Balochistan government is utilizing huge amounts for promotion of Agriculture sector in the province.A senior official of Provincial Agriculture Department told our Quetta correspondent, a project of construction of GAT Shalezai gravity dam in Muslim B...

Pakistan Navy celebrated World Oceans Day today with zeal and fervor with the aim to accentuate the significance of oceans and protect the oceans.

This year's theme for the day is Our Ocean � Our Future to promote the message that life on earth is dependent on oceans.

In connection with the day, Pakistan Navy arranged a number of awareness raising events and activities that included lectures, seminars, quizzes and essay writings at various Pakistan Navy Educational Institutes.

Source: Radio Pakistan

Pakistan has a plan to curb extremism and violence in a key terror-wracked province: add 10,000 police officers, flood the region with security cameras, and enhance protection of a major economic project with China.But analysts and activists question w...

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN �Pakistan is alleging India is seeking another war by escalating tensions on the de facto Kashmir frontier, cautioning the rival nation against undertaking "any strategic miscalculation."

The nuclear-armed countries are locked in routine military skirmishes across the Line of Control, or LoC, that separates Pakistani and Indian portions of the disputed Himalayan region.

The recent clashes, harming soldiers and civilians on both sides, have apparently rendered ineffective a 2003 mutual cease-fire truce, plunging bilateral relations to historic lows in recent months.

"We have cautioned India from making any strategic miscalculation. It appears that India is seeking conflict with Pakistan," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nafees Zakaria told a weekly news conference Thursday.

There has been no immediate reaction from New Delhi to Pakistan's assertions.

Accusations

Zakaria again accused India of deliberately escalating operations on the Kashmir cease-fire line to divert international attention from rights abuses against locals by Indian troops in their part of the divided territory.

"While we have no desire to escalate the situation, Pakistani armed forces would respond effectively to unprovoked violations," Zakria said.

India claims its forces are firing at Pakistan army backed militants who try to infiltrate the LoC to fuel unrest in Kashmir, Islamabad rejects the Indian claim.

India and Pakistan have already fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. Kashmir was the issue in two of the conflicts and the dispute remains the primary source of regional tension.

Both countries claim the region in its entirety.

The two rival South Asian nations tested their nuclear devices in 1998, raising fears another war could escalate to nuclear exchanges.

Source: Voice of America

The three-day 196th annual Urs celebrations of Sufi saint and poet Hazrat Sachal Sarmast will begin on Saturday at Dargah Hazrat Sachal Sarmast, Daraza Sharif, Khairpur.Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah is expected to inaugurate the Urs by laying flor...

Authorities in China and Pakistan say they are investigating the Islamic State (IS) extremist group's claim that two Chinese teachers kidnapped in southwestern Pakistan have been killed.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on June 9 t...

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN � Islamic State claimed Thursday that it had killed two captive Chinese nationals in southwestern Pakistan.

The Chinese language instructors, a man and a woman, were kidnapped at gunpoint two weeks ago from Quetta, the capital of violence-hit Baluchistan province.

A second Chinese woman accompanying them escaped the abduction while the gunmen were trying to force them in a vehicle.

There had been no claims of responsibility until Thursday, when the Syria-based terrorist group's global media outlet, the Amaq News Agency, announced the executions.

A provincial government spokesman, when contacted for comments, told VOA that authorities were looking into the reported claims.

The news of the alleged killings of Chinese nationals came hours after Pakistan's military released details of last week's operation against a major IS base in a rugged mountain range near Mastung, a volatile district about 50 kilometers south of Quetta.

Pakistani troops, including commandos, raided what was being described as headquarters of IS operatives in the province and killed 12 "hard-core" militants. The army confirmed that five soldiers were wounded during the three-day operation, which ended Sunday.

Sunni extremists

A military spokesman said the multiple cave complex spread over 10 kilometers was occupied by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami, a Sunni extremist organization known for deadly attacks against minority Shi'ite Muslims in Pakistan.

The group used to be an al-Qaida loyalist, but Pakistani officials think it has lately been working to help IS establish a foothold in Pakistan.

IS has taken credit for several recent deadly suicide bombings in Baluchistan and elsewhere in Pakistan. The latest such attack took place last month in Mastung, which killed 25 people.

The military said the suicide bomber had been sent from the IS base that security forces neutralized last week. Pakistani officials have long insisted the Syrian-based terrorist group has no organized presence in the country, but a string of attacks and the army's destruction of the Mastung base contradicted officials' claims, critics say.

'Belt and Road' threatened

The army also released video footage of the IS base it raided. A bomb-making facility was destroyed, and security forces seized suicide vests, grenades, machine guns, sniper rifles, communication systems and 50 kilograms of explosives, according to an official statement.

Baluchistan, particularly its newly expanded deep-water port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, is at the heart of a $60 billion Chinese-funded "Belt and Road" trade and development initiative.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, consists of a network of roads, rail links and power plants. It will ultimately link China's western Xinjiang region to Gwadar, giving Beijing the shortest trade access to the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

But as the work on CPEC-related projects has picked up, the Pakistani province has encountered an uptick in militant and separatist violence.

Thursday's announcement by IS, if confirmed, would increase worries among Chinese experts and workers associated with CPEC-related projects.

Source: Voice of America