Militant attacks on Pakistani police kill 5 as government hunt for insurgents displaces thousands
There were four attacks with three resulting in officer casualties Thursday, police said.
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New Straits Times
27 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
Hopes for survivors wane after Pakistan flooding kills hundreds
BUNER, Pakistan: Pakistani rescuers dug homes out from under massive boulders on Sunday as they searched for survivors of flash floods that killed at least 344 people, with more than 150 still missing. Torrential rains across the country since Thursday have caused flooding, rising waters and landslides that have swept away entire villages and left many residents trapped in the rubble. Most of the deaths, 317, were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where monsoon rains that are only expected to intensify in the days ahead drove flooding and landslides that collapsed houses. More than 150 people are missing in the hardest-hit Buner district, where at least 208 people were killed and "10 to 12 entire villages" were partially buried, officials told AFP. "They could be trapped under the rubble of their homes or swept away by floodwaters," said Asfandyar Khattak, head of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Provincial Disaster Management Authority. "Separately, in Shangla district, dozens of people are also reported missing," Khattak added. The spokesman for the province's rescue agency told AFP that around 2,000 rescue workers were involved across nine districts, where rain was still hampering efforts. "The operation to rescue people trapped under debris is ongoing," said Bilal Ahmad Faizi. "The chances of those buried under the debris surviving are very slim," he added. AFP journalists in Buner saw half-buried vehicles and belongings lying strewn in the sludge, with mud covering houses and shops. After days without power, the electricity supply was restored on Sunday afternoon. A grave digger, Qaiser Ali Shah, told AFP he dug 29 burial places in the last two days. "I have also dug six graves for children. With each grave, it felt as though I was digging it for my own child," he said. "For the first time, my body simply refused to carry me through. That's why today I apologised and said I cannot do this work anymore." Flooded roads hampered the movement of rescue vehicles, as a few villagers worked to cut fallen trees to clear the way after the water receded. "Our belongings are scattered, ruined and are in bad shape," shopkeeper Noor Muhammad told AFP as he used a shovel to remove mud. "The shops have been destroyed along with everything else. Even the little money people had has been washed away," he added. The provincial government has declared the severely affected mountainous districts of Buner, Bajaur, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra and Battagram as disaster-hit areas. "We were trapped in our homes and could not get out," another Buner resident, Syed Wahab Bacha, told AFP. "Our entire poor community has been affected... This road was our only path, and it too has been washed away," he added. On Saturday, hundreds gathered for mass funerals, where bodies wrapped in blood-stained white shawls were laid out on the village ground. Fallen trees and straw debris were scattered across nearby fields, while residents shovelled mud out of their homes. Pakistan's meteorological department has forecast "torrential rains" with monsoon activity "likely to intensify" from Sunday onwards. Iran said it stood ready to provide "any cooperation and assistance aimed at alleviating the suffering" in neighbouring Pakistan, while Pope Leo XIV addressed the flooding with prayers "for all those who suffer because of this calamity." The monsoon season brings South Asia about three-quarters of its annual rainfall, vital for agriculture and food security, but also brings destruction. "The intensity of this year's monsoon is around 50 to 60 per cent more than last year," said Lieutenant General Inam Haider, chairman of the national disaster agency. "Two to three more monsoon spells are expected until the first weeks of September," he told journalists in Islamabad. Landslides and flash floods are common during the season, which usually begins in June and eases by the end of September. The torrential rains that have pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon have killed more than 650 people, with more than 920 injured. Pakistan is one of the world's most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency. Monsoon floods in 2022 submerged a third of the country and killed around 1,700 people. Another villager in Buner told AFP on Saturday that residents had spent the night searching through the rubble of their former homes. "The entire area is reeling from profound trauma," said 32-year-old schoolteacher Saifullah Khan.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
185 people crossed a line
Outside his weathered bhunga, a circular mud hut with a thatched roof, on the outskirts of Zura camp — a sparse, sunbaked stretch of land in Gujarat's Kutch district — Sooroji Kanji Sodha, 70, exhales as if releasing 16 years of apprehension. 'This feels like a second birth,' he says, his voice steady but sombre. He and his wife, Taju Kaur, were recognised as Indian citizens on July 25, along with 183 other Pakistani nationals in Gujarat. In 2009, Sooroji left behind his janmabhoomi (the land of his birth) in Tharparkar district of Pakistan's Sindh province. The decision cost him nearly 40 acres of land, his livestock, and a way of life his family had known for generations. With his wife and eight children, he boarded a train to India in search of dignity and a better future, he says. 'Leaving my watan (country) was never easy,' Sooroji, who now earns ₹300 a day as a daily wager, says. 'But I did it for my children. Especially for my daughters.' The Sodha couple and others received Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA). The CAA Rules were notified in March 2024, just before India's Lok Sabha elections. The CAA provides a pathway to citizenship for persecuted non-Muslim minorities (Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Jain, Buddhist, and Christian) – both documented and undocumented – from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before December 31, 2014. Across Rajkot, Morbi, and Kutch districts, many say the wait for citizenship stretches well beyond a decade, forcing families to live in a constant state of legal and social limbo. A man in Morbi who also got Indian citizenship says, 'There we were a minority. Here, until we get our citizenship documents, we are no one.' Just before COVID-19 regulations came into force in March 2020, anti-CAA protests took place across India, claiming that it was discriminatory in nature against Muslims. The Bharatiya Janata Party that leans towards Hindutva and its allies were in power then. The same party is in power now, both at the Centre and in Gujarat. Minority report It was not just religious persecution and looting, Sooroji explains, but the limitations placed on their future as a minority that drove his decision. In his native region, most Rajput families bore the Sodha surname, making it difficult to find suitable matrimonial matches for his children, due to norms that discourage marrying within the same extended clan. 'In Pakistan, there were no Jadejas, no Parmars, no Nadodas for us to marry our children to,' he says, wrapping his yellow turban around his head. 'Those families are in India, not in Pakistan.' Zura camp, where Sooroji lives, was initially set up shortly after Partition in 1947 to accommodate Hindu refugees from the Sindh province. Over time, it has become home to those who migrated during later periods of unrest, especially around the 1971 Indo-Pak war. For many like Sooroji, life in the camp has meant living in limbo — waiting for citizenship, waiting to belong. Clutching his certificate, he says, 'I can now say I am Indian — not just in my heart, but on paper too. Now, I hope my children also get their citizenship based on my documents and can work in this country with pride.' Data accessed from the Directorate of Census Operations, Gandhinagar, reveals that 1,050 Pakistani nationals settled in Gujarat — 537 men and 513 women — are covered under the Act between July 2, 2024 and July 22, 2025. All of them are Hindus, with the highest number in Ahmedabad (433), followed by Rajkot (271), and Patan (133) districts. In addition, separate data from the Gujarat government shows that since 2018, up to 1,386 Pakistani nationals have been granted Indian citizenship through the discretionary powers given to District Collectors. Most of them travelled to India on a visit visa, with no intention of returning. They booked one-way tickets on the now-suspended weekly Thar Express, an international passenger train that ran between Bhagat Ki Kothi in Jodhpur in Rajasthan and Karachi Cantonment in Pakistan. Immigration and customs facilities were located at Munabao railway station on the Indian side. The service was suspended in August 2019 following a deterioration in diplomatic ties between the two countries, after the Indian government revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status and reorganised the State into two Union Territories. Caste consciousness A six-hour drive from Zura camp, in Rajkot, Savitha Fufal, 44, a mother, is getting ready to head out for her wedding anniversary dinner with her husband Vishan and their son Jignesh, 12, on August 5. It is a quiet celebration, a far cry from the life she left behind over a decade ago, she says. In May 2013, just nine months into their marriage, Vishan, now a hotelier, decided to leave Karachi and move to India with seven family members, including Savitha, his mother, sister, and four relatives from his brother's family. Savitha's four siblings still live in Pakistan, and she keeps in touch with them regularly through video calls. Sitting in the small living room of their rented home, Savitha recalls the emotional weight of leaving her country. 'It was hard to leave,' she says, 'but living there wasn't easy either.' The couple initially came to India on a tourist visa and later applied for and kept renewing their Long-Term Visa (LTV). 'Things weren't safe there, especially for women. We lived in fear of theft, religious persecution and general insecurity. That's when we decided it was time to leave.' Savitha is one of four people who were granted citizenship under the discretionary powers of the District Collectors. 'I'm proud to call myself an Indian now,' she says with a smile. She adds that her husband's brother and his family eventually returned to Karachi after spending some time in India. 'They weren't comfortable here. They felt more connected to their relatives back home,' she says. Savitha remembers that she was not able to attend her father's funeral in 2015. 'I could only go in 2017, after we managed to get a visa for my son too,' she says. Her husband has never gone back. The family belongs to a community in India classified as a Scheduled Caste (SC). However, due to the absence of documentation, her son will not get any of the social welfare benefits that the community can claim. Another migrant-turned-citizen, Manoj Parmar, 49, who works at a petrol station in Rajkot, says he became aware of the caste system — and that his community falls under the Scheduled Castes — only after arriving in India. His great-grandfather had migrated from Botad to Karachi in search of work following a severe drought, and eventually settled there. Before moving to India in February 2012, Manoj worked at the Karachi Electric Supply Company. 'There, even my subordinate would refuse to follow my work instructions and insult me because of my religion. I thought, 'If this is my condition despite being educated, what will happen to my children?' The situation was only going to get worse, so I came to India,' he says. 'Now, my children want reservation rights.' Rules and regulations The CAA Rules authorise Central government officials stationed in States — including those from the Directorate of Census Operations, India Post, Railways, National Informatics Centre (NIC), and Intelligence Bureau (IB) — to handle and process citizenship applications. Once an application is submitted online, the applicant is required to appear before a District Level Committee headed by the Superintendent of Post Office as the designated officer. The committee also includes representatives from the NIC, IB, Railways, and the district administration. 'The process is usually completed within a couple of weeks, including antecedent verification by IB, but if there are errors in the application — such as mismatched names or issues with supporting documents — applicants are informed and asked to make the necessary corrections before resubmitting,' says an officer from the India Post in Bhuj. According to the official, 18 people from the Kutch district have been granted citizenship under the CAA so far, and another 97 applications are in the pipeline. 'District officials have informed us that now only 115 Pakistani nationals are in Kutch, including the 97 whose applications are currently pending. The rest have not applied yet,' the official adds. Waiting for the gates to open For the children of those who have waited for citizenship, life means growing up in a country they call home, yet don't belong. They cannot take admission in government schools, and have no access to reservations in education and jobs. Sending children abroad is complex. Sooroji's younger brother, Laxmansinh Sodha, 53, a graduate of Karachi Medical College with an MBBS degree, who now runs a clinic in Morbi, says he had hoped to send his son Mehtabsinh, 17, — who qualified for NEET — to Russia to study medicine, after facing issues with admission in India due to incomplete documentation. 'But that too didn't work out because he doesn't have an Indian passport.' His education shows he is from India, while his passport is from Pakistan. 'Now, we've enrolled him in an LLB programme at a private university here. His citizenship is still pending.' Laxmansinh migrated to India in November 2012 and was granted citizenship earlier this year. His first visit to India was in 1971, he recalls, when he was just six months old. During the Indo-Pak war, his parents fled to India and took shelter in the Zura camp for nearly three years. However, due to limited facilities at the camp and a lack of livelihood options, the family eventually returned to Tharparkar in Pakistan. 'I practised medicine there for nearly 10 years, and left everything behind and came to India, fearing forced conversions and attacks on Hindus,' he explains. Sitting beside him is Netsinh Sodha, 56, who once worked as a patwari (village accountant) in Tharparkar district. He left his government job and migrated to India with his wife and seven children in May 2014. Now settled in Morbi, he runs a cloth shop and is among those who have been granted Indian citizenship. While Netsinh welcomes CAA, he raises concerns about the implementation process, alleging that staff involved in handling applications often harass applicants. 'The Act clearly states that even a single document or visa entry stamp is enough to apply for citizenship under CAA, yet many officials lack clarity on the provisions. As a result, many migrants are facing unnecessary hurdles,' he says. 'Applicants are being forced to submit their forms five to 10 times over minor issues. This is something the government must urgently address.' He says many Hindus are still 'stuck' in the neighbouring country and are waiting for the authorities to start issuing visas again. In April 2025, after the Pahalgam attack, India suspended visa services to Pakistani nationals. Edited by Sunalini Mathew
Toronto Sun
2 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Hopes for survivors wane as landslides, flooding bury Pakistan villages
Published Aug 17, 2025 • 3 minute read People gather near a damaged vehicle and debris after flash flooding wiped out a road in monsoon-hit northern Pakistan Photo by Mehboob UL HAQ / AFP Peshawar (Pakistan) (AFP) — Thousands of Pakistani rescuers battled rain and knee-deep mud Sunday, digging homes out from under massive boulders in a desperate search for survivors after flash floods killed at least 344 people in the country's mountainous north. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Most of the deaths were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where monsoon rains that are only expected to intensify in the days ahead drove flooding and landslides that collapsed houses. In hardest-hit Bunar district, at least 208 people were killed and '10 to 12 entire villages' partially buried, a provincial rescue spokesman told AFP. 'The operation to rescue people trapped under debris is ongoing,' said Bilal Ahmed Faizi of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's rescue agency. 'There is still concern that dozens of people may be trapped under the rubble… the chances of those buried under the debris surviving are very slim'. He said that around 2,000 rescue workers were engaged in recovering bodies from the debris and carrying out relief operations across nine districts, where rain was still hampering efforts. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains across northern Pakistan have killed at least 344 people. (Sajjad QAYYUM/AFP) Photo by Sajjad QAYYUM / AFP AFP journalists in Buner saw half-buried vehicles and belongings lying strewn in the sludge, with mud covering houses and shops. Flooded roads hampered the movement of rescue vehicles, as a few villagers worked to cut fallen trees to clear the way after the water receded. 'Our belongings are scattered, ruined and are in bad shape,' local shopkeeper Noor Muhammad told AFP as he used a shovel to remove mud. 'The shops have been destroyed along with everything else. Even the little money people had has been washed away,' he added. The provincial government has declared the severely affected mountainous districts of Buner, Bajaur, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra and Battagram as disaster-hit areas. 'This disaster has spread everywhere and surrounded us from all sides. We were trapped in our homes and could not get out, another Buner resident, Syed Wahab Bacha, told AFP. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Our entire poor community has been affected. The shops in the lower bazaar have been destroyed. This road was our only path, and it too has been washed away,' he added. Mass funerals A resident removes sludge from his damaged house a day after flash floods in Buner district, located in Pakistan's mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. (Hasham AHMED/AFP) Photo by Hasham AHMED / AFP On Saturday, hundreds of locals gathered for mass funerals, where bodies wrapped in blood-stained white shawls were laid out on the village ground. Fallen trees and straw debris were scattered across nearby fields, while residents shoveled mud brought in by the floods out of their homes. Pakistan's meteorological department has forecast that 'torrential rains' with monsoon activity were 'likely to intensify' from Sunday onwards. The department warned of more flash floods and landslides in the country's northwest and urged people to avoid exposure to vulnerable areas. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The monsoon season brings South Asia about three-quarters of its annual rainfall, vital for agriculture and food security, but also brings destruction. Landslides and flash floods are common during the season, which usually begins in June and eases by the end of September. The national disaster agency's Syed Muhammad Tayyab Shah told AFP that this year's monsoon season began earlier than usual and was expected to end later. The torrential rains that have pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon, described as 'unusual' by authorities, have killed at least 650 people, with more than 910 injured. Pakistan is one of the world's most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency. Monsoon floods in 2022 submerged a third of the country and killed around 1,700 people. Another villager in Buner told AFP on Saturday that residents had spent the night searching through the rubble of their former homes. 'The entire area is reeling from profound trauma,' said 32-year-old schoolteacher Saifullah Khan. 'I helped retrieve the bodies of the children I taught. I keep wondering what kind of trial nature has imposed on these kids,' he said. Columnists Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls CFL Toronto & GTA
