Pakistan holds funeral prayers for 12 victims of double suicide bombing near military base in Bannu
The city is observing a day of mourning, with joint funeral prayers scheduled at a sports complex
Gunshots could still be heard early on Wednesday as security forces combed through the area
Updated 2 min 57 sec ago
AP
PESHAWAR: Schools and shops closed as residents of a northwestern Pakistani city prepared for the funeral ceremonies on Wednesday for 12 people killed in a twin suicide bombing that targeted a military base the day before.
A militant group linked with the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing in Bannu on Tuesday evening when two suicide bombers breached the wall surrounding the base.
Most of the local residents were breaking their daylong fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan or praying at a nearby mosque.
After the explosions, other attackers stormed the compound and set off a firefight with the troops.
The powerful blasts tore through walls and ripped off roofs and also severely damaged the mosque. Along with the 12 killed, 30 people were also wounded in the attack, some of whom were reported to be in critical condition.
The casualty figures did not include troops. It was not immediately known how many security forces were killed or injured in the assault or the subsequent gunfight.
On Wednesday, a mechanical digger was clearing away rubble where homes used to stand, and debris-covered prayer mats lay crumpled on the mosque floor.
A day of mourning was being observed, said Bannu community elder Alam Khan, and joint funeral prayers were to be held for the victims at a sports complex in the area.
Gunshots could still be heard early on Wednesday as security forces combed through the area, looking to clear it of any militants involved in the attack.
“All education institutions are closed,” Khan said. “Most shops are also shut. Rescue workers have completed their operation by recovering the bodies of three deceased worshippers who were trapped under the collapsed roof of the mosque.”
Bannu is located in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that borders Afghanistan, and several armed groups are active there. A group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban, Jaish Al-Fursan, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday instructed authorities to digitize polio data across Pakistan as he presided over a meeting to review the country’s polio situation, following an alarming rise in cases last year.
Pakistan saw a significant resurgence of the poliovirus in 2024, with 74 cases reported nationwide. Of these, 27 were from Balochistan, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 23 from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Polio is a paralyzing disease with no cure, and multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine, along with the completion of the routine vaccination schedule for children under five, are essential to providing immunity against the virus.
Last month, Pakistan concluded its first nationwide anti-polio campaign of 2025. So far, the country has reported six polio cases since the beginning of this year.
“A gradual decline in polio cases has been made possible due to the tireless efforts of provincial administrations,” Sharif said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office. “The complete eradication of polio from the country will only be possible with collaboration between federal and provincial governments.”
“All polio data must be digitized to strengthen our monitoring efforts,” he directed.
Officials briefed the prime minister on the progress of anti-polio efforts, saying the February campaign covered 42.5 million children, including nearly 90 percent of children in polio-affected districts.
Pakistan has planned three major polio campaigns in the first half of 2025, with the next rounds scheduled for April and May. Officials also told Sharif an IT dashboard is being used to track and monitor vaccination efforts in real time.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in the world where polio remains an endemic.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies.
Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
PESHAWAR: At least 12 civilians were killed and another 32 injured on Tuesday evening after a pair of suicide bombers drove two explosive-filled vehicles into the wall of a military cantonment in Bannu district in northwestern Pakistan, security officials said.
A local police official, Muhammad Ghulam, told Arab News two suicide bombings took place, followed by a gunbattle between militants and security forces in Bannu, which is in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The province has seen a surge in militant attacks in recent years that Pakistan blames on insurgents harboring in Afghanistan. Kabul denies it provides refuge to militants and says Pakistan’s security challenges are a domestic issue.
The latest attack occurred in an area adjacent to a local market after sunset, when people were breaking their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Video clips circulating on social media showed thick grey plumes of smoke rising into the air as gunshots rang out.
“Because of the intensity of the blasts, walls and roofs of residential compounds close to the military facility collapsed, which inflicted civilian casualties,” police officer Ghulam said.
Pedestrians gather near a detonated explosive-laden van at an army compound in Bannu on March 5, 2025. (AFP)
A military official with knowledge of the attack, declining to be named, said 12 civilians had been killed in the assault and 32 people were injured.
Bannu District Hospital director Dr. Ahmed Faraz Khan told AP:
“So far we have received 42 victims, 12 dead and 30 injured. A few of them are critical, but most are stable. All doctors, particularly surgeons and paramedical staff, have been called for duty as a medical emergency has been imposed.”
Commuters ride past the wreckage after militants detonated explosive-laden vans at an army compound in Bannu on March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Jaish-e-Fursan Muhammad, a militant faction affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released to media, saying dozens of security officials had been killed in the assault. Police and military officials have denied this.
Muhammad Ali Saif, the spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government, said in a late night statement security forces had “foiled” the attack on the cantonment and most of the deaths were of civilians and had been caused by the destruction of buildings adjacent to the military facility.
“The explosions caused the roof of a nearby mosque to collapse, killing worshippers,” Saif said.
Noman Khittab, a spokesman at the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) Bannu, told Arab News the dead included women and children.
A security source said “verified intelligence” indicated the militants involved in the attack were in contact with their “handlers” in neighboring Afghanistan. Attacks by the Pakistani Taliban militant group have risen in recent years against Pakistani police and military in areas near the Afghan border.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban authorities in Kabul of facilitating cross-border militant attacks, a charge Afghan authorities deny.
Militants have targeted Bannu several times in the past. Last November, a suicide car bomb killed 12 troops and wounded several others at a security post.
In July, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle and other militants opened fire near the outer wall of the military facility.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar will participate in a special meeting of foreign ministers of OIC member states set to take place in Jeddah on Friday, Radio Pakistan reported this week, where he will denounce an “unacceptable” proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza.
US President Donald Trump has angered the Muslim world with a plan to permanently displace the population of more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza, assert US control over the territory and turn it into an international beach resort. The plan has echoed long-standing Palestinian fears of being permanently driven from their homes.
On Friday, the OIC will hold an Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers to discuss joint actions in response to the “deteriorating conditions” in Palestine due to ongoing Israeli aggression, continued violations of Palestinian rights, and calls for their displacement.
“At the session, Ishaq Dar will reaffirm Pakistan’s steadfast support for the Palestinian cause and emphasize its principled position,” Radio Pakistan reported on Tuesday. “He will advocate for the full withdrawal of Israel from all occupied territories, including Jerusalem, denounce the unacceptable proposal for further displacing Palestinians.”
Dar will also call for the restoration of the “inalienable rights” of the Palestinian people such as their right to return to their homeland and the establishment of a viable, contiguous, and sovereign Palestinian state based on the pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
This week, Arab leaders adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave, in contrast to Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Tuesday Egypt had worked in cooperation with Palestinians on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza after the end of the Israel-Gaza war. The committee would be responsible for the oversight of humanitarian aid and managing the Strip’s affairs for a temporary period, in preparation for the return of the Palestinian Authority (PA), he said.
The other critical issue is the fate of the Palestinian group Hamas, the PA’s rival, whose October 7, 2023, attack on Israel killed 1,200 people with more than 250 taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The attack led to the Israel’s military latest assault on Gaza, that has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry. The assault has also displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007, said in a statement it agrees to the Egyptian committee proposal.
Palestinian territory – encompassing the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem – has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Pakistan does not recognize Israel and has consistently called for an independent state of Palestine based on “internationally agreed parameters” and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the arrest of a senior Daesh commander implicated in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 US service members during the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan, thanking Pakistan for making it possible.
The August 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul occurred amid the US evacuation from the country, which also led to the death of about 170 Afghan civilians.
The incident drew widespread criticism of former President Joe Biden administration’s handling of the military pullout, with many, including members of Trump’s Republican Party, labeling it as poorly planned and executed.
“ISIS [Daesh] terrorists killed 13 American service members and countless others in the Abbey Gate bombing during the disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Trump said, referring to one of the Kabul airport entrances, while addressing the US Congress. “Not that they were withdrawing, it was the way they withdrew. Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity, and he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.”
“And I want to thank especially the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster,” he continued. “This was a very momentous day for those 13 families who I actually got to know very well, most of them whose children were murdered, and the many people that were so badly, over 42 people so badly injured on that fateful day.”
According to reports in the US media, Trump was referring to Mohammad Sharifullah, a Daesh commander allegedly involved in masterminding the bombing. CNN said he was being “charged with providing and conspiring to provide material support for terrorism, according to a source familiar with the matter.”
It added: “Pakistan acted on CIA intelligence that led to the arrest of Sharifullah, according to another source familiar with the matter.”
Pakistan and the US have a history of cooperation in counterterrorism efforts, particularly during the “war on terror” following the September 11 attacks.
Despite periods of strained relations, Pakistan has captured and handed over several Taliban and Al-Qaeda members to US authorities.
However, both nations have faced criticism from human rights organizations, alleging that not all detainees were affiliated with militant groups and highlighting concerns over the treatment of these individuals, including reports of extreme interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation.
While no comprehensive statement has emerged from Pakistan about the details of the operation leading to the Daesh leader’s arrest, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked the US president for acknowledging and appreciating his country’s role and support in counterterrorism.
He also noted that Sharifullah was an Afghan national and confirmed the involvement of Pakistan’s security forces in his arrest.
“The wanted terrorist was apprehended in a successful operation conducted in [the] Pakistan-Afghanistan border region,” he said in a social media post on X.
“As is well-known, Pakistan has always played a critical role in counterterrorism efforts aimed at denying safe havens to terrorists and militant groups the space to operate against any other country,” he continued. “We remain steadfast in our resolve and unwavering commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”
Sharif highlighted Pakistan’s sacrifices while fighting against militant groups, saying the country had lost over 80,000 of its soldiers and citizens.
“The resolve of our leadership and our people remains unflinching, to eradicate the menace of terrorism from our country,” he added. “We will continue to partner closely with the United States in securing regional peace and stability.”
Plan B: Pakistan beekeepers widen pursuit of flowers
Amid climate change, Pakistani beekeepers in desperate chase for flowers, clean air, moderate temperatures
Weather changes and pollution are threatening Pakistan’s beekeeping industry and leading to decline in honey production
Updated 34 min 41 sec ago
AFP
SARGODHA, Pakistan: Under a dry, smoggy sky, a beekeeper in Pakistan’s Punjab province carefully loads boxes filled with tens of thousands of bees onto the back of a truck.
Together they will travel 500 kilometers (around 300 miles) in an increasingly desperate chase to find flowering plants, clean air and moderate temperatures for honey production as climate change and pollution threaten the industry.
“We move the boxes according to where the weather is good and the flowers bloom,” Malik Hussain Khan told AFP, standing in a field of orange trees whose blossoms arrived weeks late in February and lasted only for a few weeks.
Pakistan’s beekeepers typically move seasonally to spare their charges stifling heat or freezing cold.
Summers are spent in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and winters in central Punjab province.
But weather patterns made unpredictable by climate change — coupled with some of the worst pollution in the world — mean beekeepers must move more frequently and travel further.
A man working at a honeybee farm at Lak Mor village in Sargodha district of Punjab province on January 30, 2025. (AFP)
This winter was marked by soaring, hazardous smog levels that the government declared a national disaster. Research has found air pollution can make it harder for bees to locate flowers.
Diminished rainfall, meanwhile, failed to clear the choking air and triggered drought warnings for farmers.
“Almost half of my bees died when the smog and fog hit this winter because they could not fly. There was hardly any rain,” said Khan, who moved his bees as frequently as every few weeks in January and February.
The bees of Pakistan’s 27,000 beekeepers once had diverse foliage fed by reliable rainfall, offering a rich source of nectar.
Their honey is used in local flu remedies, drizzled over sweets, and given as gifts.
Since 2022 however, Pakistan’s honey production has dropped 15 percent, according to the government’s Honey Bee Research Institute (HBRI) in the capital Islamabad.
“Heavy rainfall and hail storms can destroy the flowers, and erratic rainfall and high temperatures during the winter flowering season can stop them from blooming,” said Muhammad Khalid, a researcher at the institute.
“When the flowers disappear, the bee population declines because they cannot find nectar, resulting in reduced honey production.”
Bees are threatened globally by changing weather patterns, intensive farming practices, land-use change, and pesticides.
Their loss threatens not just the honey trade, but food security in general, with a third of the world’s food production dependent on bee pollination, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Pakistan’s bees once produced 22 varieties of honey, but that has plummeted to 11 as flowering seasons shorten. Three of the country’s four honey bee species are endangered.
A vendor waiting for customers at a key honey market in Chamkanni on the outskirts of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 4, 2025. (AFP)
“The places that used to be green for our bees to fly 30 years ago, no longer are,” says 52-year-old honey trader Sherzaman Momaan, who speaks with tenderness about his winged charges.
“We didn’t move around then as much as we do now.”
His hives were almost entirely wiped out by 2010 floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but he believes deforestation is the most significant long-term change and threat.
Yousaf Khan and his brother, based in Islamabad, have been producing honey for 30 years, moving short distances around neighboring Punjab to catch the best blooms.
“Now, we go as far as Sindh (province) for warmer temperatures and to escape extreme weather conditions,” Khan told AFP, referring to areas up to 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away.
“Bees are like babies, they need a good environment, good surroundings, and proper food to survive.”
Moving the bees comes with its own risks.
“If the weather is very hot, or if the distance is too long, there is a chance that some bees could die. It has happened to my bees before,” Khan explained.
On long trips, they must also be fed artificial food because they cannot produce honey while traveling.
Moving so often is expensive for beekeepers in a country where fuel prices have risen dramatically in recent years.
And beekeepers seeking better weather can face harassment if they set up in areas without permission from landlords.
On barren land outside Chamkanni in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gul Badshah watches helplessly as bees appear and disappear from dozens of boxes on a fruitless search for flowers.
Gul Badshah, a beekeeper, inspecting a honeycomb at a farm in Chamkanni on the outskirts of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 4, 2025. (AFP)
“They fight and kill each other if the weather conditions do not suit them,” he told AFP.
Badshah, whose boxes were also washed away in floods in 2010 and again in 2022, has given up traveling long distances.
“There is nowhere to be found. We do not know where else to go.”
Some hope is offered by new technology intended to keep bees cool, addressing the problem of how extreme temperatures affect the insects — if not their food source.
Abdullah Chaudry, a former beekeeper, developed new hives with improved ventilation based on inspiration from other honey-producing nations dealing with rising temperatures, including Turkiye and Australia.
Early signs suggest the boxes improve production by around 10 percent.
“Extreme heat does not make bees comfortable and instead of making honey, they keep busy cooling themselves,” he told AFP at the capital’s beekeeping research center.
“These modern boxes are more spacious, and have different compartments giving more space to the bees.”
The improved hives are just part of the adaptation puzzle though, he acknowledges.
