Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Friday lauded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police and the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) for foiling 14 terrorist attacks by Indian-sponsored terrorists on August 14, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Mohsin Naqvi stated that due to the timely and professional operation, highly wanted terrorists involved in 19 cases were eliminated. These terrorists were reportedly backed by India and were plotting sabotage against Pakistan’s security.
He emphasized that by foiling the enemy’s malicious plans, the KP Police and CTD have demonstrated that Pakistan’s security forces are fully capable of countering any threat.
The Interior Minister further said that the elimination of these terrorists, referred to as agents of “Fitna al-Hindustan,” marks a major achievement for the country’s peace and stability. He added that the entire nation stands united with the security forces in this mission.
Mohsin Naqvi also praised the professionalism, courage, and dedication of all personnel involved in the operation, declaring them national heroes.
ISLAMABAD, Aug 15 (APP):The district administration has announced that the dam’s spillways will be opened today at 1 pm to regulate the water flow, following continuous rainfall in recent days and the water level at Rawal Dam has risen significantly, reaching 1,751.30 feet.
According to officials, the Assistant Commissioner of Nilore will personally supervise the process of opening the spillways. The decision has been taken as part of routine safety measures to manage the increased water level and ensure smooth discharge.
Rescue teams, security personnel, and medical units have been deployed at various locations around the dam to respond promptly to any emergency situation.
The district administration stated that all necessary preparations have been completed well in advance, including coordination with relevant departments and placement of resources at key points.
Authorities have advised citizens to avoid unnecessary activities near the dam, particularly during the spillway operation, to ensure their safety. The administration also urged the public to follow safety instructions and cooperate with teams on duty.
The district administration reaffirmed its readiness to handle any situation arising from the increased water flow, emphasizing that preventive steps and on-ground arrangements have already been put in place.
Opening the spillways will help maintain the dam’s capacity and prevent overflow, ensuring water safety for both the dam structure and surrounding areas. The public has been requested to remain vigilant and avoid visiting the dam’s vicinity during the operation.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said Pakistan was keen to enhance trade and people-to-people contacts with Bangladesh.
PM Shehbaz said this as he received High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Pakistan Iqbal Hussain Khan for a courtesy call in Islamabad.
During the meeting, the prime minister expressed satisfaction over the growing engagement between Pakistan and Bangladesh across various domains.
While fondly recalling his warm and productive interactions with Dr Mohammad Yunus, the chief advisor of Bangladesh, including their last meeting in Cairo on the margins of the D-8 Summit in December 2025, he expressed satisfaction at the revival of various bilateral mechanisms between the two sides.
Ishaq Dar to visit Dhaka on 23rd
He stressed upon the importance of maintaining this momentum to carry forward their bilateral ties. He emphasised that bilateral cooperation in political, economic, and cultural spheres needed to be further strengthened.
Noting the desire of the leadership of both countries to strengthen bilateral ties, the Bangladesh high commissioner briefed the premier on various steps being taken by both countries to facilitate travel, trade and connectivity. He also expressed his desire to continue working hard for further strengthening of the historic bonds of friendship between Pakistan and Bangladesh.
PM Shehbaz wished High Commissioner Iqbal success in his assignment, while assuring him of full support in the discharge of his responsibilities, and expressed confidence that his tenure would continue to witness positive developments in Pakistan-Bangladesh relations.
Pakistan and the Federated States of Micronesia have formally established diplomatic relations to open up avenues for bilateral cooperation.
The Federated States of Micronesia are an island nation located in the western Pacific Ocean that joined the United Nations in 1991, according to the UN’s website.
Both countries’ permanent representatives to the UN signed an agreement at a ceremony in New York, the Pakistan Mission to the UN said in a press release on Thursday.
“Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, and Federated States of Micronesia’s counterpart, Ambassador Jeem S. Lippwe, signed a joint communiqué to formalise the relationship between the two countries,” the Pakistan Mission said.
Addressing the ceremony, Ambassador Ahmad noted: “The relations would open up avenues for cooperation in the field of human resource management, capacity building and climate change.”
Both Missions would “work closely on key matters, especially promotion of international peace and security” at the UN, the envoy highlighted.
He praised that the development came on Pakistan’s Independence Day anniversary and that it was the 100th country to forge ties with Micronesia.
Ambassador Lippwe “expressed his happiness on the start of a new chapter in bilateral relations”, according to the Pakistan Mission statement.
While thanking Pakistan for extending support to his country, the ambassador said he “looked forward to working closely with his Pakistani counterpart to strengthen [the] bond of friendship”.
The Mission statement noted that Ambassadors Ahmad and Lippwe held a brief meeting before the ceremony, where they discussed “matters of mutual interest, including possible areas of cooperation both bilaterally as well as at the UN”.
The signing ceremony was attended by the two countries’ diplomats, including Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Usman Jadoon.
In Dec 2024, Pakistan joined a coalition spearheaded by small island Pacific states to push for a new treaty focused on managing an equitable phase-out of fossil fuels and financing a global just transition away from the threat of coal, oil and gas production.
Pakistan was the first South Asian state to engage with this group to “understand the contours of the proposal for a Fossil Fuel Treaty, aimed at fairly winding down fossil fuel production”.
The 16-strong group has members across four continents, including Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Niue, Antigua and Barbuda, Timor-Leste, Palau, Colombia, Samoa, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Pakistan, and the Bahamas.
Amid recent heavy rains, landslides, and a cloudburst in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the regional government has announced the closure of all educational institutions for two days as a safety precaution.
According to a notification issued by the Education Department, all public and private schools and colleges across AJK will remain closed on August 15 and 16. The decision aims to protect students and teachers due to the ongoing risk of landslides and flooding caused by continuous rainfall.
The situation turned dire yesterday when a cloudburst in the Naseerabad area of Muzaffarabad triggered flash floods, claiming the lives of six members of the same family. In Bagh, torrential rains caused rivers and streams to overflow, while high-level flooding was reported in Bhimber Nullah in Samahni, affecting low-lying areas.
Meanwhile, Gilgit-Baltistan has also been hit by heavy rains, with reports of landslides and flash floods. Various incidents there have resulted in 10 fatalities so far.
The Meteorological Department has forecast more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours, prompting authorities to remain on high alert.
At least 176 people lost their lives and several remained missing as flash floods wreaked havoc across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday, according to data from the Provincial Disaster Management Agency (PDMA).
Since late June, monsoon rains have wreaked havoc across the country — especially KP and northern regions — by triggering deadly floods, landslides and displacement, particularly in vulnerable, poorly drained, or densely populated areas.
The province-wide deaths included 150 men, 14 women and 12 children, with Buner witnessing the highest number of deaths, 78, according to the PDMA. The data added that 45 homes, three schools and eight other structures were destroyed amid the deluge, with 26 homes being destroyed in Swat alone.
Earlier, the KP government dispatched a helicopter with supplies to Bajaur district, but said that it lost contact with the aircraft. It later confirmed in a statement that the helicopter had crashed and five passengers were killed.
“As a result of this tragic accident, five passengers, including two pilots, were martyred,” the statement read, quoting KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.
“The provincial government has called for a day of mourning tomorrow and flags will be flown at half mast,” the statement added. “Rescue teams have been dispatched to the crash site and the martyrs will be buried with full honours.”
In an earlier statement, the CM was quoted as saying that contact with the helicopter had been lost due to “bad weather”.
Buner Deputy Commissioner Kashif Qayum Khan told Dawn.com that 78 people had lost their lives, while “several” were missing. A PDMA daily situation report seen by Dawn.com confirmed the casualties, with 75 men, two women and a child among the deceased.
He added that an emergency has been declared across the district as relief efforts continue in flood-affected areas.
“Helicopters are being used to carry out rescue operations in remote and inaccessible regions,” he said, adding that in Pir Baba Bazaar and the adjoining neighbourhood, floodwaters have completely submerged the area.
“A mosque in Gokand was destroyed and a large number of livestock perished,” he added. “Several roads remain blocked, and the exact number of missing persons has yet to be confirmed.”
Officials said the true figure would only be known once floodwaters receded.
Other most-impacted districts included Bajaur — located in the same Malakand Division as Buner — where eight children were among 21 killed and eight were injured due to flash floods, the PDMA report said.
Incidents related to lightning strikes took the lives of 15 men in Battagram, while 14 deaths and two injuries were reported in Mansehra due to floods.
In Swat, flash floods and thunder strikes claimed 11 lives, the PDMA report added. A roof collapse left five men dead and three wounded in Lower Dir, while two men were killed and as many were injured in a similar incident in Shangla.
The KP government said a provincial govt MI-17 rescue helicopter had reached Buner to evacuate people to safe areas.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Sohail, a media coordinator for Rescue 1122, told Dawn.com that more than 157 bodies have so far been recovered, while over 100 people, including women and children, have been rescued and moved to safe locations.
“The situation is at its worst and rescue operations are continuing in the affected areas, as authorities work to reach stranded residents and provide relief,” he said.
Speaking to Geo News, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi responded in the affirmative when asked whether an emergency should be declared. An official notification for that is yet to be issued.
PTI MNA Gohar Ali Khan, who is from Malakand Division’s Buner district, told Geo News: “We have sent rescue teams but reaching the points is also difficult.”
Buner District Police Officer (DPO) also told Dawn.com in an earlier statement that 54 bodies were brought to a Tehsil Headquarters Hospital.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed the relevant authorities to accelerate the rescue operation in Battagram district. In a statement, he expressed grief over the deaths and prayed for those who lost their lives in the flash flood.
KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur spoke to the Hazara commissioner and Battagram DC on the phone and directed that the district administration officials reach the site to supervise the rescue operations, his government said.
Floods wreak havoc in Bajaur, Battagram, Mansehra
According to the Associated Press of Pakistan, Battagram Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Saleem Khan said the casualties occurred after five houses were destroyed last night due to a lightning strike in Neel Band village, which is located on the border of Battagram and Mansehra districts.
In Bajaur earlier today, there were “reports of several people injured in flash floods”, which were caused by a cloudburst (heavy rainfall) in Salarzai tehsil’s Jabrarai village“, Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmad Faizi told Dawn.com.
“Rescue 1122 personnel, with the cooperation of residents, have so far recovered 16 bodies and rescued three injured from the rubble and rainwater,” Faizi confirmed, stating an earlier toll.
A search and rescue operation was underway under the supervision of Bajaur District Emergency Officer Amjad Khan as seven people remained missing, Faizi said, citing locals. DEO Amjad Khan and the station house in-charge were personally supervising the operation, the Rescue 1122 official added.
The deluge in Battagram affected villages located on the border areas of Neel Band, Sarim and Malkal Gali, according to a statement issued by Battagram Rescue 1122 spokesperson Aziz Khan.
“The ongoing rescue efforts are facing challenges due to intermittent rain and a near-total loss of mobile network coverage, severely impacting communication,” the statement explained.
In Lower Dir, five people died and four were wounded when the roof of a house in the Maidan area’s Suri Pao village collapsed due to heavy rain, Faizi said.
Detailing the hurdles, the rescue official said: “The rescue team reached the scene after walking for three hours despite heavy rain, flooded rails, difficult and bad roads.”
Yesterday, over a dozen people were killed as rains and flooding ripped through the country’s northern parts, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
In Muzaffarabad, a massive landslide in Sarli Sacha village hit a home, leaving six members of a family buried and feared dead. Torrential rains claimed the lives of two more women in AJK’s Bagh and Sudhnoti districts.
In GB, flash floods killed at least eight people, with two still missing in the Ghizer district, while also devastating villages in the Khalti, Ishkoman and Yasin areas.
Similarly, a spell of heavy downpour lashed various parts of Abbottabad district yesterday, triggering flash floods that severely disrupted traffic flow and caused damage to infrastructure.
At least 325 people, including 142 children, have died and 743 others have been injured since June 26 in flash floods and torrential rains that have battered several parts of Pakistan, according to daily data from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Thursday embarked on a five-day official visit to Japan aimed at enhancing economic cooperation and attracting foreign investment to the province.
During her trip, the chief minister will visit Yokohama, Osaka, and Tokyo, where she is scheduled to hold high-level meetings with Japanese business leaders, major corporate representatives, and government officials.
The agenda focuses on exploring investment opportunities, boosting bilateral trade, and promoting stronger economic ties between Japan and Pakistan, particularly in Punjab.
Officials say the visit is a significant step toward strengthening bilateral economic relations, with hopes that it will open the door for increased Japanese investment in technology, infrastructure, manufacturing, and renewable energy sectors.
Senior Provincial Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb is also accompanying the chief minister during the visit.
From Narnaul to Hyderabad: Pakistani recounts perilous journey from India in 1947
HYDERABAD, Pakistan: On a rain-soaked September night in 1947, ten-year-old Muhammad Saleem Pirzada was woken by his father and told to gather whatever valuables the family could carry.
Outside, the streets of Narnaul — then part of the princely state of Patiala in present-day India — were dark, slick, and dangerous.
The order was clear: leave, or risk certain death at the hands of armed Hindu and Sikh mobs that had already begun attacking Muslim neighborhoods.
“Walk barefoot and put a cloth in the children’s mouths so they may not talk,” Pirzada recalls his father telling his mother as the family prepared to slip away in silence.
That night, Sept. 8, Pirzada, his father, grandfather, four siblings and three other relatives walked more than two kilometers to the railway station. His mother would join them in Pakistan months later.
“It’s natural, when a person is ill, near death, and then Allah grants them health, that moment of near-death comes back to mind. It was just like that, only Allah saved us.”
Britain’s hurried partition of the Subcontinent into India and Pakistan had triggered one of the largest migrations in human history. Around 15 million people were displaced along religious lines, and more than a million were killed in massacres and reprisals, according to independent estimates.
In Narnaul, the violence began on Sept. 6, when mobs attacked Muslim homes. The next day brought more killings and looting. By the third day, the Pirzada family decided to leave, joining a crowd of terrified Muslims at the railway station. Sikh state police initially tried to stop them, but relented after the intervention of the British Railways’ Watch and Ward force.
“We boarded from there and set off,” Pirzada says.
Along the journey, the train stopped at stations where bodies lay scattered.
“We saw bodies, wounded people, some without limbs,” he remembers.
The family eventually reached Hyderabad, in Pakistan’s Sindh province, traveling via Munabao in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
“May Allah never let anyone see such a time.”
Pirzada estimates that at least 80 members of his extended family were killed in those weeks.
It was not always this way.
Before 1947, he says, Narnaul was a place of deep communal trust. Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims attended each other’s weddings, and summer nights saw neighbors gathered together on charpoys.
“The Hindus would come and sit there [in the Muslim neighborhoods] at night in the summer… That’s how relations were with the Hindus. They would attend our weddings,” he recalls.
Sometimes Hindu fathers would even entrust Muslim traders to escort their daughters to their in-laws’ homes.
“The Hindus would say, ‘Mian ji, you are going there, take my daughter along.’ I have seen those days of affection.”
He still remembers the names of his Hindu schoolteachers, even as he acknowledges that the violence in Eastern Punjab was part of a larger cycle of retaliations.
“In Eastern Punjab, the atrocities were greater… the Muslims there were martyred,” he says, accusing the Maharaja of Patiala, Yadavindra Singh, of providing arms to Hindu and Sikh mobs.
“The riots took place at the instigation of the Maharaja of Patiala.”
When asked whether his family would have migrated if peace had held, Pirzada is clear: “There would be no question of coming [to Pakistan]. We had land, the crops were good, and life went on. Had we stayed there, we would have used new technology and increased production.”
In Pakistan, Pirzada briefly worked as a clerk before his family received a land allotment in rural Hyderabad. Farming became his life’s work, and today, at 88, he lives surrounded by his two sons, one daughter, and ten grandchildren.
But more than seven decades later, Narnaul remains etched in his memory.
“One’s homeland, the place of one’s birth, is always remembered. The desire is still there. May Allah grant the opportunity so I can visit it once,” the said.
“We even saw some people who died in Pakistan insisting, ‘No, no, we will go back! We will go back’!”
