Pakistani girls allegedly killed for dancing reported alive

June 19, 2012

Pak_girl_Alive

Islamabad, June 19: Five Pakistani girls who were reportedly killed on the orders of a tribal council for dancing and clapping with two young men in the northwest tribal region are still alive, a minister has said.

The controversy emerged after a video surfaced showing the five girls dancing at a private gathering in Beech Bela village of Kohistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"Ample evidence, collected by a fact-finding mission of the provincial government, is available, on the basis of which it has been established that all the five girls are alive and safe," provincial Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain was quoted as saying by Dawn News.

He said the evidence established that neither any jirga (tribal assembly) had taken place nor a religious decree issued by any cleric to kill the girls.

Hussain said the team comprising an additional sessions judge appointed by the Supreme Court and MP Bushra Gohar visited Beech Bela over the weekend to find out the whereabouts of the girls.

The team met four of the girls - Sareen Jan, Begum Jan, Aamna and Shaheen - and interviewed them.

The fifth girl, Bazgha, could not be reached but the team spoke with her parents, he said.

"All those present on the occasion gave evidence in front of the official team that all the five girls were alive and safe," Mr Hussain said.

Such misleading information about the killing defamed the province, Pakhtun culture and the traditional institution of the jirga, he said.

He said the provincial government would take legal action against the people responsible for spreading rumours about the murder.



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News Network
May 25,2020

Islamabad, May 25: Pakistan’s coronavirus cases on Monday reached 56,349 with 1,748 new patients while the death toll climbed to 1,167, the health ministry said.

The Ministry of National Health Services reported that 22,491 cases were diagnosed in Sindh, 20,077 in Punjab, 7,905 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 3,407 in Balochistan, 1,641 in Islamabad, 619 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 209 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

So far 1,167 people have died of the COVID-19 including 34 who lost their lives in the last 24 hours. A total of 17,482 patients have recovered from the deadly contagion.

The authorities have conducted 483,656 tests in the country, including 10,049 on Sunday. The trajectory showed that the number was steadily going up with authorities fearing a rise in cases in the wake of the easing of lockdown before Eid which was observed in the country on Sunday.

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News Network
April 28,2020

Geneva, Apr 28: The global death toll from the novel coronavirus has increased over the past 24 hours by nearly 5,000 to top 198,000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

According to the latest WHO data, 85,530 new cases of infection have been registered globally over the past day, with 4,982 deaths.

The overall number of COVID-19 cases worldwide increased to 2,878,196 and the death count reached 198,668.

There are 1,359,380 confirmed cases and 124,525 deaths in Europe.

The number of cases in the Americas total 1,140,520, with 58,492 deaths.

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News Network
January 3,2020

New Delhi, Jan 3: US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday warned America's airlines and their pilots that there is risk involved in operating flights in Pakistan airspace due to "extremist or militant activity", according to an official document.

"Exercise caution during flight operations. There is a risk to US civil aviation operating in the territory and airspace of Pakistan due to extremist/militant activity," said the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in a notice to airmen (NOTAM) dated December 30, 2019.

The NOTAM is applicable to all US-based airlines and US-based pilots.

The US regulator said in its NOTAM that there continues to be a risk to US civil aviation sector from attacks against airports and aircraft in Pakistan, particularly for aircraft on the ground and aircraft operating at low altitudes, including during the arrival and departure phases of flights.

"The ongoing presence of extremist/militant elements operating in Pakistan poses a continued risk to US civil aviation from small-arms fire, complex attacks against airports, indirect weapons fire, and anti-aircraft fire, any of which could occur with little or no warning," it said.

The FAA said that while, to date, there have been no reports of man-portable air defense systems or Manpads being used against the civil aviation sector in Pakistan, some extremist or terrorist groups operating there are suspected of having access to these Manpads.

"As a result, there is potential risk for extremists/militants to target civil aviation in Pakistan with Manpads," it said.

The regulator added that pilots or airlines must report safety or security incidents - which may happen in Pakistan - to the FAA.

Pakistan on July 16 last year opened its airspace for India after about five months of restrictions imposed in the wake of a standoff with New Delhi.

Following the Balakot airstrikes by the Indian Air Force, Pakistan had closed its airspace on February 26 last year.

Pakistan in October last year had denied India's request to allow Prime Minister Narendra Modi's VVIP flight to use its airspace for his visit to Saudi Arabia over the Jammu and Kashmir issue.

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