Blaze News - Pakistan

The Karachi police on Tuesday arrested a woman accused of operating one of the city’s most organised narcotics supply networks. The suspect, identified as Anmol alias “Pinky”, was arrested during a joint operation conducted by the City police and a civil agency from an apartment in the Garden area. Investigators claim she was running a sophisticated cocaine processing and delivery operation with links extending beyond Karachi to Lahore, Islamabad and other cities. Read: Anmol, alias Pinky, caught in drug web According to the police, Pinky not only supplied narcotics to affluent neighbourhoods, including DHA and Clifton, but also personally prepared high-grade cocaine and managed deliveries through female riders and online platforms. During interrogation, she allegedly claimed that “no one in Pakistan makes better cocaine” than hers. Police said she sold two categories of cocaine — “White Coke” for Rs25,000 per gram and “Gol...

A renewed campaign by the Municipal Corporation Lahore (MCL) against stray dogs has sparked controversy, with animal rights activists alleging that dogs are being killed through poisonous injections and other inhumane methods in different parts of the city, while protesters are also facing legal action and harassment. In recent days, operations against stray dogs were carried out in Sultan Colony, Township, Shadbagh, Green Town and several other localities. According to district administration and MCL officials, the actions were initiated following complaints from residents and incidents of dog attacks. The administration launched a large-scale operation after a child was killed in Sultan Colony a few days ago, claiming that multiple stray dogs had been captured during the campaign. Officials said the purpose of the operation was to ensure the safety of citizens and protect lives and property. However, animal welfare organisations and activists described the operations as illeg...

The district administration and police in Swat launched legal action on Monday after a group of local individuals allegedly stopped tourists from travelling to Mahodand Lake in Kalam, an incident that later went viral on social media and raised concerns over tourist safety in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s premier tourist destination. According to officials, tourists travelling in private coasters and tour vehicles towards Mahodand Lake were intercepted by local people who allegedly insisted that visitors use local transport services instead. The confrontation disrupted the tourists’ journey, while some vehicles were reportedly threatened with stone pelting, forcing several groups to abandon their visit to the lake. The affected tourists, including students from Sargodha University, were unable to complete their trip to Mahodand Lake, one of Swat’s most visited tourist attractions. Taking immediate notice of the incident, Swat Deputy Commissioner (DC) Saleem Ja...

The National Emergencies Operation Centre (NEOC) of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Sunday issued a nationwide weather alert, warning that several parts of Pakistan were likely to experience heavy rain, windstorms, thunderstorms and hailstorms during the next 12 to 24 hours due to prevailing weather conditions already predicted in its seasonal outlook. According to the NDMA’s Media Wing, the current weather pattern was fully consistent with the NEOC’s earlier climate assessment issued three to four months ago for the April-to-June period. The authority said Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir were expected to receive widespread rainfall accompanied by strong winds and hail at isolated locations. The alert stated that heavy rain and thunderstorms were expected in Islamabad, Murree, Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal, Talagang, Gujar Khan, Jhelum, Sialkot, Narowal, Layyah, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin,...

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Friday demanded the formation of an immediate judicial commission comprising senior judges of the Supreme Court to conduct a “transparent, impartial and credible” probe into the events of May 9, while also calling for the release of party founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi. May 9 riots erupted nationwide following the arrest of Imran Khan, after which Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) leaders and workers staged protests targeting both civil and military installations, including Jinnah House and the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi. The military condemned the events as a "Black Day" and decided to try the protesters under the Army Act. Read: ATC sentences 47 PTI leaders to 10 years in May 9 GHQ attack case In a post on X, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram described May 9 as “a black day in Pakistan’s political history”, saying the arrest of Imran Khan from the premises of the...

Hantavirus pulmonary infection is a disease caused by some hantaviruses, not the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, contrary to widely shared online posts that misrepresented a document listing medical events after inoculation. “List of Pfizer Covid jab side effects ​includes Hantavirus pulmonary infection!” said a widely shared May 7 post on Facebook, which shared a screenshot of ‌submissions Pfizer filed to the US Food and Drug Administration in 2021 to get a biological license for its vaccine. The narrative was also shared on X, with one post suggesting the COVID vaccine contained a hantavirus. Read: Experts race to write guidance to contain first ship-borne hantavirus outbreak The reference to hantavirus pulmonary infection in the Pfizer document is on the fourth page of the nine-page appendix, titled “List of Adverse Events of Special Interest”. However, this is not confirmation that the vaccine ​causes hantavirus pulmonary infec...