Why mobile services have been cut in this province in Pakistan
The decision followed a suicide attack in Kech district that killed three paramilitary personnel and injured others.
The suspension aims to contain a raging insurgency, with authorities stating insurgents use mobile services for coordination.
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, a significant insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the recent attack.
Balochistan has a long history of insurgency, with separatists targeting the military and Chinese interests in the mineral-rich region.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
India and Pakistan tensions spill over into contest over whose flagpole is bigger
At a remote, monsoon-soaked border checkpoint, Indian soldiers will mark Independence Day by raising the country's tricolour on a mast that towers above a Pakistani flag flying just across the frontier – part of an ongoing vertical duel in South Asia's fraught politics. Call it flag warfare: a contest not of weapons but of height, waged by two nuclear-armed neighbours that only three months ago fought a four-day battle which threatened to escalate into full-scale war. This year's flagpole frontline is Sadqi, a quiet patchwork of wheat fields in northern Punjab state's Fazilka district. India's Tiranga, or tricolour, will fly from a new 200-foot (61-metre) galvanised-iron mast. Across the barbed-wire frontier at Sulemanki, Pakistan's green-and-white Parcham-e-Sitāra-o-Hilāl flutters from a 165-foot (50-metre) pole. 'While this 'flagpole war' might look like just a symbolic contest, it's freighted with emotional and nationalist overtones, especially in the context of the India-Pakistan rivalry, where tensions touch people's lives on both sides,' says Indian military expert Rahul Bedi. Pakistan celebrated its Independence Day on Thursday, a day before India's national holiday. Pakistani leaders delivered customary barbed speeches against India. India countered, warning Pakistan to temper its 'reckless war-mongering' or face 'painful consequences.' The neighbours have fought four wars since independence, along with countless smaller skirmishes. Each evening, India stages three flag-lowering ceremonies along its heavily militarised Punjab border with Pakistan, including at Sadqi. Flagpole one-upmanship is now a tradition woven into the pomp of the nightly flag-lowering ceremonies, which are part military drill, part nationalist pep rally. The biggest and most famous ceremony is at the Attari-Wagah crossing. It started in 1959, 12 years after the subcontinent was split into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan following the end of British colonial rule. As the Attari-Wagah ceremony grew more elaborate – and more belligerent – the rivalry moved skyward: India planted a 360-foot (110-metre) pole in 2017; Pakistan countered with a 400-foot (122-metre) mast. Six years later, India went taller again at 418 feet (127 metres). Pakistan's latest response is not another pole but plans for a multimillion-dollar Mughal-style stadium, set to triple seating to 25,000, along with a museum and a theme park. The Attari-Wagah ceremony began when Indian and Pakistani officers, many once comrades in the British colonial army, agreed to lower their flags simultaneously each evening – a sign of respect and shared discipline despite nationalist animosity. Over time, though, that simple ritual became an hour-long, high-octane display of choreographed combativeness. Grandstands overflow with spectators waving flags and chanting: 'Pakistan Zindabad!' from one side, 'India Zindabad!' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai!' from the other. India's Border Security Force jawans, in khaki uniforms with red fan-shaped turbans, red-and-gold sashes, white gloves, and black boots, march in unison with Pakistan Rangers, in black uniforms with green accents and tall ceremonial hats. Both sides pick their tallest men who stomp, kick their legs skywards, and slam their heels in precise, mirrored movements. At the flag-lowering ceremonies, Indian and Pakistani soldiers do not rehearse together, but they match each other's moves. The sequence, pace, and gestures are set by tradition, with each side adjusting to mirror the other's steps, stomps and salutes. It's 'pure theatre,' says Bedi. 'It's a grand stage for showing off patriotism, all about the spectacle.' 'The flagpole rivalry also bizarrely quickly morphed into a kind of giant-flag arms race,' he adds. 'But these supersized banners have been no match for the border winds, which can be really strong, and the flags can be in shreds within weeks.' That problem remains unsolved, so both sides fly smaller flags most days. For instance, Sadqi will hoist a 12×18-metre tricolour on Independence Day, and a smaller one on regular days.
Reuters
10 hours ago
- Reuters
Germany weighs fate of Afghans in Pakistan as deportations intensify
BERLIN, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The German government is reviewing whether Afghans stranded in Pakistan while awaiting resettlement in Germany will indeed be allowed to go there, its interior minister said on Thursday, as Islamabad intensifies deportations of Afghans. Pakistan has begun to deport documented Afghan refugees ahead of its September 1 deadline for them to leave, according to the United Nations, a step that could see more than 1 million Afghans expelled from the country. Among them are more than 2,000 Afghans awaiting visas to travel to Germany under an admission programme designed to evacuate people considered to be at risk under Taliban rule in Pakistan's neighbour Afghanistan. A source familiar with the matter said detentions of Afghans for deportation over the border have continued, even during Pakistan's Independence Day holiday on Thursday. "People with German admission approval are being brought to the Torkham border (between Pakistan and Afghanistan) as we speak," the source told Reuters. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt confirmed that some Afghans in Germany's resettlement scheme "have recently drawn the attention of Pakistani authorities", and Berlin was in discussions with Islamabad over their status. "We are reviewing whether these people can actually leave for Germany. Whether this actually happens depends on the outcome of the review process," Dobrindt told journalists. Germany's admission programme for at-risk Afghans - launched in October 2022 by the centre-left government in office at the time - is now under review following February's migration-focused election won by conservatives. The new centre-right coalition intends to close the scheme, which had already been suspended pending an ongoing review. Since May 2021, Germany has admitted about 36,500 Afghans seen as vulnerable to Taliban crackdowns, but the conservative-led government says humanitarian migration now exceeds the country's integration capacity. On Wednesday, Germany's foreign ministry said it was in close contact with Pakistani authorities and using established emergency mechanisms to prevent deportations of Afghans. The interior ministry said it could not provide a timeline to determine the future of the admission programme but expects decisions soon. It did not say whether the increase in deportations from Pakistan would hasten a decision.
The Independent
12 hours ago
- The Independent
Militant attacks on Pakistani police kill 5 as government hunt for insurgents displaces thousands
A series of attacks against Pakistani police by militants left five officers dead and eight wounded in a region where a government operation against insurgents has displaced 100,000 people, officials said. There were four attacks with three resulting in officer casualties Thursday, police said. Most died or were injured in a single attack in the Upper Dir district when armed men ambushed a police van early Thursday. Three officers died and seven were injured during the routine patrol, police official Ismail Khan said. In the Peshawar suburb of Hassan Khel, armed men opened fire on a police station with automatic weapons. One officer died and another was wounded in an exchange of fire, Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Qasim Ali Khan said. Two other overnight attacks came at police checkpoints in the Lajbok area of the Lower Dir district, where a police constable was killed, and in the Bannu district, where there were no casualties reported. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assaults and it was not immediately known if they were connected. Authorities have stepped up security across the country on the country's Independence Day, which was celebrated Thursday. The attacks on police coincided with a security operation to fight militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Bajaur district. There was no formal announcement of the offensive's launch in Bajaur, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban. Local government administrator Saeed Ullah said it was not a large-scale operation and only insurgent hideouts were targeted to avoid hurting or killing civilians, but the operation has displaced at least 100,000 people and there have been civilian casualties, including deaths. On Thursday, hundreds of people carried black flags and staged a sit-in to protest the killing of a mother and her two children in the district's Inayat Kili area, who died when a mortar struck their home. Authorities are registering displaced families from the Mamund area and setting up camps in public schools and sports complexes. People also have received food and relief packages, Bajaur government official Saeed Khan said. Sitting at a camp for displaced people in Khar, a main city in the Bajur district, Abid Ullah asked the government to quickly finish the operation so he could return home with his family. Shah Mehmood, a resident from the town of Mamund, said that when the operation began, "the war planes came and they were flying above our heads.' Mehmood said he left with with his family members for their safety and still had bitter memories of a similar 2009 military operation that displaced hundreds of thousands in Bajur. Between 500 and 800 militants are hiding in Bajaur, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Authorities have not shared details of troop or militant casualties in the operation. Anwarullah Khan in Khar, Pakistan, and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed.
