Heena Sharma Blog

People are feared killed in an ongoing gunbattle after the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi came under attack from terrorists, Geo News reported. Four militants stormed the exchange and opened indiscriminate fire. Initial reports said that four attackers came out of their vehicle and threw grenades after which they reportedly entered the building, Dawn reported. Police surgeon Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi said that five bodies and seven injured, including policemen, have been brought at the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi. According to the report, all four terrorists have been killed and weapons, hand grenades have been recovered from the attackers. A clearance operation is underway in the exchange. Read More

With more than 92,000 cases, India ranks fourth on the list of countries with highest active cases. No doubt, with 1.1 million plus cases, the US tops the tally. The country has reported more than 8,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s official to 1.98 lakh. Maharashtra alone accounts for 70,013 cases. Speaking of recovery rate, even as the number of active cases rises, the ratio of death and recovery among the outcome of closed cases is improving slowly. Read More

Cash-strapped Pakistan has received an emergency loan of $1.39 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost its foreign exchange reserves in the wake of the coronavirus crisis . The $1.39 billion loan is in addition to the $6 billion bailout package that Pakistan had signed with the IMF in July last year to stave off a balance of payment crisis. "SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) has received $1.39 billion under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) from the IMF," the central bank said in a tweet on Wednesday. Pakistan in March had requested the global moneylender for a low-cost, fast-disbursing loan under its Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to deal with the adverse economic impact of the pandemic. The RFI is used to provide financial assistance to IMF member countries facing an urgent balance of payments need without requiring them to put a full-fledged programme in place. Read More

A court in Pakistan on Tuesday sentenced former president Pervez Musharraf to death for high treason, giving its judgment on charges relating to the imposition of extra-constitutional emergency in November 2007, reported the Dawn newspaper. Musharraf, 74, ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008 and lives in Dubai in self-imposed exile. The previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had filed the treason case against the former army chief in 2013 over the imposition of an extra-constitutional emergency in November 2007, which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges. The trial in the high-profile treason case has not seen much progress since Musharraf left for Dubai in March 2016 after his name was removed from the no-fly list. Musharraf is said to be suffering from Amyloidosis, a rare condition for which he has been admitted to a hospital, news agency PTI reported in October 2019. Read More

A large number of Sikhs from India have visited the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan and installed a golden palanquin at the shrine. Most of the 1,100 Sikhs, who are in Pakistan to attend the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak in Nankana Sahib, visited the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, also known as Kartarpur Sahib, along with Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar and installed the golden palanquin they had brought in with them. The governor said that the Kartarpur Corridor, which has been completed within the stipulated time, will help bring both the countries closer. Meanwhile, the Pakistan government has decided to make it mandatory for the tour operators to have a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the interior ministry to take foreign Sikhs, other than Indians, to the holy site specially the Kartarpur Sahib. "The Sikhs coming from the US, Canada and the European countries have been issued visit visa for Lahore. There are security problems with ...

The daily Retreat ceremony held at the Attari-Wagah border front along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab has been "cancelled" for Friday, the BSF said. A senior official of the force said the martial ceremony has been called off due to administrative requirements in the wake of IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman 's release post noon at this frontier. The public will not be allowed in the ceremony area that is located in the Attari of Punjab along the Indo-Pak border, the BSF official said. They said the decision has been taken in view of "military requirements" where Varthaman captured by Pakistani forces will be handed over to senior Indian Air Force officials. The Border Security Force (BSF) conducts the ceremony in coordination with their cross-border counterparts Pak Rangers. It involves lowering of the flags of the two countries along with foot stomping manoeuvres of the troops. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

Pakistan on Thursday announced that it will release an Indian Air Force pilot who was captured on Wednesday after an aerial combat between the two countries’ fighter jets along the Line of Control. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the release of IAF pilot will be a "peace gesture". The worst military standoff between the two rival neighbours began on Tuesday when India’s external affairs ministry said the country’s air force jets had launched airstrikes against terrorists inside Pakistan. The target was a camp run by Jaish-e-Mohammed which claimed responsibility for the February 14 suicide car bombing in Pulwama, Kashmir, which killed 40 members of India’s paramilitary CRPF. On Wednesday, Pakistan claimed it had downed an Indian jet. Article Source -> Business Standard

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday claimed that two Indian MIGs crossed the Line of Control and they were shot down, as he offered to defuse tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours and resolve the issues through talks. "Our action was only intended to convey that if you can come into our country, we can do the same. Two of their MiGs were shot down (in the ensuing action)," Khan said in a live TV address. His comments came minutes after the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi said that Pakistan Air Force targeted military installations in India in response to Indian counter-terrorism operations but their attempts were foiled successfully though one Indian pilot is "missing in action". Noting that all wars are miscalculated, and no one knows where they lead to, Khan said that better sense must prevail and the two sides should act with wisdom. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

India stand to lose by boycotting Pakistan in the upcoming World Cup , feels former captain Sunil Gavaskar, who said the country can continue to "hurt them" by shunning bilateral ties. Led by senior India spinner Harbhajan Singh, calls for a complete cricketing boycott of Pakistan have grown ever since the terror attack in Pulwama last week killed more than 40 CRPF personnel. India are scheduled to play Pakistan on June 16 during the World Cup. "Who wins if India decide against playing Pakistan in the World Cup? And I am not even talking about the semis and the finals. Who wins? Pakistan win because they get two points," Gavaskar told 'India Today'. "India have so far beaten Pakistan every time in a World Cup, so we are actually conceding two points when by beating Pakistan, we could make sure that they don't advance in the competition. "(But) I am with the country, whatever the government decides, I am with it totally. If the cou...

Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated sharply after a suicide bombing in Kashmir killed 40 CRPF jawans, an attack claimed by Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad . Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed a strong response to the attack and said he had given the military a free hand. Pakistan would retaliate if attacked, his counterpart, Imran Khan, has warned. The neighbours have twice gone to war over Kashmir since independence in 1947. Here is how their militaries stack up. MILITARY BUDGET In 2018, India allocated four trillion rupees ($58 billion), or 2.1 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), to support its 1.4 million active troops, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Last year, Pakistan spent 1.26 trillion Pakistani rupees ($11 billion), about 3.6 per cent of its GDP, on its 653,800 troops. It also received $100 million in foreign military assistance in 2018. Between 1993 and 2006, more than 20 per ...

The Indian side is being represented by a delegation of the Indian Water Commission led by Commissioner P K Saxena Current Affairs News : India and Pakistan on Wednesday commenced crucial talks on various aspects of the Indus Waters Treaty in Lahore, the first bilateral engagement since Prime Minister Imran Khan took office. The first round of the two-day meeting is being held at the National Engineering Services Pakistan. The water commissioners of Pakistan and India are required to meet twice a year and arrange technical visits to projects' sites and critical river head works, but Pakistan had been facing a lot of problems in timely meetings and visits. The Indian side is being represented by a delegation of the Indian Water Commission led by Commissioner P K Saxena whereas Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Meher Ali Shah and his delegation are representing Pakistan, it said. Both the countries are expected to present their reports during th...