Category: 1. Pakistan

The Sindh government on Monday suspended Sindh Building and Control Authority (SBCA) Director General Ishaque Khuhro over the recent building collapse in Karachi that claimed 27 lives.

The five-storey building on Fida Husain Shaikha Road in Lea Market collapsed on Friday morning, with the rescue operations concluding yesterday. The building had already been declared uninhabitable by authorities due to its dilapidated structure, with the SBCA saying it had issued multiple prior notices to residents to vacate the structure since 2023.

A notification issued by Sindh Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, stated that the SBCA DG’s services were “placed under suspension with immediate effect for the reason of misconduct and inefficiency”.

It added that Khuhro’s headquarters during the suspension period would be at the Services, General Administration and Coordination Department. He would “draw his salaries and allowances during the suspension period as admissible under the rules”.

Shahmir Khan Bhutto, a Grade-20 officer serving as the secretary of the chief minister’s Inspection, Enquiries and Implementation Team Department, was notified as the new SBCA DG.

Speaking on the development, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said: “Today, the chief minister has also suspended the DG SCBA and has ordered the home minister to immediately register an FIR (first information report) on the incident and that strictest action be taken against all those involved.”

Memon was addressing a press conference in Karachi alongside Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar and Local Government (LG) Minister Saeed Ghani.

According to Ghani, other SBCA officials who were suspended included the director, deputy director and building inspectors assigned to Lyari. He also noted that the Sindh government has announced Rs1 million in compensation to the families of the 27 deceased people.

Major opposition parties — the PTI, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Jamaat-i-Islami — have condemned the PPP’s Sindh government, the SBCA and other authorities, accusing them of “criminal negligence”.

They not only demanded compensation and alternative residences for the affected families, but also called for the registration of manslaughter cases against the officials responsible for the tragedy.

Noting the loss of 27 lives, Memon said: “The entire province, nation and all of us as the government representatives are saddened and equally share the grief of the bereaved families.”

“The chief minister has taken a very strict notice of this,” he asserted.

Memon said CM Murad’s notice of the incident was aimed at ensuring strict action “against those who did not fulfil their duties or even if they fulfilled, they were not able to implement them”.

He added that the fact-finding committee formed on the incident, which was given three days to present a report, would submit its report within two days due to the Ashura public holidays over the weekend.

Karachi Commissioner Hassan Naqvi will now head the committee, according to Ghani.

51 ‘extremely fragile’ buildings

During the media briefing, Ghani also mentioned that there were 51 buildings in Karachi that were “extremely fragile and should be demolished”.

He said the city commissioner has been directed to provide the number of residents and units in those buildings, as well as the details of whether they own the property or have rented it, so that the process of demolishing them can be started.

“The Karachi commissioner has to also provide assessments of the 588 buildings which were declared dangerous within two weeks so that we can decide which of the buildings need to be destroyed and which can be fixed through major repair,” he added.

In a recent statement, the SBCA noted that 588 buildings have been declared dangerous throughout Karachi, with 107 such buildings in Lyari alone.

Ghani asserted that all SBCA officers appointed in Lyari since 2022 will be identified and included in the inquiry, adding: “If the committee finds involvement or criminal negligence of any officer, they will be included in the FIR and face legal action.”

“If any negligence even by the [SCBA] DG is found in the inquiry, then he will also be included in the FIR,” the LG minister said, noting that Khuhro was in the role in 2022, when the building’s survey was conducted.

NEW YORK: Sean “Diddy” Combs dropped to his knees and prayed in the courtroom after he was acquitted Wednesday of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put one of hip-hop’s celebrated figures behind bars for life. The rapper was convicted of lesser prostitution-related offenses and still faces prison time but is seeking to be freed from jail to await sentencing.

The mixed result capped a sordid legal odyssey that shattered Combs’ affable “Puff Daddy” image and derailed his career as a Grammy-winning artist and music executive, fashion entrepreneur, brand ambassador and reality TV star.

As the jury foreman spoke and the “not guilty” verdicts piled up, Combs pumped his fist. Each juror affirmed agreement with the verdict as Combs looked toward them, holding his hands up in a prayer motion. Then he hugged defense lawyer Teny Geragos. Combs’ relatives and supporters in the audience could barely contain their relief, despite the judge’s admonition to avoid outbursts: When the first “not guilty” was read aloud, someone shouted, “Yeah!”

Combs, 55, later continued to pump his right fist subtly and nodded, seemingly satisfied that he was acquitted on the most serious charges.

Combs was convicted of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, to engage in sexual encounters, a felony violation of the federal Mann Act.

The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, but Combs’ lawyers said that under federal sentencing guidelines he’d likely face about two years in prison. Prosecutors, citing Combs’ violence and other factors, said the guidelines would call for at least four to five years. Jailed since his September arrest, he’s already served nine months behind bars.

In a triumph for Combs, the jury of eight men and four women acquitted him of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges related to allegations that he used his money, power and frightening physical force to manipulate his girlfriends into hundreds of drug-fueled sex marathons with the men.

Combs’ defense team argued that the women were willing participants and that none of his violence justified the severity of the charges.

Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for Combs, asked that his client be immediately released because the federal Mann Act crimes were of a “vastly different nature” than sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey said he should remain incarcerated as a danger to the community and a threat to flee. She cited evidence of physical abuse and “prolific use and distribution of drugs” that emerged during the trial.

“I do believe we’ll be seeking a substantial period of incarceration,” Comey said.

Both sides filed written submissions expanding on their arguments. Judge Arun Subramanian was expected to rule at 5 p.m. on whether to release Combs on bail.

Combs appeared overwhelmed as court adjourned for a few hours. He wiped his face, turning and kneeling at his chair, his head bowed in prayer.

“I’ll be home soon,” he said as he faced his relatives.

“I love you, Mom,” he added.

His relatives applauded him and his lawyers, some of whom had tears in their eyes, as he was led out of court.

There’s no date yet for sentencing, when the judge will decide on Combs’ punishment for the prostitution conviction.

Verdict follows weeks of harrowing testimony

Federal officials involved in the case responded to the outcome by noting that sex crimes “are all too present in many aspects of our society.”

“New Yorkers and all Americans want this scourge stopped and perpetrators brought to justice,” Manhattan-based US Attorney Jay Clayton and Ricky J. Patel, who heads federal Homeland Security Investigations’ New York office, said in a statement.

Jurors deliberated for about 13 hours over three days before announcing their verdict. It came after they said late Tuesday that they had decided on four counts but were stuck on the racketeering one. At that point, the judge told them to keep deliberating and keep the partial verdict under wraps.

Combs did not testify at his trial, which featured 34 witnesses as well as video of the rapper attacking his former girlfriend Cassie, the R&B singer born Casandra Ventura.

Her lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, said in a statement after the verdict that “by coming forward with her experience, Cassie has left an indelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice.”

Later, he asked the judge in a letter to deny Combs bail, saying “Ms. Ventura believes that Mr. Combs is likely to pose a danger to the victims who testified in this case, including herself, as well as to the community.”

Cassie testified for four days about her turbulent 11-year relationship with Combs, which began after she signed with his Bad Boy record label.

Cassie said Combs became obsessed with voyeuristic encounters, arranged with the help of his staff, that involved sex workers and copious amounts of baby oil. During the sex events, called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights,” Combs would order Cassie to do things with other men that she found humiliating, she testified.

When things didn’t go Combs’ way, he would beat her, she said.

“I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child,” Cassie told Combs after he dragged her down a hotel hallway in 2016.

Another ex-girlfriend, testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” told the jury she repeatedly told Combs she didn’t want to have sex with the men hired for their trysts.

“I’m not an animal. I need a break,” she told him. Nevertheless, she said she felt “obligated” to comply with his demands, in part because he paid her rent.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.

Defense calls case an invasion of privacy

The trial’s most famous witness, rapper Kid Cudi, said Combs broke into his home in late 2011 after learning he and Cassie were dating. After his car was firebombed a few weeks later, Cudi — whose real name is Scott Mescudi — said he knew Combs “had something to do” with it. Combs denied it.

Combs’ defense team acknowledged that he could be violent but argued that prosecutors were intruding in his personal life. In his closing remarks to the jury, Agnifilo said it wasn’t illegal for Combs to make “homemade porn” with his girlfriends.

Rapper, entrepreneur and criminal defendant

Combs was at the center of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the 1990s and became one of the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades, diversifying his interests with the Sean John fashion label, Ciroc vodka, a cable TV channel and a film and TV studio.

In 2001, Combs was at the center of one of the biggest hip-hop trials of its era, stemming from a Manhattan nightclub shooting that injured three people in 1999. Combs was acquitted of charges that he took an illegal gun into the club and tried to bribe his driver to take the fall.

His career recovered quickly that time.

Combs’ reputation may have suffered irreparable damage, though, after Cassie sued him in November 2023, alleging years of sexual and physical abuse. He settled the next day for $20 million, but more lawsuits by other women and men followed.

Most are still pending.

 

Three cops were injured in an attack on a highway police vehicle in Balochistan’s Nasirabad District on Monday, an official said.

Pakistan is ranked second in the Global Terrorism Index 2025. Terrorists in Balochistan, previously engaged in a low-level insurgency, have recently intensified their attacks. The banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) emerged as a key perpetrator of terrorist violence in Pakistan in 2024.

“Three personnel were injured in a blast targeting a patrolling vehicle of the highway police in Nasirabad’s Rabbi area,” Highway Police’s Senior Superintendent of Police Khadim Husain said.

He added that the incident took place when the highway police team was patrolling the area as per routine.

Citing preliminary reports, Husain said the blast was conducted through a remote-controlled device. The injured were immediately taken to a hospital in the Dera Murad Jamali town, located 12km from Rabbi, the SSP added.

“The police have initiated an investigation,” SSP Husain said.

In June, Pakistan witnessed a slight overall decline in militant violence during June 2025 despite several high-profile attacks, according to data released by an Islamabad-based think tank, Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (Picss).

Over a week ago, security forces killed two terrorists during an operation in Balochistan’s Duki district.

Earlier this month, security forces eliminated two “India-backed” terrorists after an attack on government offices in the Mastung district killed a teenager and injured seven others.

On June 21, two personnel of the Frontier Corps were martyred and four were injured in a bomb attack in Kalat’s Mongochar area. In a separate attack in Kalat, a CTD officer was gunned down by unknown armed men, while a police official was among two killed in Mastung.

In May, four people were injured when unidentified motorcyclists threw a grenade at a house in Nasirabad. In March, Nasirabad police claimed to have foiled a sabotage attempt ahead of the Pakistan Day celebrations and seized explosives.

In a strange case, a pet lion escaped from a farmhouse and injured a woman and her two children in Lahore, Pakistan. The owners of the pet lion have been arrested, authorities said on Sunday.

The arrest followed dramatic video footage showing the lion jumping over a wall and attacking people in a residential area.

Surveillance footage shows a pet lion escape, leap a wall, lunge at a woman, and chase two children in Lahore, Pakistan. All injured were hospitalised but survived. pic.twitter.com/hg8prU2ryY

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 7, 2025

Police official Faisal Kamran said the woman and her children, aged five and seven, suffered injuries to their faces and arms on Wednesday night when the lion broke free from its cage.

According to a police report, the children’s father claimed the lion’s owners stood by and watched as the animal clawed his family, without trying to stop it. The lion later returned to the owners’ farmhouse and was moved to a wildlife park, police said.

In Pakistan, keeping exotic animals like lions is seen as a status symbol among some wealthy people, despite strict laws and high costs associated with ownership.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, another lion escaped from a theme park near the resort city of Antalya and was shot dead on Sunday after attacking a man, according to the local governor and media reports.

The lion, reportedly named Zeus, got out of its enclosure at the Land of Lions theme park in Manavgat, about 65 kilometres east of Antalya, early on Sunday morning.

Turkish newspaper BirGün reported that the lion attacked an agricultural worker named Suleiman Kir, who was sleeping in a pistachio field with his wife. Kir fought the lion off before it ran away. He was injured but not seriously and was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

ISLAM QALA/KABUL: Nearly 450,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since the start of June, the United Nations’ migration agency said on Monday, after Tehran ordered those without documentation to leave by July 6.

From June 1 to July 5, 449,218 Afghans returned from Iran, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration said, adding that the total for the year so far was 906,326.

Tens of thousands of Afghans streamed over the border from Iran in the days before a return deadline set for Sunday, the United Nations said, sparking an “emergency” situation at border points.

In late May, Iran said undocumented Afghans must leave the country by July 6, potentially impacting four million people, out of the six million Afghans Tehran says live in the country.

Numbers of people crossing the border have surged since mid-June, with a peak of more than 43,000 people crossing at Islam Qala in western Herat province on July 1, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

The UN migration agency IOM said more than 250,000 Afghans returned from Iran in June.

UNICEF country representative Tajudeen Oyewale said this was an “emergency” situation in a country already facing a “chronic returnee crisis,” with 1.4 million Afghans returning from traditional hosts Iran and Pakistan this year.

“What is concerning is that 25 percent of all these returnees are children… because the demographics have shifted” from individual men to whole families, crossing the border with scant belongings and money, he said on Thursday.

He noted Islam Qala could accommodate the vast numbers but was inadequately equipped in terms of services, saying, “When you start hitting more than 20,000 people (a day) that is completely beyond the planning scenario that we have.”

The agency has engaged emergency processes to ramp up water and sanitation systems built for 7-10,000 people a day, along with vaccinations, nutrition and child-friendly spaces.

Many people crossing reported pressure from authorities or even arrest and deportation.

“Some people are so afraid that they don’t leave the house themselves… They send their young children out just for a piece of bread, and even those children get arrested sometimes,” said 38-year-old Aref Atayi of the pressures Afghans face in Iran.

“Even if I have to beg in my own country, it’s still better than staying in a place where we’re treated like this,” he told AFP on Saturday, as he waited at the IOM-run reception center for some support to help his family resettle.

Massive foreign aid cuts have impacted the response to the crisis, with the UN, international non-governmental groups and Taliban officials calling for more funding to support the returnees.

The UN has warned the influx could destabilize the country already grappling with entrenched poverty, unemployment and climate change-related shocks and urged countries not to forcibly return Afghans.

CNN
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The owners of a pet lion that jumped a wall and attacked a woman and two children in the Pakistani city of Lahore have been arrested.

The woman and her two young children, aged 5 and 7, were taken to hospital, after being attacked in an alleyway when the lion escaped from a farmhouse in the neighborhood of Johan town on Thursday.

Security camera footage released by police showed the lion leaping over a concrete wall and pouncing on a woman from behind, knocking her to the ground. A man can be seen running out of the property the lion escaped from with an object in hand and chasing the lion away from the woman, before the wild cat takes off further down the road where the children were attacked.

They sustained injuries to their faces and arms but are now in stable condition, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Lahore police said in a video posted to social media that the lion had escaped from an open cage at the farmhouse and that it was recaptured by the owners, who promptly put it in a vehicle and went into hiding in another district.

Muhammad Faisal Kamran, Deputy Inspector General of Lahore Police Operations, said three people were arrested on Friday morning. “We’ve also captured the lion and transferred it to Wildlife authorities,” Kamran said.

Lahore police shared an image of three men in a police cell and video of the lion in a cage.

Local media reported that the owner did not have a license to keep the lion and would be prosecuted under the Wildlife Act, meaning they could face a maximum prison term of seven years or a fine equating to $17,500. CNN has sought confirmation from the Punjab Wildlife and Parks department.

Owning wild cats as pets is seen as a status symbol in Pakistan and is not uncommon, but a license is required, and large cats must be kept outside city limits.

“This unfortunate incident highlights how wild animals are often kept in such places without a license, or permission — with no legal procedures followed — endangering the lives of many people,” Kamran said.

The Punjab government announced Sunday that it was undertaking a province-wide crackdown on those keeping lions without a license. So far, 13 lions have been captured and five individuals arrested in connection with violating wildlife regulations.