Peshawar:

A Pakistani journalist was gunned down on Tuesday by unknown gunmen in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the country’s northwest, according to a tribal journalist association.

Khalil Jibran, associated with Pashto News Channel ‘Khyber News’ was shot dead by shooters near his home in the Mazrina Sultankhel area of the Khyber district.

Another person, identified as Sajid, was injured in the shooting.

The attackers managed to flee from the scene after killing the journalist.

Police contingents were on their way to the shooting site, according to sources.

The Mazrina area of the tribal district is a hotbed of militants.  Family sources confirmed Jibran’s killing, and a senior journalist alleged that it was a case of targeted killing.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur condemned the killing of the senior tribal journalist and ordered the immediate arrest of those involved.

The Association of Electronic Media Editors condemned the killing and demanded the arrest of the attacker.

Khyber Union of Journalists and Peshawar Press Club also urged the provincial government to take proper measures for the protection and security of the journalists.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

File picture of police officers examine the site of suicide bombing at a highway in Shangla, a district in the Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on March 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Taliban defence ministry on Wednesday rejected Pakistan’s allegations that Afghans were involved in an attack on Chinese engineers, as ties between the neighbouring nations sour amidst rising insecurity.

Pakistan’s military had said at a press conference on Tuesday that a suicide bomb attack in March in Pakistan’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, that killed five Chinese engineers, was planned in neighbouring Afghanistan, and that the bomber was an Afghan national.

“Afghans are not involved in such matters,” said Mufti Enayatullah Khorazmim, the spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Taliban-run Ministry of National Defence.

“Blaming Afghanistan for such incidents is a failed attempt to divert attention from the truth of the matter and we strongly reject it,” he added.

A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in northwest Pakistan in March, killing six people.

“The killing of Chinese citizens in an area of ​​Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that is under tight security cover by the Pakistan Army shows the weakness of the Pakistani security agencies,” Khorazmim said.

Pakistan-Afghanistan relations sour

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have soured in recent months. Islamabad says Kabul is not doing enough to tackle militant groups targeting Pakistan and in March Pakistan carried out airstrikes targeting militants on Afghan territory.

Last year, Pakistan expelled nearly 3,70,000 undocumented Afghan nationals, saying the majority of suicide attacks against its security forces were carried out by Afghans, a charge Kabul rejected.

Pakistan’s military spokesman said on Tuesday that security for 29,000 Chinese nationals in Pakistan, many of them working on infrastructure projects, was the top priority for security institutions.

The Taliban are also seeking economic ties with China, the first country to formally appoint an ambassador to Kabul under the Taliban, and wish to join China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is Beijing’s $65 billion investment in development and infrastructure.

The Supreme Court forewarned the ED that it may “consider” granting interim bail to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case due to the ongoing Lok Sabha election. File photo
| Photo Credit: PTI

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BJP should answer allegations of harassment against Governor: CM Mamata Banerjee

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Pakistan imposes restrictions on movement of Chinese nationals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after recent attack

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China launches lunar probe mission to collect samples for first time from far side of moon

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Peshawar:

A suicide bomber blew himself up near a vehicle of Pakistan’s security forces close to a nonfunctional airport in the country’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday but did not cause any casualties, an official said.

The explosives wrapped up around the bomber’s body exploded with a big bang near the Bannu Airport, bordering north Waziristan. The airport has been nonfunctional for the last couple of years.

No casualty to life occurred in the attack, the official said.

The police and security force personnel rushed to the blast site and cordoned off the entire area. A search operation was also launched to arrest the perpetrators of the blast.

Five Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists were killed on Thursday after the Balochistan Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) carried out an operation in the Aghberg area of Quetta, the capital city of the troubled Balochistan province.

In a statement, the CTD said it also killed eight TTP and IS members in two intelligence-based operations conducted in the Quetta and Washuk districts on Saturday. The two operations brought the number of TTP and IS terrorists killed in the province this month to 13, the counter-terror police said.

Recently, Pakistan has been hit by a wave of terrorist activities orchestrated by the outlawed terror outfit.

The TTP, set up as an umbrella group of several terrorists outfits in 2007, is believed to be close to Al-Qaeda and has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)