International

The world should urgently provide promised aid to Afghanistan, the UN refugee agency said yesterday, warning that a lack of resources is hampering efforts to avert an economic crisis that could push fresh flows of refugees to its neighbours and beyond. “The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan remains really dire,” Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the UN High Commmissioner for Refugees, said in an interview in Islamabad. “The focus has to be inside Afghanistan to avoid and avert another refugee crisis.” Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15, the country — already struggling with drought and severe poverty from decades of war — has seen its economy all but collapse. Most of the nation’s international assistance has been cut off, though there are exceptions for humanitarian aid. Billions of dollars in central bank assets held abroad have also been frozen, which has put pressure on the banking system. “Our worry is Afghan suffering will increase, the impact will be inside…but also it could be beyond Afghanistan…in terms of displacement not only to countries like Pakistan and Iran that have been generous hosts of refugees for decades, but beyond.” The total needed for humanitarian operations in Afghanistan in the next few months is $600mn, Baloch said, and only 35% of that had been provided by international donors, despite promises at a recent conference in Geneva where donors pledged more than $1bn in aid. “Those pledges have to turn into reality, the cash has to be there for us to step in and support...Afghans,” he said. Baloch added there were new challenges since the collapse of the government and the takeover of the country by the Taliban administration. The lack of commercial flights meant supplies needed to be taken in on special flights or by road. He said a humanitarian hub had been set up in Uzbekistan to fly in supplies which were then driven across the border into northern Afghanistan. UN agencies are engaging with members of the Taliban administration, he said, adding there were some positive signs but one key issue was ensuring female local staff were able to get back to work in all parts of the country. In Qatar, Taliban representatives asked the United States to lift a ban on Afghan central bank reserves at a meeting with US counterparts, Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister said yesterday in remarks reported by Al Jazeera television.

At least 20 people were killed and more than 100 injured yesterday when an earthquake struck southwestern Pakistan, causing roofs and walls of mud brick homes to collapse on families as they slept. A one-year-old boy was among the victims, killed when a beam crashed on top of him in the darkness, as the 5.9 magnitude quake jolted at least six cities and towns in Balochistan province. The worst-affected area was the remote mountainous district of Harnai, where landslides blocked some roads, hampering rescue efforts. Authorities are also contending with phone and electricity outages after pylons were damaged. “We are receiving information that 20 people have been killed due to the earthquake,” said Balochistan’s Home Minister Mir Zia ullah Langau, adding that 100 people were injured. “It is safe to say that hundreds of mud houses were damaged.” A woman and six children were among 20 dead, Suhail Anwar Hashmi, the top government official in Harnai district, said, putting the number of injured at around 200. “The roof of my house collapsed, when I regained consciousness, I pulled out two of my sons, but the youngest one... had already died,” Rafiullah, a farmer from a village in Harnai district, said. Army helicopters were helping to evacuate the injured from remote areas to Quetta, the nearest major city. Naseer Nasar, the head of Balochistan’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority, warned the death toll could rise. A second jolt rocked the area around two hours after the first quake. “Our rescue teams have cleared 50% of the roads leading to Harnai while remaining roads will be cleared in the next two to three hours,” Balochistan’s home minister Langau added, highlighting the strain rescue teams were under. The quake caused electricity to fail in the area, with health staff working until dawn without lights in the district’s poorly equipped government hospital. Before daybreak, “we were operating without electricity with the help of torches and mobile flashlights,” Zahoor Tarin, a senior official at Harnai hospital, said. “Most of the injured came with fractured limbs. Dozens of people were sent back after first aid,” he said. The most serious cases were being sent by ambulance to Quetta. Hashmi, the top government official in Harnai district, said a rescue team had been dispatched to investigate reports that 15 coal miners were trapped in a mine on the outskirts of the town.

A young man with a jet-black beard crouches, grief-stricken, next to the body of his baby, swaddled in a blanket, as his other children look on in shock. "I tried to take out my children, but the jolt was so strong," Rafiullah, a farmer in the mountainous Pakistani district of Harnai, told AFP. The roof of his mud house collapsed and knocked Rafiullah unconscious when the 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province in the early hours of Thursday. "When I regained consciousness, I pulled out two of my sons," he said. But his youngest boy, only around one, had been struck by a wooden beam, and "had already died".  At least 20 people, including six children, were killed in the quake that hit just after 3:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday). It was felt across at least six cities and towns but the remote district of Harnai was worst-affected, with landslides triggered by the jolt blocking some roads and hampering rescue efforts in the area. Images published by the Balochistan Levies law enforcement agency showed men clearing fallen rocks from a blocked road, with only the headlights of cars parked nearby to cut through the darkness.     - 'Screaming for help' -   "It was a strong earthquake. The jolt was very powerful," Zaman Shah told AFP in Harnai. "As we ran to save our lives, some people fell," he said.  "Our homes have suffered damage, and lives were also lost." Provincial officials said dozens if not hundreds of people were injured, while hundreds of mud brick houses were damaged. As day broke, Harnai residents were sifting through the yellow-brown rubble that once constituted their homes. Some desperately pulled away bricks and rocks with their bare hands, while one man struggled to lift a door flattened on top of the debris. Children with smudged faces and bandaged heads sat in stunned silence on stretchers, as ambulances wailed by and army helicopters roared overhead. They were evacuating those worst injured from remote areas to Quetta, the nearest major city.  When the shallow quake shook the ground in Gharibabad village in Harnai district, "everybody rushed to save their lives," 27-year-old villager Rahamatullah told AFP. "Women and children were screaming for help." He said no one from his family was injured, but that they had been terrified to see big cracks in the walls. When a second jolt rocked the area around two hours after the first quake, "nobody dared to go inside his home," he says.  "People stayed out of their house for the rest of the night." 

India and Pakistan clashed Friday at the United Nations as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan accused the rival of a "reign of terror" on Muslims, drawing a stern rebuke. Even for Pakistan, which routinely castigates India at the world body, Khan's speech to the annual summit was strikingly loaded as he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of a plan to "purge India of Muslims." "The worst and most pervasive form of Islamophobia now rules India," Khan said in an address, delivered by video due to Covid precautions. "The hate-filled Hindutva ideology, propagated by the fascist RSS-BJP regime, has unleashed a reign of fear and violence against India's 200 million-strong Muslim community," he said. Khan was referring to Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and the affiliated Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a century-old Hindu revivalist movement with a paramilitary component. Under Modi, India has rescinded the statehood of Kashmir, its only Muslim-majority region, pushed through a citizenship law that critics call discriminatory and has witnessed repeated flare-ups of religious-based violence.  Speaking on the day Modi was visiting the White House, Khan -- who has yet to speak to President Joe Biden -- alleged that commercial interests with billion-plus India were allowing it to "get away with human rights abuses with complete impunity." While India often ignores Pakistan's statements at the world body, a young Indian diplomat on the floor exercised the right to respond to Khan. Sneha Dubey, a first secretary at India's UN mission, accused Pakistan of sheltering and glorifying Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden who was killed by US special forces in a 2011 raid in the army city of Abbottabad. "This is the country which is an arsonist disguising itself as a firefight," she said. "Pakistan nurtures terrorists in their backyard in the hope that they will only harm their neighbors." She highlighted violence against minorities in Pakistan as well as its "religious and cultural genocide" in 1971 as Bangladesh won independence. "Unlike Pakistan, India is a pluralistic democracy with a substantial population of minorities who have gone on to hold highest offices in the country," Dubey said. Her reply triggered yet another response as a Pakistani diplomat, Saima Saleem, took issue with Dubey's contention that Kashmir, which is partially controlled by Islamabad, is an internal issue.

An international commercial flight left Kabul yesterday, the first since the Taliban retook power last month, offering some hope to Afghans still desperate to leave the country. The capital’s airport was left trashed after US-led forces finished a chaotic evacuation of more than 120,000 people, and the Taliban have since scrambled to get it operational with technical assistance from Qatar and other nations. In morning yesterday, a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) jet touched down in Kabul, before making a return flight to Islamabad. The Boeing 777 with the flight number PK 6429 departed from Islamabad as a commercial flight chartered by the World Bank, carrying officials from the bank and journalists, airline spokesman Abdullah H Khan said. The aircraft later returned to Islamabad. Airport ground staff said that around 70 people were on the flight to Islamabad. “It was a special chartered commercial flight,” Khan told Reuters. “We also accommodated other individuals who wanted to leave Afghanistan since we had space on the plane.” This operation is very important for the PIA and the whole world, PIA’s chief operating officer Arshad Malik said in a statement. “We hope that we will be able to resume a complete operation soon.” “I am being evacuated. My final destination is Tajikistan,” said a 35-year-old World Bank evacuee, who did not want to give her name. “I will come back here only if the situation allows women to work and move freely.” A 22-year-old university student said he was taking a one-month trip to Pakistan. “It’s like a vacation. I am sad and happy. Sad about the country, but happy to leave for some time,” he said. The resumption of commercial flights will be a key test for the Taliban, who have repeatedly promised to allow Afghans with the right documents to leave the country freely. As passengers prepared to board, airport staff went about their duties, although working under the new regime is marred by fear and confusion for women. “I don’t know if we will be killed or not for working here,” one of two women handling the security scanning machine told AFP. Many North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) nations admitted that they had run out of time to evacuate thousands of at-risk Afghans before the withdrawal deadline – agreed between the US and the Taliban. A PIA spokesman said at the weekend that the airline is keen to resume regular commercial services, but it is too soon to say how frequently flights between the two capitals would operate. Jawad Zafar, the head of operations at the PIA, told AFP yesterday: “This is a great moment for me after a long time since the change of the establishment in Kabul.” AFP staff observed only a handful of people on the flight from Islamabad to Kabul. Qatar Airways operated several charter flights out of Kabul last week, carrying mostly foreigners and Afghans who missed out on the evacuation. An Afghan airline resumed domestic services on September 3. “This is a big moment. We are very excited,” said one airport employee. “It’s a hopeful day. Maybe other airlines will see this and decide to come back.” Passenger halls, air bridges and technical infrastructure were badly damaged in the days after the Taliban rolled into Kabul on August 15, when thousands of people stormed the airport in the hope of fleeing. Tens of thousands of Afghans fear reprisals for helping foreign powers during the 20-year US-led occupation, but the Taliban insist that they have granted a general amnesty to everyone – including the security forces they fought against. The Taliban have promised a milder form of rule this time.

Afghanistan will form a government within days, Pakistan’s foreign minister said yesterday, after weeks of uncertainty following the Taliban’s conquest of the country. “We expect that a consensus government will be formed in the coming days in Afghanistan,” Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a news conference here. Qureshi also reiterated Islamabad’s stance of a “politically inclusive” government in Kabul and urged the international community to stay engaged with Afghanistan post-exit of foreign troops. “Pakistan’s policy is clear: we support a politically inclusive, sovereign & prosperous Afghanistan, at peace with itself & neighbours. The safety & security of Afghan people and protection of their rights imp & Int’l community must remain closely engaged,” he tweeted yesterday. During the news conference with Qureshi, his German counterpart Heiko Maas said his country will wait for the Taliban to install a new government to see if they will honour their pledge to allow civilians to leave Afghanistan on flights from Kabul airport. “The Taliban have promised, but in the coming days and weeks we will find out whether we can count on that,” Maas said. “The Taliban want to install a new government, and this will give us an indication whether our request that it be inclusive is met,” he added. Later Maas called on Prime Minister Imran Khan and thanked Pakistan for helping to evacuate its citizens from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. They exchanged views on the situation in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan-Germany bilateral relations. The PM recalled his conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel days ago, in which the two leaders had “fruitful exchange of views” on the Afghanistan situation.

• Pakistani forces clash with Afghan protesters at border crossing shut by Taliban Prime Minister Imran Khan accused the United States of seeing his country as “useful” only in the context of the “mess” it is leaving behind in Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting. Washington has been pressing Pakistan to use its influence over the Taliban to broker an elusive peace deal as negotiations between the insurgents and Afghan government have stalled, and violence in Afghanistan has escalated sharply. “Pakistan is just considered only to be useful in the context of somehow settling this mess, which has been left behind after 20 years of trying to find a military solution when there was not one,” Khan told foreign journalists at his home in Islamabad. The United States will pull out its military by August 31, 20 years after toppling the Taliban government in 2001. But, as the United States leaves, the Taliban today controls more territory than at any point since then. Kabul and several Western governments say Pakistan’s support for the insurgent group allowed it to weather the war. The charge of supporting the Taliban despite being a US ally has long been a sore point between Washington and Islamabad. Pakistan denies supporting the Taliban. Prime Minister Khan said that Islamabad is not taking sides in Afghanistan. “I think that the Americans have decided that India is their strategic partner now, and I think that’s why there’s a different way of treating Pakistan now,” Khan said. Pakistan and India are archrivals and have fought three wars. The two share frosty ties and currently have minimal diplomatic relations. A political settlement in Afghanistan was looking difficult under current conditions, Khan added. He said he tried to persuade Taliban leaders when they were visiting Pakistan to reach a settlement. “The condition is that as long as Ashraf Ghani is there, ‘we (Taliban) are not going to talk to the Afghan government’,” Khan said, quoting the Taliban leaders as telling him. Peace talks between the Taliban, who view Ghani and his government as US puppets, and a team of Kabul-nominated Afghan negotiators started last September but have made no substantive progress. Representatives of a number of countries, including the United States, are currently in Doha talking to both sides in a last-ditch push for a ceasefire. US forces have continued to use air strikes to support Afghan forces against the Taliban, but it remains unclear if such support will continue after August 31. Khan said Pakistan had “made it very clear” that it does not want any American military bases in Pakistan after US forces exit Afghanistan. Pakistani forces meanwhile clashed with hundreds of Afghans stranded on Pakistan’s side of a commercially-vital border crossing with Afghanistan after its closure by Taliban insurgents, Pakistani security officials said. The disturbances broke out yesterday after a 56-year-old Afghan died of a heart attack as he waited in the dusty heat to enter Afghanistan via the Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing, Arif Kakar, a Pakistani official on the scene, told Reuters. Protesters carried his body to a local Pakistani government office, demanding the border be reopened. Some began throwing stones at security forces, who responded by firing tear gas and charging the protesters with batons to disperse them. No injuries were reported. The Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing is landlocked Afghanistan’s second busiest entry point and main commercial artery to the Pakistani seacoast. The Taliban, who captured the crossing last month as part of a major advance across Afghanistan as US-led foreign forces withdraw, announced its closure on August 6 in protest at a Pakistani decision to end visa-free travel for Afghans. The Taliban are demanding Pakistan allow Afghans to cross the frontier with either an Afghan ID card or a Pakistani-issued refugee registration card. Some 900 trucks went through the Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing daily before the Taliban seized it. Prime Minister Khan: Pakistan had made it very clear that it does not want any American military bases in Pakistan after US forces exit Afghanistan.

• Taliban forces changed their strategy to target provincial Afghan cities in response to US air strikes, commanders say Pakistan’s national security adviser has said that Afghanistan’s government and the Taliban must both compromise and reach a peace settlement as the insurgents make rapid gains amid a US troop withdrawal. Wrapping up a week of talks in Washington, Moeed Yusuf played down the level of influence on the Taliban played by Pakistan, which was one of only three nations to recognise the hardline regime that was toppled in a US invasion after the September 11, 2001 attacks. “We have made it absolutely clear – we will not accept a forceful takeover,” he told reporters. “But the world also needs to be clear that the US is invested in a political settlement.” Yusuf said that the internationally-recognised government in Kabul, which has strained ties with Pakistan, needs to stop looking for a military victory and needs to include a broader range of Afghans in any future talks. “There will have to be some compromise given the ground reality. But the violence will have to stop,” he said. Yusuf said that his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, and others in President Joe Biden’s administration did not make specific requests of Pakistan but discussed “how quickly we can get all these actors in one room to have a sincere conversation”. He dismissed talk of Islamabad exerting leverage over the Taliban. “Whatever limited leverage we had, we used,” he said, pointing to Pakistan encouraging the Taliban to enter talks with the Afghan government in Doha. “Now with the troop withdrawal, that leverage has logically gone down further.” He pointed to the burden of Afghanistan’s long-running war on Pakistan, home to some 3.5mn Afghan refugees. “We under no circumstances are prepared to see protracted instability that in the past has caused spillover into Pakistan,” he said. Taliban militants have meanwhile switched strategy from targeting rural areas of Afghanistan to attacking provincial cities, in response to increased US air strikes after the United States said it was ending its longest war, three militant commanders said. A regional US commander said late last month that the United States had increased air strikes to counter growing Taliban attacks, a move condemned by the religious militant group. Fighting has been particularly heavy inside the city of Herat, near the western border with Iran, Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province in the southwest, and Kandahar in the south. The three Taliban commanders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that they are focused on capturing Herat and Kandahar, with Lashkar Gah in their sights. “Mullah Yaqoob argued that when US didn’t fulfil their commitment why should Taliban be made to follow the accord?” said one of the commanders, based in Kandahar, referring to the group’s military chief. “Mullah Yaqoob has decided to capture Kandahar and Herat, and now Helmand, and then it could be Kunduz, Khost or any other province,” said the commander, saying that the military leader’s arguments had won over the group’s political office. A Taliban spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Taliban negotiator Suhail Shaheen told Reuters that the group is continuing its policy of seizing control of rural areas, rather than focusing on cities. The Taliban, who ruled from 1996 until 2001, had said previously they would focus on lucrative border crossings and large rural areas, though they have encircled and at times entered provincial capitals. In recent weeks, there have been sustained attacks on Herat, Kandahar and Lashkar Gar, stretching Afghan special forces thin and killing dozens of civilians. “The operations in Kandahar and Herat are very much important to us and our priority is to capture the two crucial airports or airbases in Kandahar and Herat,” the Taliban commander in Kandahar said. Officials and experts said they saw signs of a change in strategy last month. “Taliban are pushing against the provincial capitals ... not just to exert pressure but to capture them,” said Asfandyar Mir, a South Asia analyst from Stanford University. “The main evidence is the extent of their breach of these cities. Fighting is not limited to the peripheries any more. This switch in Taliban strategy has been formalised after Eid (al-Adha), though Taliban forces were putting serious pressure on Kandahar even before Eid.” Kandahar and Herat are the second- and third-largest cities of Afghanistan by population. Experts said their loss would be a major political blow to the government and could potentially trigger major realignments in favour of the Taliban. “Capture of Kandahar means a lot to the Taliban. It was their capital and occupying the city is great morale boost for the Taliban ... this is something they cherish and for Kandahar, Taliban can risk international ire,” said an Asian diplomatic source closely following the Taliban. A Western security official said: “The fact they are attacking (cities) is a sharp reaction to air support offered by the US ... the Taliban have proven that now they will not just stop with controlling trading points.” It is not clear whether US airstrikes would continue after foreign forces complete their withdrawal. A spokesperson for US forces in Afghanistan and the US embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Experts and officials say that for now a military takeover of Kabul would be much more difficult for the Taliban than provincial capitals, but that the group could increase bombings and attacks to undermine security and public morale. The Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack at the acting defence minister’s residence on Tuesday and warned of further violence. First resettled Afghan refugees and families arrive in Canada The first group of Afghan interpreters, embassy staff and families that Canada is resettling amid threats of Taliban reprisals have arrived, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said yesterday. Many Afghans who worked with Canada and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) countries fear Taliban violence as US forces depart. Canada announced last month that it would resettle the Afghans amid what it called a dynamic and deteriorating situation. “Today brings with it a sense of hope, optimism and a sigh of relief for those first Afghan refugees who touched down last night,” Mendicino told a news conference. Canada will not announce the names of the people involved or where they will be resettled, he said. Ottawa says several thousand people will be eligible. Washington announced this week a programme that may allow thousands more Afghans, who may be Taliban targets due to their US affiliations, to have the opportunity to resettle as refugees. Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan ended a decade ago, after which the country resettled about 800 Afghans who had worked for the country as interpreters or in other roles. – Reuters

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis are thronging coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccination centres daily after officials announced penalties for the unvaccinated, including blocked cellphones and barred access to offices, restaurants, shopping malls and transport. Queues for inoculations stretched more than 1km in some locations this week, in response to measures designed to help slow a Delta variant-fuelled surge in infections that has put pressure on Pakistan’s poor health infrastructure. In a country that has a long anti-vaccination history, health workers said many in line were more afraid of the restrictions – some started on August 1 while others kick in on August 30 – than the health threat of Covid-19. That perception was supported by people queuing who spoke to Reuters. “I’m personally not scared of corona,” said banker Abdul Rauf as he stood in a queue at a vaccination centre in southern Karachi, with his mask down to chin. “Our salaries will be stopped, our SIMs will be blocked, so all these things are out there, so that’s why I got my second dose done.” Pakistan has a long anti-vaccination history – Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio is still an endemic disease – and Covid-19 hesitancy has been high. Out of a population of 220mn, only 6.7mn people have been fully vaccinated, according to the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), a body that oversees the Covid-19 operations. Pakistan’s federal government announced late last month it would ban staff from entering public offices, schools, restaurants, transport, shopping malls and air travel without vaccination certificates. The announcement prompted a rise in vaccination rates. “I came here and obtained this card after getting the vaccination, merely because I have to travel abroad, and I will not be able to travel without doing this,” said Mohamed Atiq Qureshi, a lawyer in Karachi. The local government in the province of Sindh went even further, warning that it could withhold the salaries of government servants and block people’s cellphone SIM cards unless they had the required certificates. “There is a small percentage who are coming to get a shot for fear of the disease or for their safety, but majority of the people are coming for fear of having their business closed ... or the youngsters who want a shot for fear that their SIMs will be blocked,” said Dr Jamila said, a health worker at one of the vaccination centres. Yesterday Pakistan reported 5,661 new Covid-19 cases, the highest single-day number in more than three months, and 60 deaths. The country has recorded more than 1mn infections and around 23,600 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The health minister, Faisal Sultan, said the requirement of a vaccination certificate had “helped to encourage vaccination”. Anecdotal reports suggested some businesses had already begun restrictions on service. “We were denied McDonald’s at a rest area on a motorway if we couldn’t show a text message to prove that we are vaccinated,” said Moiz Raja, who travelled from Islamabad to eastern Lahore city last week.

Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, is to undergo a week-long partial lockdown starting today to curb the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) Delta variant, as the city’s hospitals are close to saturation levels, the provincial chief minister said on Friday. A day earlier, Pakistan’s federal government announced a ban on staff entering public offices, schools, restaurants, transport, shopping malls and air-travel without vaccination certificates, despite only 2.7% of the population having had the full two Covid-19 vaccine shots. “I know, people will not be comfortable with lockdown, but it is inevitable we have to bring the numbers down,” Murad Ali Shah, chief minister of Sindh province, told a press conference. During the last 24 hours, Pakistan reported 86 deaths including 14 from Karachi, as coronavirus positivity in Sindh’s capital reached around 25%. According to Aga Khan University Hospital, there is almost 100% prevalence of the Delta variant in the city, the chief executive of the province said. He said that Karachi was seeing 20% cases for the past few weeks, but following the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the virus also spread in rural areas, with numbers have gone up to 6% from 2%, as people visited hometowns. Out of a population of 220mn, more than 27.8mn have received one vaccine shot, but only 5.9mn have been fully vaccinated, according to the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), a military-run body that oversees pandemic response. The lockdown will be in place until August 9 and will focus the retail industry in the city. Essential services will be open. Restaurants will only be allowed delivery. No takeaway, dine-in or outside will be allowed, a handout by the chief minister’s office said. Health facilities including vaccination centres will remain open, it said, adding that provincial government offices will be closed during the week. Earlier in the month, health experts had warned that the Muslim holiday and elections in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, both held in the month, could prove to be super spreader events.

Pakistan will ban air travel for anyone without a coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine certificate from August 1, and will require all public sector workers to get vaccinated by August 31, the government announced yesterday, along with a host of other restrictions. From August 31, unvaccinated staff will no longer be allowed to enter government offices, schools, restaurants or shopping malls, said Asad Umar, who heads National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), a military-run body that oversees the pandemic response, at a joint news conference with the health minister in Islamabad. Teachers and students above 18, public transport and retail staff will also be required to get vaccinated, they said. Pakistan has seen coronavirus infections soar, dominated by Delta variant, and its poor health infrastructure is under extreme pressure. The national positive test rate for Covid-19 stands at 7.53%, according to the NCOC. The rate in the southern port city of Karachi touched 23% in recent weeks. “If you’re not vaccinated, you can’t go to teach at schools and colleges from August 1,” Umar said. “We can’t put our children’s lives at risk just because that you’re not ready to get the vaccine.” After a sluggish start, the government ramped up its national vaccination drive, especially in the heartland Punjab province, with 850,000 doses administered on Wednesday across the country. Umar said the target is to touch 1mn doses a day. According to the NCOC, more than 27.8mn people have now received at least one vaccine shot, while 5.9mn have been fully vaccinated, out of a population of 220mn.

A 19-year-old Pakistani has become the youngest person to summit K2, the world’s second highest mountain, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said yesterday. Shehroze Kashif reached the 8,611 metre summit at 8:10am yesterday. Kashif, who began climbing in his early teens, scaled the world’s 12th highest mountain, 8,047-metre Broad Peak, at the age of 17. In May, he became the youngest Pakistani to scale Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. He now holds an additional record as the youngest person to have summited K2 and Everest. Several of Pakistan’s youngest climbers have been on K2 in recent days. Sajid Ali Sadpara, who in 2019 became the youngest to climb K2 at the age of 20, is part of an expedition there to find the body of his father, who went missing along with two other climbers in February. On Monday, sherpas affixing ropes for climbers about 300m below an obstacle known as the Bottleneck discovered the bodies of Mohamed Ali Sadpara of Pakistan, Iceland’s John Snorri and Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr. The same day, Samina Baig, 30, said she was abandoning an attempt to summit the mountain because of dangerous conditions. Baig became the youngest Pakistani woman to scale Mount Everest in 2013. On Sunday night the body of Scottish climber, Rick Allen, 68, was recovered after he was swept away by an avalanche while attempting to traverse a new route on K2’s southeastern face. The remains of Pakistani mountaineering legend Mohamed Ali Sadpara, Iceland’s John Snorri and Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile were spotted Monday near “the bottleneck” — a narrow gully just hundreds of metres from the summit. “We are now focusing on a strategy to bring the bodies to a point from where they could be airlifted,” Ayaz Shagri, an official with the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told AFP. “The bodies of the mountaineers are intact and frozen,” Shagri added, saying the climbers’ remains were at an altitude of 7,800 metres. “It is very difficult to bring the dead bodies down from this high altitude,” said Karrar Haidri, also from the Alpine Club, adding that the military was helping with the operation. The trio lost contact with K2’s base camp in early February, sparking a massive rescue effort that included military helicopters and planes. Earlier this month, Kim Hong-bin, 57, a South Korean Paralympian, went missing after falling from the nearby Broad Peak. With Pakistan’s borders open and few other places to go due to the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s summer climbing season is attracting a large number of alpinists. Known as “the savage mountain”, K2 has harsh conditions — winds can blow at more than 200 kilometres per hour and temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius. Unlike the world’s highest peak Mount Everest, which has been scaled by thousands of climbers young and old, K2 is much less travelled.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia yesterday discussed how to ease Covid-19 travel restrictions, which have stranded around 400,000 Pakistani workers back home, foreign ministers of the two countries told reporters. Islamabad took up the issue with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, who was on a one-day visit to Pakistan. Al-Saud is the first high profile Saudi official to arrive in Pakistan after cracks in their historically friendly relations earlier this year. His Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a joint news conference in Islamabad that around 400,000 of over two million Pakistani workers in Saudi Arabia had been stranded at home due to travel restrictions. “They are facing challenges, you know the travel restrictions and you know the issues of vaccination,” he said. Saudi Arabia, which bars direct travel from Pakistan, has only approved the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines, so anyone arriving without one of those shots is required to quarantine at a cost many Pakistani workers say they cannot afford. Most Pakistanis have received a Chinese vaccine, although al-Saud said his government had given Covid-19 shots to 1.7 million Pakistani workers. The Pakistani workforce in Saudi Arabia contributes $7 billion, or a quarter of the country’s total annual remittances. “We talked about the challenges that Covid-19 has imposed on all of us. It has imposed challenges, travel restrictions, all of these we are working on,” al-Saud said. Would-be Pakistani expatriate workers, desperate to obtain a Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca Covid shot so they can travel to work in Saudi Arabia, have been holding protests. Pakistan has lately started allowing people under 40 who have to travel for jobs abroad to obtain the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines, of which the country has limited supply obtained through the Covax system.

Pakistan yesterday reopened a major southwestern border crossing with Afghanistan that is currently under Taliban control on the Afghan side, Pakistani customs officials said, allowing over 100 trucks carrying goods to cross into Afghanistan. The Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing, a key port for landlocked Afghanistan, had been closed by Pakistan for commercial traffic since fierce fighting for control of the crossing erupted between Taliban insurgents and Afghan security forces earlier this month. “Pakistan has opened its border with Afghanistan at Chaman today and resumed Afghan Transit Trade which was suspended since the last one month,” Arif Kakar, a senior official of the Chaman border district, told Reuters. He said it would remain open six days a week. Two Pakistani customs officials, requesting anonymity, told Reuters that Spin Boldak and the border town of Wesh were still under Taliban control, and they did not know what arrangements were in place across the border or who was clearing the goods through customs. They said Pakistani officials were under pressure by traders to let trucks pass through as the goods they were carrying would otherwise perish. Afghanistan’s interior and finance ministries, and the Taliban spokesman, did not respond to requests for comment. US Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, head of US Central Command, which oversees American forces in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that Spin Boldak was a “contested space” and the Afghan government was looking to regain control of it. The reopening came hours after 46 Afghan soldiers sought refuge in Pakistan after losing control of military positions further north along the border following advances by Taliban insurgents taking advantage of foreign forces’ withdrawal. The Afghan military commander requested refuge at the border crossing in Chitral in the north, the Pakistan Army said in a statement, adding safe passage into Pakistan was given on Sunday night after clearance from Afghan authorities. Hundreds of Afghan soldiers and civil officials have fled to neighbouring Tajikistan, Iran and Pakistan in recent weeks after Taliban offensives in border areas. “Afghan soldiers have been provided food, shelter and necessary medical care as per established military norms,” the statement said. Relations between neighbours Afghanistan and Pakistan have taken a sharp downturn in recent weeks, particularly over repeated allegations by Kabul that Pakistan is backing the Taliban — a charge Islamabad denies. Afghanistan recalled its diplomats from Pakistan after the brief kidnapping of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter in Islamabad earlier in the month. Afghan officials did not respond to a request for comment on the soldiers’ crossing. The Taliban has escalated its offensive since the United States announced in April that it would withdraw its troops by September, ending a 20-year foreign military presence. Washington has said it will continue to carry out air strikes to support Afghan forces facing insurgent attacks. Peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have failed to make substantive progress since beginning in September last year. Reeling from battlefield losses, Afghanistan’s military is overhauling its war strategy to concentrate forces around critical areas such as Kabul and other cities, and border crossings. The Pakistan Army said the soldiers who sought refuge will be returned to Afghanistan after due process, as had occurred in the case of another batch of 35 soldiers earlier in July.

The ruling party of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has won a majority of seats in Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s regional assembly, the head of the election commission announced yesterday. Analysts say polarisation in Pakistan’s politics pushed the main national parties to focus on the polls in the semi-autonomous region, tightening races in an election that is often overlooked and traditionally won by the national ruling party. Khan, who came to power in a 2018 election, has faced growing criticism over his management of Pakistan’s economy and his ability to deliver on campaign promises, including pledges to create millions of new jobs and root out corruption. His Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) won 25 seats in the 45-seat assembly in Sunday’s poll, Chief Election Commissioner Abdul Rashid Sulehria told a news conference. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of former premier late Benazir Bhutto secured 11 seats, while the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, which had previously held a majority in the body, took just six seats. Kashmir’s outgoing Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, of the PML-N, contested two seats, losing one and winning the other by only 300 votes. Two local groups each won a single seat, Sulehria said, while the result from one constituency had been withheld. Sulehria dismissed accusations, mainly from the PML-N, that Khan’s party had rigged the election. “We have fulfilled our promise to conduct free, fair and transparent elections,” he told journalists in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Two workers for Khan’s party died in clashes with PPP supporters on election day, police said, but the polls were otherwise peaceful. Four soldiers involved in securing the vote also died when their vehicle plunged into a mountain ravine, the army said. Khan congratulated his party’s winning candidates and thanked voters in a tweet following the announcement of results. “I want to thank the (people) ... for placing their trust in the PTI through their votes,” he wrote. “We will focus on bringing the (people) out of poverty.” The disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between arch-rivals Pakistan and India. The two nuclear powers claim the valley in full and have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir dispute.

The popular TikTok video-sharing app was blocked Wednesday in Pakistan for a fourth time because of "inappropriate content", the country's telecommunication regulator said. The Chinese-owned site has fought a series of legal battles with religious activists and authorities in the nation, and was shut down for two days earlier this month on the order of a provincial court. "The action has been taken due to continuous presence of inappropriate content on the platform and its failure to take such content down," the telecoms authority said in a statement. A local TikTok representative did not immediately comment. In June, TikTok said it had removed more than six million videos available to Pakistan users in just three months following complaints from officials and ordinary users.

The spread of the coronavirus Delta variant is reaching alarming levels in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi on the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday as public and some private sector hospitals are reaching capacity and have started refusing patients, medical officials said yesterday. The Sindh provincial government said on Monday that the Covid-19 situation in the city is becoming serious, and warned people that ignoring precautionary measures during the holiday could make matters worse. During the past 24 hours, the coronavirus positivity rate in the Sindh capital increased to 25.7%, nearly five times the national rate of 5.25%. Government hospitals have reached saturation point, something not witnessed during previous waves, and even some private hospitals are refusing patients, said Dr Qaiser Sajjad, secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association. “God have mercy on us, people are not taking this pandemic seriously,” Sajjad told Reuters. The Delta variant could spread during the holiday as people travel from cities like Karachi to their home towns. According to the Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Karachi, there is 92.2% prevalence of the Delta variant in the city. Dr Seemin Jamali, executive director of the Jinnah Hospital, Karachi’s biggest, told Reuters that 77 out of its 90 coronavirus beds were occupied and it was planned to add more. “We did not face such a capacity situation during previous waves,” Jamali said. “The situation is getting pretty bad.” The holiday and upcoming elections in Pakistani Kashmir on July 25 could prove to be super spreader events, as government and opposition are busy holding big public gatherings, the two doctors warned. Last week, Pakistan’s planning minister, Asad Umar, said hospitals were seeing a rapid build-up in the influx of Covid patients. He had earlier warned of a fourth wave if precautionary measures were not followed.

At least 30 people were killed and over 40 were injured on Monday when a passenger bus collided with a truck on the Indus Highway in Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, Pakistani officials said. Initially, Commissioner Dera Ghazi Khan Dr Irshad Ahmed confirmed that 29 people, including women and children, had died in the incident. He said rescue officials reached the site soon after the accident, adding that dead bodies and the injured where being transferred to the DHQ Teaching Hospital DG Khan. According to the hospital management, four of the injured were in a critical condition. Pakistan's Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid expressed his sorrow over the deaths in the accident. He said the incident was nothing less than a "calamity" for people going back home for the upcoming Eid Al-Adha holiday.

A blast on a bus killed 13 people in north Pakistan yesterday, including nine Chinese nationals in what Beijing said was a bomb attack but Islamabad called a vehicle failure. Two Pakistani soldiers were also among the dead after the explosion sent the bus over a ravine, local government and police sources told Reuters. Chinese engineers and Pakistani construction workers have for several years been working on hydroelectric projects as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative in the western province of Khyber-Paktunkhwa, where the blast occurred. China’s embassy in Pakistan confirmed that nine of its nationals died. Terming the explosion a bomb attack but not giving more details, the Chinese foreign ministry offered condolences and urged both a thorough investigation and protection of its personnel and projects. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said a mechanical failure caused a gas leak which led to the explosion. However, the province’s top police official, Inspector General Moazzam Jah Ansari, earlier told Reuters foul play was suspected. “Looks like sabotage,” he said. A senior administrative officer of the Hazara region, who asked not to be named, said the bus was carrying more than 30 Chinese engineers to the Dasu dam in Upper Kohistan. The Dasu hydroelectric project is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65bn investment plan aiming to link western China to the southern Pakistani port of Gwadar. “This is clearly an act of terrorism that has been carefully planned and was supported by information,” said an editorial in Global Times, a Chinese tabloid run by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, calling it the most serious attack on Chinese nationals in recent years. Chinese working in Pakistan have been attacked previously, particularly in the south-western province of Balochistan where separatist militants have waged an insurgency against authorities in a state where China develops mines and a port. The separatists have also attacked the Chinese consulate in the southern city of Karachi. Additionally, militants have also previously targeted Chinese nationals. Using an air ambulance, rescuers took the injured, including Chinese engineers, to a hospital in Dasu, about 6 miles from the blast site, authorities said. “Police and the bomb disposal squad are at the site,” added regional official Arif Khan Yousufzai outside the hospital, adding that an investigation was awaited to ascertain details. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it was in close contact with the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, adding in a statement: “Pakistan attaches great importance to the safety and security of Chinese nationals, projects and institutions.”

Nine Chinese workers were among 13 people killed on Wednesday when a blast on a bus sent it careering down a ravine in northwestern Pakistan, government and police officials said. While Pakistani officials said the nature of the blast was under investigation, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad said its nationals had come under "attack". The bus was carrying Chinese engineers, surveyors and mechanical staff to the Dasu dam construction site in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a local government official who did not want to be named told AFP. "The blast sparked a fire in the engine plunging the vehicle into a ravine," he said. He said a further 28 Chinese nationals were injured. A senior local police official, who also asked not to be named, confirmed the incident and said: "It was a heavy blast but its nature is not known yet". The security of Chinese workers has long been an issue of concern in Pakistan. Large numbers of them are based in the country to supervise and build infrastructure projects. In a statement on Wednesday, the Chinese embassy said that "a certain project of a Chinese firm in Pakistan suffered an attack, which caused the deaths of Chinese nationals". It urged Chinese firms to strengthen their security procedures.