Tag: Peshawar

Suicide bombers strike security force headquarters in northwestern Pakistan

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Two suicide bombers attacked the headquarters of a security force in northwestern Pakistan on Monday morning, killing at least three officers and wounding five others, police and rescue officials said.The attack took place in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, said city Police Chief Saeed Ahmad.Video above: Pakistani officials say the insurgent attack on a train has ended but some hostages are deadHe said one attacker detonated his explosives at the main gate of the provincial headquarters of the Federal Constabulary, while the second bomber was shot and killed by officers near the parking area.According to Ahmad, a large number of security personnel were on open ground inside the headquarters for morning parade drills when the attack took place. “The terrorists involved in today’s attack were on foot and failed to reach the parade area and a timely response by our forces prevented a much larger tragedy,” he told The Associated Press.No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.However, the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, have been blamed for similar previous assaults in the country, which has witnessed a surge in militant attacks. The TPP is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban that leads Afghanistan.The latest attack came less than two weeks after a suicide bomber struck outside a court in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, detonating his explosives next to a police car and killing 12 people.The attacks have strained ties between Islamabad and Afghanistan’s Taliban government, with Pakistan accusing the Pakistani Taliban of operating freely inside Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021.Pakistan’s government often accuses Afghanistan of turning a blind eye to cross-border attacks by militants.Kabul denies the allegation, but tensions between the two sides escalated after Afghanistan blamed Pakistan for Oct. 9 drone strikes in Kabul and vowed retaliation. The ensuing fighting killed dozens of people, including soldiers, civilians and militants, before Qatar brokered a ceasefire on Oct. 19, which remains in place.It was followed by two rounds of talks in Istanbul, during which the two sides failed to reach an agreement after Afghanistan refused to give guarantees in writing about preventing the TTP from using Afghan soil for attacks inside Pakistan.Pakistan in recent weeks has stepped up operations against the TTP, killing dozens of insurgents near regions bordering Afghanistan. Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story.

PESHAWAR, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa —

Two suicide bombers attacked the headquarters of a security force in northwestern Pakistan on Monday morning, killing at least three officers and wounding five others, police and rescue officials said.

The attack took place in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, said city Police Chief Saeed Ahmad.

Video above: Pakistani officials say the insurgent attack on a train has ended but some hostages are dead

He said one attacker detonated his explosives at the main gate of the provincial headquarters of the Federal Constabulary, while the second bomber was shot and killed by officers near the parking area.

According to Ahmad, a large number of security personnel were on open ground inside the headquarters for morning parade drills when the attack took place. “The terrorists involved in today’s attack were on foot and failed to reach the parade area and a timely response by our forces prevented a much larger tragedy,” he told The Associated Press.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

However, the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, have been blamed for similar previous assaults in the country, which has witnessed a surge in militant attacks. The TPP is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban that leads Afghanistan.

The latest attack came less than two weeks after a suicide bomber struck outside a court in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, detonating his explosives next to a police car and killing 12 people.

Muhammad Zubair
Security officials and rescue workers gather at the site of a suicide bombing at the main gate of headquarters of the Federal Constabulary (FC) in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025.

The attacks have strained ties between Islamabad and Afghanistan’s Taliban government, with Pakistan accusing the Pakistani Taliban of operating freely inside Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Pakistan’s government often accuses Afghanistan of turning a blind eye to cross-border attacks by militants.

Kabul denies the allegation, but tensions between the two sides escalated after Afghanistan blamed Pakistan for Oct. 9 drone strikes in Kabul and vowed retaliation. The ensuing fighting killed dozens of people, including soldiers, civilians and militants, before Qatar brokered a ceasefire on Oct. 19, which remains in place.

It was followed by two rounds of talks in Istanbul, during which the two sides failed to reach an agreement after Afghanistan refused to give guarantees in writing about preventing the TTP from using Afghan soil for attacks inside Pakistan.

Pakistan in recent weeks has stepped up operations against the TTP, killing dozens of insurgents near regions bordering Afghanistan.

Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story.

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November 23, 2025
Here are the most polluted cities in the U.S. and world

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Commuters make their way along a street amid smoggy and foggy conditions early in the morning in Lahore on January 3, 2023.

Arif Ali | AFP | Getty Images

About 90% of the global population in 2022 experienced unhealthy air quality, and only six countries met the World Health Organization’s recommendations of safe air pollutant levels, according to a new report from Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.

IQAir measured air quality levels based on the concentration of lung-damaging airborne particles known as PM 2.5. Research shows that exposure to such particulate matter can lead to heart attacks, asthma attacks and premature death. Studies have also linked long-term exposure to PM 2.5 with higher rates of death from Covid-19.

When the WHO first published air quality guidance in 2005, it said the acceptable levels of air pollution were less than 10 micrograms per cubic meter. In 2021, the WHO changed its benchmark guidelines to below 5 micrograms per cubic meter.

The report found that the top five most polluted countries in 2022 were Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain and Bangladesh. The most polluted cities globally were Lahore, Pakistan; Hotan, China; Bhiwadi, India; Delhi, India; and Peshawar, Pakistan.

Lahore’s air quality worsened to 97.4 micrograms of PM 2.5 particles per cubic meter in 2022 from 86.5 in the year prior, making it the most polluted city in the world.

The report also said India and Pakistan endured the worst air quality in the Central and South Asian region, where more than half of the population resides in areas where the concentration of PM 2.5 particles is about seven times higher than WHO’s suggested levels.

In the U.S., the most polluted major cities were Columbus, Ohio, followed by Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis and Dallas. Air quality in Columbus hit 13.1 micrograms of PM 2.5 particles per cubic meter in 202, making it the most polluted major city in the U.S.

The Biden administration this year proposed limiting pollution of industrial fine soot particles from the current annual level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to a level between 9 and 10 micrograms per cubic meter. Some public health advocates criticized that proposal as not going far enough.

Only six countries met the WHO’s updated health limits: Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland and New Zealand, the report said. The 2022 report used air quality data from more than 30,000 regulatory air quality monitoring stations and air quality sensors from 7,323 cities across 131 countries, regions and territories.

Air pollution takes more than two years off the average global life expectancy, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Sixty percent of particulate matter air pollution comes from fossil fuel combustion.

“Too many people around the world don’t know that they are breathing polluted air,” Aidan Farrow, senior air quality scientist at Greenpeace International, said in a statement.

“Air pollution monitors provide hard data that can inspire communities to demand change and hold polluters to account, but when monitoring is patchy or unequal, vulnerable communities can be left with no data to act on,” Farrow said.

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March 17, 2023
Pakistan mosque blast death toll rises to 92 as country faces ‘national security crisis’ | CNN

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Islamabad, Pakistan
CNN
—

The death toll from a suspected suicide bomb that ripped through a mosque in northwestern Pakistan Monday has risen to at least 92, marking one of the deadliest attacks in the country in years as it faces what one analyst described as “a national security crisis.”

Peshawar deputy commissioner Shafiullah Khan on Tuesday confirmed the fatalities and said more than 80 victims were still being treated in hospital following the blast at the mosque in a police compound in the city.

Nasarullah Khan, a police official who survived the explosion, said he remembered seeing “a huge burst of flames” before becoming surrounded by a plume of black dust.

Khan said his foot broke in the blast and he was stuck in the rubble for three hours.

“The ceiling fell in… the space in between the ceiling and wall is where I managed to survive,” he said.

Meanwhile, hope was fading in the search for survivors as rescue workers sifted through the rubble of the mosque that was all but destroyed Monday, when worshipers – mainly law enforcement officials – had gathered for evening prayers.

Photos and video show walls of the mosque reduced to fragments, with glass windows and paneling destroyed in the powerful blast.

“We are not expecting anyone alive to be found. Mostly dead bodies are being recovered,” Bilal Faizi, a rescue spokesperson, said Tuesday.

The blast Monday is the latest sign of the deteriorating security situation in Peshawar, capital of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan and the site of frequent attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP).

The TTP is a US-designated foreign terrorist organization operating in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Last year, the breakdown of an already shaky year-long ceasefire between the TTP and Pakistan’s government threatened not only escalating violence in that country but potentially an increase in cross-border tensions between the Afghan and Pakistani governments.

Initially on Monday, TTP officials Sarbakaf Mohmand and Omar Mukaram Khurasani had claimed the blast was “revenge” for the death of TTP militant Khalid Khorasani last year.

But the TTP’s main spokesperson later denied the group was involved in the attack.

“Regarding the Peshawar incident, we consider it necessary to clarify that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has nothing to do with this incident,” TTP spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani said in a statement late Monday. “According to our laws and general constitution, any action in mosques, madrasas, funerals grounds and other sacred places is an offense.”

Pakistan authorities say an investigation is underway and have not confirmed either claim.

On Monday, Peshawar Police Chief Mohammad Aijaz Khan said the blast inside the Police Lines Mosque was “probably a suicide attack,” echoing a statement from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“The brutal killing of Muslims prostrating before Allah is against the teachings of the Quran,” Sharif said, adding that “targeting the House of Allah is proof that the attackers have nothing to do with Islam.”

Rights groups have condemned the deadly attack, which has raised fears of fresh violence amid a deteriorating security situation in the country.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a statement Monday said the attack could have been avoided if the “state heeded earlier warnings from civil society about extremist outfits in the province.”

“Ill-equipped law enforcement personnel continue to be targeted in incidents that dearly cost civilian and police lives. We demand the state take action now,” the statement said.

Madiha Afzal, a fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the 2021 Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has “emboldened” the TTP and other terror groups.

“The TTP has also been emboldened by a Pakistani state that has had a shaky, uncertain response to the group in the last couple of years,” she said, adding a “sloppy policy toward terrorist groups has been more or less consistent across governments in Pakistan since the mid-2000s.”

Negotiations with the militants have “failed repeatedly because these groups are existentially opposed to the Pakistani state and constitution,” she added.

“This is now a national security crisis for Pakistan once again. The solution has to be a concerted military operation (against the TTP),” she said. “But that is now complicated by the fact that the TTP can go across the border into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.”

The attack also comes at a fragile time for Pakistan, which has been grappling with a cost of living crisis as food and fuel shortages wreak havoc in the country of 220 million.

Sharif’s government has struggled to revive the country’s economy, further devastated by deadly floods last year that killed more than 1,500 people and submerged entire villages.

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January 31, 2023
Prominent Pakistani lawyer shot dead inside court building, police say | CNN

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CNN
—

A prominent Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist was shot dead on Monday at a court building in the northwestern city of Peshawar, according to police and a witness.

Abdul Latif Afridi, 79, a former president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court bar association, was shot six times in a break room at the Peshawar High Court, Capital City police officer Muhammad Ijaz Khan told CNN.

Khan identified the suspect as junior lawyer Adnan Sami Afridi, 24, not directly related to the deceased Afridi, and said he was taken into custody.

Witness Hayat Roghani said the alleged gunman raised his hands to surrender after the shooting, saying he had taken revenge for his father’s death. Police also told CNN the alleged gunman said it was a revenge killing.

The suspect’s father, lawyer Samiullah Afridi, was killed by unknown gunmen in 2015. At the time, two militant groups claimed responsibility for killing Afridi, who worked for the doctor who helped the CIA look for Osama bin Laden.

Though a heavy police contingent is normally deployed at the Peshawar court, lawyers are not body searched on entry. Security arrangement at the court have previously been questioned, especially after a teenage boy shot and killed a US national of Pakistani origin who was on trial on blasphemy charges inside the courtroom in 2020.

Latif Afridi, also a former lawmaker, had been a vocal critic of the powerful military’s alleged interference in Pakistani politics and of Islamist militancy.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a statement on Twitter expressing his grief and “deep sorrow” over Latif Afridi’s death.

He also condemned what he called the “worsening law and order situation” in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital.

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January 17, 2023
Today in History: December 16, Battle of the Bulge begins

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Today in History

Today is Friday, Dec. 16, the 350th day of 2022. There are 15 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Dec. 16, 1944, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise attack against Allied forces through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxembourg (the Allies were eventually able to turn the Germans back).

On this date:

In 1653, Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest tea taxes.

In 1907, 16 U.S. Navy battleships, which came to be known as the “Great White Fleet,” set sail on a 14-month round-the-world voyage to demonstrate American sea power.

In 1950, President Harry S. Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight “world conquest by Communist imperialism.”

In 1960, 134 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City.

In 1991, the U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a vote of 111-25.

In 2000, President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to become the first African-American secretary of state.

In 2001, after nine weeks of fighting, Afghan militia leaders claimed control of the last mountain bastion of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida fighters, but bin Laden himself was nowhere to be seen.

In 2011, in San Francisco, eight years of being investigated for steroid allegations ended for home run king Barry Bonds with a 30-day sentence to be served at home. (Bonds never served the sentence; his conviction for obstruction of justice was overturned.)

In 2014, Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar, killing at least 148 people, mostly children.

In 2019, House Democrats laid out their first impeachment case against President Donald Trump; a sweeping report from the House Judiciary Committee said Trump had “betrayed the Nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections.”

In 2020, the first COVID-19 vaccinations were underway at U.S. nursing homes, where the virus had killed 110,000 people. Tyson Foods said it had fired seven top managers at its largest pork plant after an investigation confirmed allegations that they had wagered on how many workers at the plant in Iowa would test positive for the coronavirus. (An outbreak centered around the plant infected more than 1,000 employees, at least six of whom died.)

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama visited Newtown, Connecticut, the scene of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre; after meeting privately with victims’ families, the president told an evening vigil he would use “whatever power” he had to prevent future shootings. A 23-year-old woman was brutally raped and beaten on a bus in New Delhi, a crime that triggered widespread protests in India. (The woman died 13 days later.)

Five years ago: Two female couples tied the knot in Australia’s first same-sex weddings under new legislation allowing gay marriages.

One year ago: U.S. health officials said most Americans should get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines instead of the Johnson & Johnson shot; the decision came after government advisers reviewed new safety data about rare but potentially life-threatening blood clots linked to J&J’s shot. A federal judge rejected OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s sweeping deal to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids; the judge found flaws in the way the bankruptcy settlement protected members of the Sackler family who owned the company from lawsuits. The last 12 hostages from a U.S.-based missionary group who were kidnapped and held for ransom in Haiti were freed and were flown out of the country following a two-month ordeal; five others had been released earlier. Urban Meyer’s tumultuous NFL tenure ended after just 13 games — and two victories — when the Jacksonville Jaguars fired him because of an accumulation of missteps.

Today’s Birthdays: Civil rights attorney and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center Morris Dees is 86. Actor Joyce Bulifant is 85. Actor Liv Ullmann is 84. CBS news correspondent Lesley Stahl is 81. Pop musician Tony Hicks (The Hollies) is 77. Pop singer Benny Andersson (ABBA) is 76. Rock singer-musician Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) is 73. Rock musician Bill Bateman (The Blasters) is 71. Actor Xander Berkeley is 67. Actor Alison LaPlaca is 63. Actor Sam Robards is 61. Actor Jon Tenney is 61. Actor Benjamin Bratt is 59. Actor-comedian JB Smoove is 57. Actor Miranda Otto is 55. Actor Daniel Cosgrove is 52. R&B singer Michael McCary is 51. Actor Jonathan Scarfe is 47. Actor Krysten Ritter is 41. Actor Zoe Jarman is 40. Country musician Chris Scruggs is 40. Actor Theo James is 38. Actor Amanda Setton is 37. Rock musician Dave Rublin (American Authors) is 36. Actor Hallee Hirsh is 35. Actor Anna Popplewell is 34. Actor Stephan James is 29.

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December 15, 2022