Infinity Social Updates

PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan has felicitated Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir for his elevation to the rank of field marshal, saying that he now had more responsibility to “make the situation better”. Earlier this week, the government promoted Gen Munir to the rank of field marshal in recognition of his “strategic leadership and decisive role” in defeating India during the military confrontation between the two countries that ended with a US-mediated ceasefire . Field marshal is the highest rank in armies modelled after the British Army. In Pakistan, it was awarded only once before, to General Mohammad Ayub Khan in 1959. Speaking to reporters outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail yesterday after meeting with incarcerated ex-premier Imran Khan, Gohar said: “A long time has passed. The PTI is a major party, Khan sahib is the most popular leader. We want these difficulties to end now. “This is why I am saying that the [army chief] has gotten this new honour of field marshal. [We] h...

At least five people, including three children, were killed in a blast targeting a bus carrying students in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district on Wednesday morning. A number of children also sustained injuries. According to local authorities, the bodies and the injured were moved to the Khuzdar Combined Military Hospital, from where those in critical condition would be referred to medical facilities in Quetta and Karachi. Preliminary findings indicated that the attack was a suicide blast. In a statement, the military, while calling the incident “cowardly and ghastly”, said that it was planned and orchestrated by India, and executed by its proxies in Balochistan. “After having miserably failed in the battlefield, through these most heinous and cowardly acts, Indian proxies have been unleashed to spread terror and unrest in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the Inter Services Public Relations said. The attack drew widespread condemnation from all segments of society. In a post on X, ...

A team of doctors and vets has developed a novel treatment for the pair of elephants at Karachi’s Safari Park suffering from tuberculosis that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day. The jumbo effort by staff involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas to sweets. The amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 4,000-kilogramme elephants. But it has taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they tasted of the bitter medicine, and crankily charging their keepers. “Giving treatment for TB to elephants is always challenging. Each day we use different methods,” said Buddhika Bandara, a veterinary surgeon from Sri Lanka who flew in to oversee the treatment. Dr Buddhika Bandara (L), a veterinary surgeon from Sri Lanka, examining Madhubala, an elephant who is diagnosed with tuberculosis, inside an encl...

Three students were stabbed at a primary and middle school in Pirkkala in southwestern Finland on Tuesday, and the suspect, a student at the school , was arrested shortly afterwards, police said. The three wounded did not sustain life-threatening injuries, police spokeswoman Nina Juurakko told AFP , adding that police “were investigating” media reports that the suspect had targeted girls in the attack. The Vahajarvi school has around 1,250 students aged six to 15, but the ages of those injured were not known immediately. “The suspect in the act of violence is a student of the Vahajarvi school,” police said in a statement, adding that they were alerted to the attack at 10:42am. Finnish public broadcaster YLE said the suspect was believed to have “published a manifesto in which he describes the reasons for his act and the instrument he used”. The broadcaster said it had seen the manifesto but “has not been able to verify” that it was written by the suspect. YLE images showed s...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of Zahir Jaffer, convicted of brutally murdering Noor Mukadam nearly four years ago, in a development dubbed a “rare achievement” and “victory for women”. Noor, aged 27 years, was found murdered at Zahir’s Islamabad residence in July 2021, with the probe revealing she was tortured before being beheaded. Zahir was handed the death sentence by a trial court, which he had challenged in the Islamabad High Court in 2023. The IHC too had upheld the sentence. Subsequently, he approached the top court. The appeal was taken up for hearing by a three-member bench comprising Justices Hashim Kakar, Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Ali Baqar Najafi. Here’s what lawyers had to say about today’s verdict. ‘Rare victory for women’ Lawyer Zainab Shahid said Zahir’s death sentence brought a sense of justice and closure to the gruesome episode of violence. “It marks a departure from high-profile cases of violent crime in the past where perpetrators were acq...

As a sit-in against the deaths of four children in suspected quadcopter munitions drop continued for a second day in the Mir Ali tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s North Waziristan district, police said talks with local elders on the matter were underway. The suspected strike took place in Mir Ali’s Hurmuz village during the daytime, leaving four children of the same family dead and injuring five others, including a woman, according to sources . Both security forces and the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are known to have been using quadcopters. North Waziristan District Police Officer Waqar Ahmad confirmed to Dawn.com that “negotiations are ongoing and results are awaited”. Before the talks began, Mir Ali Tehsildar Sher Bahadar said: “The representative jirga (council of elders) has just arrived, and we will devise a plan together before proceeding with negotiations with them.” Bahadar said he was leading a team in negotiating with the jirga members. While local authorit...

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that nuclear talks with the United States were unlikely to yield any results, amid a diplomatic standoff over the Islamic republic’s enrichment activities. “We don’t think it will lead to any outcome. We don’t know what will happen,” said Khamenei during a speech, adding that denying Iran’s right to enrich uranium was “a big mistake”. Iran and the US have held four rounds of Omani-mediated nuclear talks since April 12, the highest-level contact between the two foes since Washington abandoned the 2015 nuclear accord. The two sides had confirmed plans to hold another round of discussions during the latest meeting on May 11, which Tehran described as “difficult but useful”, while a US official said Washington was “encouraged”. Iran currently enriches uranium to 60per cent, far above the 3.67pc limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90pc needed for a nuclear warhead. Western countries, including the US, have long accuse...