve to gather and celebrate their faith without the fear of terror attacks like the ones today in Balochistan and KP."

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