Balochistan’s interim Minister of Information, Jan Achakzai, has announced a 10-day deadline for ending oil smuggling in the region. If smuggling does not cease within this period, the government intends to initiate actions against smuggler boats.
The government will implement increased security measures at the provincial border between Balochistan and Punjab, and it will also crack down on supplies destined for Karachi via the Indus Highway.
Achakzai also revealed that there are 8,500 students in 84 seminaries in Balochistan and Afghan citizens previously supervised them. Pakistani citizens will now be responsible for supervising them.
Achakzai attributed the province’s disturbances to India and asserted that non-state actors could not operate without external support. The Prime Minister has declared a commitment to confront non-state actors, and he emphasized that they would not receive any concessions.
The federal government has already issued an ultimatum to illegal Afghan refugees to leave the country or face deportation and asset seizure.
Senior Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Commander Killed in Afghanistan
A senior commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as Tipu Gul and also recognized as Commander TTP Lakki Marwat Atiqur Rehman, was killed during a shootout in Kunar province of Afghanistan. Rehman was on the wanted list of Pakistan’s security forces for his involvement in the killing of numerous security and police personnel in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
TTP, a proscribed terrorist organization, has been fighting against the state of Pakistan since 2007. The group emerged from the fractured elements of al-Qaeda and other militant factions with the objective of imposing Sharia law in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
While the TTP was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people, including children, it gained infamy for its heinous attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014. In recent years, the TTP shifted its focus from attacking civilians to targeting Pakistani military personnel and intelligence operatives in response to Pakistan’s military operations in North Waziristan and efforts to cut off the group’s financial support.
Pakistan has consistently urged the Afghan interim government to take action against TTP militants, but the group has continued to operate from areas in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.
