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Security forces kill 32 terrorists during operations in KP, Balochistan: ISPR

Security forces have killed 32 terrorists during operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan over the last 24 hours, the military’s media affairs wing said in a statement released on Wednesday. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said “comprehensive joint operations” were carried out in various parts of the two provinces, in continuation of action against the “terrorists nexus of India-sponsored Fitna-al-Khawarij and Fitna-al-Hindustan ”. The state uses the term Fitna-al-Khawarij for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and has designated Balochistan-based groups as Fitna-al-Hindustan to highlight India’s alleged role in terrorism and destabilisation across Pakistan. ISPR said that the operations in KP and Balochistan were aimed at weeding out terrorists and their facilitators. Multiple “intelligence-based area sanitisation and targeted operations” were conducted in KP’s Khyber on July 28 and 29, during which 24 terrorists belonging to Fitna-al-Khawarij wer...

Firefighters in France, Spain scramble to contain blazes as new heatwave looms

Firefighters raced on Tuesday to subdue huge wildfires that have forced unprecedented evacuations of tens of thousands of people across France and Spain, as western Europe braced for another heatwave. The fires have torn through a region already battered by a blisteringly hot and dry summer. Crews were seeking to capitalise on more favourable weather before a new wave of higher temperatures settled in from Wednesday. In the Bordeaux region of France, firefighters contained the forest blaze overnight, while in Spain, authorities allowed people from nine out of 11 towns in the central Toledo province to return to their homes. However, fires still raged out of control in Madrid and nearby provinces, prompting heightened vigilance. One Spanish evacuee described a “red hell” of fire, portraying intense scenes as residents fled with little more than clothes on their backs. Europe, the world’s fastest warming continent, has endured record-breaking heatwaves ...

Probe finds PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar guilty of harassing actor Momina Iqbal, NCCIA official tells Lahore court

LAHORE: A National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) official on Tuesday informed a sessions court that PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar had been found guilty of harassing actor Momina Iqbal after investigation. NCCIA Lahore Station House Officer (SHO) Najam Bajwa shared this as Additional District and Sessions Judge Nusrat Ali Siddiqui took up pre-arrest bail petitions of the MPA and his wife, who was also named in the first information report registered after Iqbal’s harassment allegations. Chadhar and his wife appeared before the court upon the expiry of their previous pre-arrest interim bail. During the hearing, SHO Najam Bajwa informed the court that the investigation against Chadhar had been completed and he had been found guilty of the allegations levelled by Iqbal. He further told the court that Chadhar’s wife had surrendered her mobile phone to NCCIA two days ago and the device had been sent for forensic examination. For his part, the counsel for Iqbal urged the court to d...

How cricket could become the Olympics' gateway to India

When cricket returns to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 , it will bring far more than bats, balls and wickets. Its inclusion reflects a strategic calculation by Olympic leaders that the surest route to billions of new viewers runs through India, cricket’s commercial heartland and a country they believe is increasingly central to the Games future. Cricket , absent from the Olympics since 1900, offers the International Olympic Committee (IOC) something no recent addition has: direct access to a fan base of more than two billion people and, crucially, the commercial power of the Indian market. As the Games seek a younger and broader audience, it may prove the most valuable sport added to the Olympic programme in decades. Cricket has been one of the major global sports not to feature in the Olympics, IOC Sports Director Pierre Ducrey told Reuters in an interview. “It is very strong in markets where maybe you could say the Olympic Games today may not have penetrated as much as the...

Central bank keeps policy rate unchanged at 11.5pc

The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Monday kept the interest rate unchanged at 11.5 per cent. The decision was announced by SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed during a press conference. At the outset of the press conference, the governor said, “MPC has decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 11.5pc”. “There were several reasons for this, but I would like to explain some background: every time we hold committee meetings in January and July, we also issue projections for the next six months and what would be the level of economic growth, inflation outlook and situation of the external account; I will share that assessment as well.” The governor explained that in the first half of the previous year, inflation was declining; however, “the fallout from the Middle East crisis impacted our domestic situation”. “From July to February, our average inflation was 5.5pc,” which he said was within the government’s target range of 5-7pc. Analysts had expected the ...

Public holiday in Sindh on Wednesday for Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s urs

The Sindh government has declared a public holiday on Wednesday (July 29) on account of the annual urs of Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. According to the notification shared on Monday, the provincial government has declared July 29 as public holiday throughout the province for all government offices, autonomous bodies, semi-autonomous bodies, corporations and local councils under its administrative control, except for essential services. The notification was shared by the Sindh Information Department on the social media platform X. The three-day annual urs of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai is held every year from Safar 14 at his final resting place in Bhit Shah. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/dp50VPb

In Spectrum: Satluj: The film India could not watch

In South Asia, the state has often existed in tension with society, asserting control not only over governance but also over history, memory, and legitimacy, while society is forced to negotiate or submit to official narratives. Rather than reinforcing one another, the political and social spheres frequently become antagonistic, with the imperatives of postcolonial state-building overriding justice, dissent, and collective memory. It is against this backdrop that Satluj, inspired by the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, assumes significance beyond cinema as an effort to reclaim a contested history. Its removal from ZEE5 only two days after its July 2026 release in India highlights the persistent struggle over who has the authority to narrate the past and whether censorship can erase, or merely delay, historical memory. Originally produced as Punjab 95, Honey Trehan’s film traces Khalra’s investigation into enforced disappearances and illegal cremations during Punjab...