Blaze News - Pakistan

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that a first wave of retaliatory missile and drone attacks had been launched against Israel, following US and Israeli strikes in Iran that killed 201 and injured over 700. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it had begun striking targets at 1:15 a.m. ET (0615 GMT) "to dismantle the Iranian regime's security apparatus", it said in a post on X. It said the targets included the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields. https://t.co/oX9vFjlC2a — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 28, 2026 "Following the initial wave of U.S. and partner strikes, CENTCOM forces successfully defended against hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks," CENTCOM said. Iranian media, citing the Red Crescent, also said the US and Israeli attacks hit 24 provinces in Iran, killing 201 and injuring 747. Israel's military said...

United States President Donald Trump hailed Pakistan’s strikes against the Afghan Taliban regime under 'Operation Ghazab Lil Haq' on Friday, saying the country was "doing terrifically well”. Earlier on Friday, Pakistani forces targeted key military installations of the Afghan Taliban regime in Kabul, Kandahar, and Paktia through effective airstrikes. The military spokesperson said the ongoing operation was producing the desired results, with insurgents effectively repulsed at 53 locations along the border, inflicting heavy losses while exercising restraint to avoid civilian harm. The government later updated that a total of 297 enemies were killed, more than 450 were reported injured, 89 Afghan Taliban posts were destroyed and 18 captured, 135 Afghan Taliban regime tanks and armed personnel carriers were destroyed while 29 locations across Afghanistan were subjected to aerial strikes. Speaking to reporters today before heading to Texas, Trump was ...

Pakistan’s hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup remain alive following New Zealand’s defeat against England in the Super Eight stage. England beat New Zealand by four wickets in a thrilling encounter in Colombo, denying the Kiwis a guaranteed place in the semi-finals while keeping Pakistan’s slender chances intact. England, having already qualified for the semi-finals, sit at the top of the table with six points from three wins, whereas New Zealand are second with three points. A nail-biter sees England hold their nerve to edge past New Zealand in their final #T20WorldCup Super 8 fixture 🔥 📝: https://t.co/SPOfO9xhOb pic.twitter.com/Khi40f6hbx — ICC (@ICC) February 27, 2026 Pakistan, who lost their crucial Super Eight match against England, are third with one point, earned from a washed-out match against New Zealand. Co-hosts Sri Lanka, having lost both of their opening Super Eight matches, are already out of contention for the final four. Pakistan’s semi-final...

Security forces responded decisively to unprovoked aggression by the Afghan Taliban along the Pakistan-Afghan border, security sources said on Thursday. The forces targeted Taliban positions across multiple sectors, destroying enemy outposts and thwarting quadcopter attacks on Pakistani check posts. According to verified reports, 44 Taliban operatives have been killed and several others wounded in the ongoing operations. Two Pakistani soldiers have attained martyrdom while defending the nation, and three others were injured, security sources said. Pakistani forces carried out a strong and decisive counter-operation, forcing the militants to flee in panic, security sources said. Taliban fighters loaded goods onto trucks and retreated from the Torkham border, sources added. Security forces carried out a precise and coordinated counter-operation in Angur Adda, targeting Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan hideouts, security sources said. The targeted firing destroyed multiple enemy positi...

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a congressional committee on Thursday that she did not recall ever meeting the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and had no information to share about his criminal activities. "I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that," Clinton said in a statement to the House of Representatives Oversight Committee. Clinton's statement came as she was due to deliver a closed-door deposition to the committee in Chappaqua, New York. Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, also accused the Republican-led panel of trying to shift focus away from Trump's ties to Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. She said Trump's administration has "gutted" a State Department office focused on international sex trafficking. She and her husband, Democratic former Pre...

Countering Islamophobia is a bigger challenge than we realise. I confess, until very recently, I personally did not realise two nuances: One, Islamophobia is actually a political construct carefully and meticulously drilled into western heads by Israel. Two, anyone remotely seen as having the tendency and the urge to counter Islamophobia is seen as a direct threat to Israel's long-term goals. For a long time, the best strategy for winning an election in India has been to remind the Indian people of the dangers of Pakistan with its supposedly evil designs against India. That may be changing soon because India doesn't have much convincing to do at home. Modi is more popular than he was a decade ago. He was re-elected with an overwhelming vote. Indians may soon be less motivated by fighting against Pakistan and more driven by taking over Kashmir entirely. And for that, Modi doesn't need to convince Indians but rather the Americans. And it won't be with the evil designs of ...

Prime Minister's Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah on Wednesday said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan could be moved to a hospital if directed by a court, amid the party's demands regarding his health and calls for his transfer to Islamabad's Shifa International Hospital. Imran has been in custody since August 2023, serving a sentence at Adiala Jail in a £190 million corruption case. He also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act in connection with protests on May 9, 2023. Read More: Khosa raises concern over Imran health The PTI has intensified calls for his release after a medical report submitted to the court stated that vision in his right eye had dropped to 15 per cent. Government officials, however, maintain that he is receiving appropriate medical care. Speaking in an interview on programme 'Capital Talk' on a private news outlet, Sanaullah said the PTI founder was in judicial custody and not under executive or any ot...

In Pakistan, Ramazan does not arrive like an ordinary month. It descends like a season namely half sacred, half social and fully intense. The atmosphere changes, markets glow, and we greet each other with 'Ramazan Mubarak'. Yet, too often, we reduce this month to a change of routine rather than a change of character. As a university teacher for many years, I observe a familiar shift every Ramazan across campus: not only in schedules, but in attitudes. A quiet assumption spreads that responsibility can be postponed. Classes begin to feel heavier, office corridors move slower, and the unspoken sentence becomes: "It's Ramazan, so things can wait." But if Ramazan means anything, it should mean the opposite i.e. more discipline, more integrity, more patience, and more care for others. In classrooms, students look tired in a deeper way than physical fatigue. Many are already carrying the modern burdens of weak sleep, mental distraction, financial pressure and family str...

Two policemen were martyred and several others were injured after a suicide attack targeted an inter-provincial checkpost in the Dajal area of Punjab's Bhakkar on Tuesday evening. District Police Officer (DPO) Bhakkar Shehzad Rafiq Awan confirmed the incident and said security forces immediately cordoned off the area in Saddar jurisdiction and launched a search operation. He said the blast occurred at around 6:54pm, when a suicide bomber detonated explosives near the checkpost while officers were performing routine duties. داجل بین الصوبائی چیک پوسٹ بھکر پر خودکش حملہ، 2 پولیس اہلکار شہید، 1 زخمی آئی جی پنجاب عبدالکریم کا فرض کی راہ میں شہادت کا رتبہ پانے والے کانسٹیبل فہیم عباس اور شہباز مدنی کی لازوال قربانی کو خراج عقیدت، آئی جی پنجاب کا سوگوار خاندانوں سے اظہار ہمدردی و تعزیت، زخمی… pic.twitter.com/m6ZlGJrtAg — PTV News (@PTVNewsOfficial) February 24, 2026 He added that Constables Faheem Abbas and Shahbaz Madni were critically injured in the explosion and succumb...

Gaza was never going to be the end. This week, speaking to Tucker Carlson, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Israel has a biblical right to land covering territory between Egypt and Iraq. When told that the verse includes land far beyond Gaza and the West Bank, he responded that it would be "fine if they took it all". The significance of this lies in its premise, that sovereignty is being derived from a divine promise. Once territorial claims are framed as biblical entitlement, they cease to be bound by international law or moral obligations. They are no longer constrained by the June 4, 1967 lines, by UN resolutions or by negotiated settlement. A divine mandate does not recognise compromise, nor partition. It only reecognises the fact that the goal is to be achieved at any cost. That is why Pakistan, alongside 13 other countries and major regional organisations, moved swiftly to condemn the remarks as highly dangerous and inflammatory. Their joint statement reaffirm...

Pakistan's airstrikes on terrorists hideouts in southern Afghanistan solely came in self-defence. The sorties flown over the Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, the staging ground for insurgency and infiltration into Pakistan, took out more than 80 terrorists. The attacks were conducted after hectic episodes of diplomacy, wherein Kabul was requested to go after the dreaded elements holed up inside Afghanistan – but in vain. A demarche was also served on the Afghan deputy head of mission in Islamabad last week, formally mentioning the terror nexus that has emboldened due to the Taliban regime's irresponsible attitude and its policy of appeasement towards the terrorists. It is a foregone conclusion that terror emanates from Afghanistan, and this has been documented twice by the world body in the last couple of months. The 37th report by the UNSC's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, released on February 4, confirmed Pakistan's longstanding claim that the TTP is...

For better or for worse, academia is different than the corporate sector. It is meant to engage a deeper sense of analysis, to allow for issues to be debated and reflected upon. Learning is deliberate and incremental. For an enterprise that is built on serious engagement of the mind, emphasis must be on fundamentals, rigour and quality, not on sweeping changes to the curriculum in response to global trends and events. It is not to say that global trends and events are not important; it is simply to say that the academic approach to those changes must be rooted in care, thought and rigour, not on impulsive behaviour. The recent announcement by HEC that starting 2026 all undergraduate and post-graduate programmes must have a three-credit hour course on AI is more of the latter (impulse) than the former (serious thought). The justification, as per HEC, is that "in the fast-changing landscape of the 21st century, Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a revolutionary force" – and...

A United States judge permanently barred the Justice Department on Monday from releasing a prosecutor's report on the criminal case accusing President Donald Trump of unlawfully retaining classified documents following his first term in office. Florida-based US District Judge Aileen Cannon found that releasing the report would be a "manifest injustice" to the Republican president and two former associates who were charged alongside him, because it would detail substantial allegations of criminal wrongdoing in a case that never reached a jury. Cannon, who Trump appointed to the bench in 2020, dismissed all the charges in 2024. Trump was accused in the case pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith of illegally storing documents related to US national defence, including the American nuclear programme, at his Mar-a-Lago social club and obstructing US government efforts to retrieve the material. Cannon found that Smith had not been lawfully appointed by the Justice Department dur...

Women and men are equal in responsibilities. They may be distinct in their roles, but the purpose is the same: to live a meaningful life. They play their roles to the best of their abilities. A man is charged with outside-the-home engagements, where he earns and fulfils household necessities, while a woman is engaged in household work. She is tasked with making the home a place of comfort and relief for both man and woman. A woman possesses the same mental capacity as a man; the difference lies only in vitality. A man is known for his physical strength, and a woman for her fragility. This idea of partnership is seen as how men and women are treated in society — how each one is perceived, accepted, and burdened with expectations. A woman is fragile not only in physical appearance but emotionally as well. Shakespeare famously wrote in Hamlet, "Frailty, thy name is woman." This line that has fueled centuries of literary debate. Fragility should not be confused with weakness. A w...

South Africa bulldozed defending champions India by 76 runs on Sunday in their Super Eight Group One clash in the Twenty20 World Cup, underlining their title credentials and sending a strong signal to their rivals. Choosing to bat in a rematch of the 2024 World Cup final, South Africa surged to a commanding 187‑7 following a remarkable recovery from a precarious 20-3. In reply, tournament co-hosts India's timid top-order faltered swiftly, and their innings never quite escaped the grip of scoreboard pressure. They were bundled out for 111 in 18.5 overs, slipping to their first defeat of the World Cup. Into the death! ☠️#TheProteas look to tighten their grip on the game as we enter the final phase of play. 😤🇿🇦 India are 88/8 after 15 overs, needing 100 runs from the final 30 balls. 🏏#Unbreakable #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/LARA6JU9B2 — Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) February 22, 2026 "We played against them a lot as well," David Miller, whose breezy 63 earned him player-...

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Sunday that his country would respond to any US attack, but held out hope for a diplomatic solution, saying he expected another round of talks in Geneva later in the week. Speaking in an interview on the US network CBS, the minister said there was a “good chance” that talks with US negotiators would head off renewed military strikes. He insisted, however, that Iran had a right to continued uranium enrichment for civilian purposes – and to strike US interests in the Middle East in response to any aggression. “If the US attacks us, then we have every right to defend ourselves. If the US attacks us, that is the act of aggression. What we do in response is an act of self-defence,” Araghchi said. “It is justified, legitimate. So our missiles cannot hit the American soil. So obviously we have to do something else. We have to hit, you know, the American base in the region.” Read More: US envoy Steve Witkoff says Trump questioning why Iran has n...

Though every other day, every event affecting the public and the powerful, every queue at the airport, every desperate effort and struggle for justice and survival, every legal and constitutional tweak, and every other move of powerful circles in the country might be suggestive enough of what and who has and hasn't a future in Pakistan, suggestions sought, or questions asked by aspirants, students and their parents about promising career paths open one to brutal truths and bleaker realities. Over the past few weeks, I have come across many an instance of grim thoughts and realities that are seemingly and increasingly encroaching on the hopes, dreams and efforts of many a person around us. Recently, a couple of students and their parents connected with me and sought my suggestions on their potential career pursuits in or outside Pakistan. What I have seen and observed in them is gloom, hopelessness, desperation and weariness of the de facto and de jure rulers. Honestly, though not a...

NASA chief Jared Isaacman on Saturday ruled out a March launch for Artemis 2, the first crewed flyby mission to the Moon in more than 50 years, citing technical issues. Workers detected a problem with helium flow to the massive SLS rocket that will "take the March launch window out of consideration", Issacman said in a post on X. After overnight data showed an interruption in helium flow in the SLS interim cryogenic propulsion stage, teams are troubleshooting and preparing for a likely rollback of Artemis II to the VAB at @NASAKennedy. This will almost assuredly impact the March launch window. @NASA will… — NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) February 21, 2026 "I understand people are disappointed by this development. That disappointment is felt most by the team at NASA, who have been working tirelessly to prepare for this great endeavour," Isaacman said. "During the 1960s, when NASA achieved what most thought was impossible, and what has never been ...

The federal government on Saturday announced plans to produce two historical web series on the life and services of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and philosopher-poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal to mark their 150th birth anniversaries. The decision was taken at a high-level consultative meeting chaired by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, which brought together leading media houses, producers, directors, and prominent figures from the creative sector. Speaking at the meeting, Iqbal said the 150th anniversary celebrations of Quaid-e-Azam and Iqbal would go beyond formal ceremonies, serving instead as a milestone in national renewal and intellectual revival. A consultative meeting chaired by Minister for Planning @betterpakistan in Islamabad deliberated on development of two landmark historical web series on Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal@PlanComPakistan #RadioPakistan #news https://t.co/oCqbF5YGDU pic.twitter.com/DHpJ1qL71k — Radio Pakistan (@RadioPakistan) Februar...

The politics of the MQM-P has once again entered a decisive phase. What began in the 1980s as an organised assertion of urban Muhajir identity gradually revealed deeper contradictions within Sindh's political economy. Today, visible divisions between the party's factions led by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Mustafa Kamal underscore a structural crisis rather than a temporary disagreement. Muhajir politics was never merely a spontaneous cry for recognition. It emerged from material shifts that unsettled the urban middle classes of Karachi. The sweeping nationalisation policies of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the 1970s disrupted banks, industries and educational institutions where many Urdu speaking 'muhajirs' were concentrated. Loss of economic control translated into political grievance. Identity hardened as access to state employment and influence appeared to narrow. Out of this dislocation, a disciplined organisational machine took shape, mediating jobs, contracts, housing an...

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said on Friday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan would be transferred to a hospital on February 25 for medical treatment, clarifying that the hospitalisation would be limited solely to administering his second injection to treat his eye. Speaking to the media in Islamabad on Friday, Chaudhry said that Imran, 73, received his first injection on January 25, with two further injections still pending. “Regarding the matter of his eye, on January 25 he was given one injection, two more are still to be administered. For that, the proposed date for the injection is February 25, and one month later he will be given the third injection at the best available facility in Pindi and Islamabad,” he said. When asked if the former prime minister would be moved to the hospital for the injections, Chaudhry responded in the affirmative, adding that the injections could only be administered in a hospit...