Pakistan releases 22 Indian fishermen as local activist calls for compassionate maritime policies

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Bahrain information minister have resolved to strengthen state media ties between the two countries, Pakistani state media reported on Friday.
The development came during Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar’s meeting with his Bahraini counterpart, Ramadan bin Abdullah Al-Noaimi, in Riyadh, on the sidelines of the Saudi Media Forum.
The two figures discussed relations between Pakistan and Bahrain, which were rooted in common faith, history and culture, the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) broadcaster reported.
“Attaullah Tarar said exchange of media delegations is crucial for further strengthening cooperation in the field of media,” the report read.
“He suggested the sharing of news between Bahrain News Agency (BNA) and Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).”
Bahrain is one of the important countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and a favorite destination for the Pakistani workforce since the early 1970s, according to the Pakistani foreign ministry.
Both countries have established Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) at the level of the foreign ministers, and the Pakistan-Bahrain trade volume has ranged between $500 million and $1 billion in recent years.
Tarar told his Bahraini counterpart that Pakistan’s economy, bolstered by a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, was moving in the right direction, saying there were excellent opportunities for global investors to invest in Pakistan.
“Bahrain’s Minister for Information said they value their relationship with Pakistan,” the PTV report read. “He reiterated Bahrain’s commitment to further strengthening cooperation in the media.”

PARACHINAR: Pakistani security forces raided several villages Thursday in a troubled northwestern region, arresting at least 30 suspects accused of deadly attacks on the country’s troops, police said. 
In the restive southwestern province of Balochistan, separatists attacked a police post, killing two officers.
The arrests were made during a search operation in Kurram, a district in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where at least 130 people have died in recent months there in clashes between rival Shiite and Sunni tribes since November. 
The district has been cut off from the rest of the country since November after authorities blocked roads following clashes between heavily armed tribes. Road closures around Kurram have caused a shortage of food and medicines there.
The operation was launched days after insurgents attacked aid trucks and killed five soldiers and a truck driver, according to Abbas Majid, a senior police official. He said officers also recovered some of the supplies looted by the suspects during recent attacks on aid trucks.
In the attack Thursday night in Balochistan, militants targeted a police post on the outskirts of Quetta, the provincial capital, triggering a shootout in which two officers were killed, local police chief Qasim Rodini said. He said an exchange of fire was still ongoing.
Earlier in the day, the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the killing of seven passengers in an attack on buses in Balochistan on Tuesday.
The group said in a statement that its fighters attacked the buses in the town of Rakhni and claimed those killed were affiliated with the military and intelligence services. Local authorities dismissed the claim, saying the victims were civilians with no ties to security forces.
The Baloch Liberation Army, which operates mostly in Balochistan, has also targeted Chinese nationals working on multi-billion-dollar projects in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Last year, the group killed dozens of people in three separate attacks on vehicles.
Balochistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency with the separatists seeking independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although Pakistani authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, violence has persisted.