Pakistani security forces kill 3 militants linked to 2024 attack on Chinese in Karachi
Azad Khan, a senior official with the Counter-Terrorism Department, said the dead insurgents included the alleged mastermind of the November 2024 attack.
He identified that person only as Zafran and said he was from the Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP and are allies of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
China has repeatedly pressed Pakistan to improve security for its nationals working on major infrastructure projects under Beijing's multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which include roads, railways and power plants.
Chinese nationals have increasingly come under attack by militant groups, including TTP and the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army — banned by the Pakistani authorities and also designated as terrorist groups by the United States.
Pakistan has pledged to bolster security measures for Chinese workers, including those employed at private factories.
Meanwhile, at least seven people were killed the previous day in Tirah Valley, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Fiaz Khan, a local government official, said.
He said the violence erupted when hundreds of residents gathered outside a military camp to demand protection and justice after a child was killed in a mortar attack on the weekend. The crowd came under gunfire from 'unknown gunmen,' Khan said.
He said the demonstrators accused security forces of opening fire when some people were throwing stones at the military camp, but police had yet to determine whose bullets caused the deaths. Khan said gunfire was also reported from nearby hills, and police suspect TTP may have been behind the shooting to sow discord between residents and the military.
The government has ordered a probe into the killings of demonstrators, he said.
___
Associated Press writer Riaz Khan contributed to this story from Peshawar, Pakistan.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump is getting the world economy he wants — but the risk to growth could spoil his victory lap
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is getting his way with the world economy. Trading partners from the European Union to Japan to Vietnam appear to be acceding to the president's demands to accept higher costs — in the form of high tariffs — for the privilege of selling their wares to the United States. For Trump, the agreements driven by a mix of threats and cajoling, are a fulfillment of a decades-long belief in protectionism and a massive gamble that it will pay off politically and economically with American consumers. On Sunday, the United States and the 27-member state European Union announced that they had reached a trade framework agreement: The EU agreed to accept 15% U.S. tariffs on most its goods, easing fears of a catastrophic trans-Atlantic trade war. There were also commitments by the EU to buy $750 billion in U.S. energy products and make $600 billion in new investments through 2028, according to the White House. 'We just signed a very big trade deal, the biggest of them all,' Trump said Monday. But there's no guarantee that Trump's radical overhaul of U.S. trade policy will deliver the happy ending he's promised. The framework agreement was exceedingly spare on details. Most trade deals require months and even years of painstaking negotiation that rise and fall on granular details. High-stakes negotiations break Trump's way Financial markets, at first panicked by the president's protectionist agenda, seem to have acquiesced to a world in which U.S. import taxes — tariffs — are at the highest rates they've been in roughly 90 years. Several billion in new revenues from his levies on foreign goods are pouring into the U.S. Treasury and could somewhat offset the massive tax cuts he signed into law on July 4. Outside economists say that high tariffs are still likely to raise prices for American consumers, dampen the Federal Reserve's ability to lower interest rates and make the U.S. economy less efficient over time. Democrats say the middle class and poor will ultimately pay for the tariffs. 'It's pretty striking that it's seen as a sigh of relief moment,' said Daniel Hornung, a former Biden White House economic official who now holds fellowships at Housing Finance Policy Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'But if the new baseline across all trading partners is 15%, that is a meaningful drag on growth that increases recession risks, while simultaneously making it harder for the Fed to cut.' The EU agreement came just four days after Japan also agreed to 15% U.S. tariffs and to invest in the United States. Earlier, the United States reached deals that raised tariffs on imports from Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and the United Kingdom considerably from where they'd been before Trump returned to the White House. More one-sided trade deals are likely as countries try to beat a Friday deadline after which Trump will impose even higher tariffs on countries that refuse to make concessions. Trump's long-held theory now faces reality The U.S. president has long claimed that America erred by not taking advantage of its clout as the world's biggest economy and erecting a wall of tariffs, in effect making other countries ante up for access to America's massive consumer market. To his closest aides, Trump's use of tariffs has validated their trust in his skills as a negotiator and their belief that the economists who warned of downturns and inflation were wrong. Stocks rose slightly on Monday morning on tariffs that once seemed unthinkably risky. 'Where are the 'experts' now?' Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick posted on X. But the story is not over. For one thing, many of the details of Trump's trade deals remain somewhat hazy and have not been captured in writing. The U.S. and Japan, for instance, have offered differing descriptions of Japan's agreement to invest $550 billion in the United States. 'The trade deals do seem to count as a qualified win for Trump, with other countries giving the U.S. favorable trade terms while accepting U.S. tariffs,' said Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University economist. 'However, certain terms of the deals, such as other countries' investments in the U.S., seem more promising in the abstract than they might prove in reality over time.' Trump is also facing a court challenge from states and businesses arguing that the president overstepped his authority by declaring national emergencies to justify the tariffs on most of the world's economies. In May, a federal court struck down those tariffs. And an appeals court, which agreed to let the government continue collecting the tariffs for now, will hear oral arguments in the case Thursday. And he's yet to reach an accord with China — which has deftly used the threat of retaliatory tariffs and withholding exports of rare earth minerals that are desperately needed for electric vehicles, computer chips and wind turbines to avoid caving in to Trump's demands. The U.S. and China are talking this week in Stockholm, Sweden. Economists remain skeptical of the impacts for US consumers There is also skepticism that tariffs will produce the economic boom claimed by Trump. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said 'the most likely outcome is slow growth and firm inflation,' but not a recession. After all, the 15% tariffs on the EU and Japan are a slight increase from the 10% rate that Trump began charging in April during a negotiation period. While autos made in the EU and Japan will no longer face the 25% tariffs Trump had imposed, they will still face a 15% tax that has yet to appear in prices at U.S. dealerships. The administration has said the lack of auto price increases suggests that foreign producers are absorbing the costs, but it might ultimately just reflect the buildup of auto inventories to front-run the import taxes. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'Dealers built stocks ahead of tariff implementation, damping the immediate impact on retail prices. That cushion is starting to wear thin,' Morgan Stanley said in a separate note. 'Our Japan auto analyst notes that as pre-tariff inventory clears, replacement vehicles will likely carry higher price tags.' Economist Mary Lovely of the Peterson Institute for International Economics warned of a 'slow-burn efficiency loss'' as U.S. companies scramble to adjust to Trump's new world. For decades, American companies have mostly paid the same tariffs – and often none at all – on imported machinery and raw materials from all over the world. Now, as a result of Trump's trade deals, tariffs vary by country. 'U.S. firms have to change their designs and get inputs from different places based on these variable tariff rates,'' she said. 'It's an incredible administrative burden. There's all these things that are acting as longer-term drags on economy, but their effect will show up only slowly.'' Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said that the United States' effective tariff rate has risen to 17.5% from around 2.5% at the start of the year. 'I wouldn't take a victory lap,' Zandi said. 'The economic damage caused by the higher tariffs will mount in the coming months.'
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
B.C. Premier Eby says Ottawa must increase its subsidy for B.C. ferry users
VICTORIA – Premier David Eby says it is time for the federal government to float more money for ferry users in British Columbia after Ottawa cut ferry rates in Atlantic Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that starting Aug. 1, there will be a 50 per cent fare cut for passenger, vehicle and commercial users of Marine Atlantic — a constitutionally mandated ferry service connecting Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Eby says now it's time for the federal government to have a 'serious look' at the current funding formula for B.C. ferry users. The premier acknowledged that Carney's announcement today was an election promise, but says Ottawa must 'up the federal subsidy' for B.C. ferry users, which has not changed for almost two decades. Eby has noted previously that the federal government subsidizes ferry users in Atlantic Canada by about $300 per person, while ferry users in B.C. receive $1 per person, and says provinces must receive the same per-capita funding, regardless of the program. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Carney's announcement comes after the federal government heavily criticized the BC Ferries contract with a Chinese state-owned company to build one of its vessels, even as the Canada Infrastructure Bank loaned the company money for the ferry. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump says he ended friendship with Epstein because he ‘stole people that worked for me'
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he ended his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and threw the now-disgraced financier out of his private club in Florida after Epstein betrayed him more than once by hiring people who had worked for him. Trump did not say what the people's jobs were or where they worked, and the White House had no immediate comment. But with the fresh comments, Trump shed a little light on the reason why he has said he had ended the relationship with Epstein, though Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, recently said on X that, 'The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep.' Epstein killed himself, authorities say, in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Trump and his top allies stoked conspiracy theories about Epstein's death before Trump returned to power and are now struggling to manage the fallout after the Justice Department said Epstein did in fact die by suicide and that it would not release additional documents about the case. The president and his allies, some of whom are now in the administration, had promised to release the files. The case has dogged Trump at home and abroad and even followed Vice President JD Vance during an appearance in his home state of Ohio on Monday. A small group of protesters assembled outside a factory in Canton that Vance toured, holding signs that spelled out 'JD Protects Pedophiles' and indicating that 'GOP' stands for 'Guardians Of Pedophiles.' The Republican president spoke at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland, as he sat with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer after the leaders had met and were answering questions from U.S. and U.K. journalists. Asked to explain why the relationship had faltered, Trump said, 'That's such old history, very easy to explain, but I don't want to waste your time by explaining it.' He then explained, saying he stopped talking to Epstein after 'he did something that was inappropriate.' 'He hired help and I said, 'Don't ever do that again,'' Trump said. 'He stole people that worked for me. I said, 'Don't ever do that again.' He did it again, and I threw him out of the place, persona non grata.' 'I threw him out and that was it. I'm glad I did, if you want to know the truth,' Trump added. Trump recently directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the public release of sealed grand jury transcripts in the case. One federal judge has denied that request; a second judge has yet to rule. Vance on Monday visited the factory to promote Trump's tax cut and border bill, but also addressed the Epstein matter, saying the president wants 'full transparency' in the case. 'The president has been very clear. We're not shielding anything,' Vance said in response to a reporter's question. 'The president has directed the attorney general to release all credible information and, frankly, to go and find additional credible information related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.' 'Some of that stuff takes time,' Vance said, adding that Trump has been 'very clear. He wants full transparency.' Trump had said back in 2019 that Epstein was a fixture in Palm Beach but that the two had had a falling-out a long time ago and he hadn't spoken with Epstein for 15 years. Trump on Monday also denied contributing to a compilation of letters and drawings to mark Epstein's 50th birthday, first reported on by the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper said the letter believed to be from Trump included a drawing of a woman's body. 'I don't do drawings of women, that I can tell you,' Trump said. ___ Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth in Canton, Ohio, contributed to this report.
