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Pakistan: At Least 52 killed, More Than 50 Injured In Bomb Blast In Balochistan; Visuals Of Destruction Surface

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At least 52 people were killed and over 50 injured in a suicide blast near a mosque in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Friday as they gathered to celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, authorities said.

The explosion occurred near Madina Mosque on Al Falah Road in the Mastung district. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mastung’s Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nawaz Gashkori, who was on duty for the rally, was among the deceased.

The explosion took place when people were gathering to mark Eid Miladun Nabi, the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad.

City Station House Officer (SHO) Mohammad Javed Lehri said the explosion was a “suicide blast” and that the bomber exploded himself next to DSP’s car.

Lehri said that the wounded are being shifted to a medical facility while an emergency has been imposed in the hospitals.

At least 52 people were killed and over 50 injured in the blast, District Health Officer Mastung Rashid Muhammad Saeed said.

Some of the injured were in critical condition.

Balochistan interim Information Minister Jan Achakzai said rescue teams have been dispatched to Mastung. He added the critically injured persons are being transferred to Quetta and that an emergency has been imposed in all the hospitals.

“The enemy wants to destroy religious tolerance and peace in Balochistan…,” Achakzai said.”The explosion is unbearable.” Caretaker Chief Minister Ali Mardan Domki has directed authorities to arrest those responsible for the blast.

“The perpetrators of the destruction do not deserve any leniency,” he said. “Those who target peaceful processions will be dealt with firmly.” Chief Minister Domki urged the people to unite against terrorism, adding that Islam was a religion of peace and “those who commit such heinous acts cannot be called Muslims”.

The caretaker CM also announced three days of mourning throughout the province over the tragic incident.

Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti also strongly condemned the blast.

Stating that “terrorists have no faith or religion”, Bugti asserted that all resources were being put to use during the rescue operation. He added that no effort would be spared in treating the injured and that terrorist elements did not deserve any concession.

Soon after the explosion, the Punjab police also said that its “diligent officials” were performing security duties for Friday prayers at mosques across the province.

Meanwhile, the Karachi police said that Additional Inspector General Khadim Husain Rind has directed the police to remain “completely on high alert” in view of the Mastung blast.

He directed the policemen to tighten security arrangements regarding Eid-i-Miladun Nabi processions and Friday prayers across the city, as well as to monitor any unusual activities.

Second major blast in Mastung over last 15 days

This is the second major blast that has terrorised Mastung over the last 15 days, Geo News reported.

Earlier this month, at least 11 people were injured in a blast in the same district.

Mastung has remained a target of terror attacks for the past several years with a major attack in July 2018 being one of the deadliest in the district’s history during which at least 128 people were killed, The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which set up as an umbrella group of several terrorist outfits in 2007, called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered its terrorists to stage terrorist attacks across the country.

Past attacks

The group, which is believed to be close to al-Qaeda, has been blamed for several deadly attacks across Pakistan, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

In January, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque packed with worshippers during afternoon prayers in Pakistan’s restive northwestern Peshawar city, killing over 100 people.

Last year, a similar attack inside a Shia mosque in the Kocha Risaldar area in the city killed 63 people.

Crime

Human rights body condemns rape of Hindu woman by local politician in Bangladesh

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Dhaka, June 30: In yet another disturbing incident of violence on minorities and the atrocities against women in Bangladesh, a Hindu woman was brutally gang raped in her own home in the Cumilla district, while her attackers filmed the assault and circulated the footage, a human rights body said on Monday.

So far, five accused have been arrested, including the main accused, Fajar Ali, who is a politician of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) said that the culprits circulated the video of the brutal assault “like a war trophy.”

“On the night of June 26, 2025, a Hindu woman in Muradnagar, Cumilla District, endured one of the most brutal forms of violence imaginable: her home was forcibly invaded, her dignity shattered, and her trauma recorded and circulated like a war trophy. She was gang raped by multiple assailants, her cries echoing through the silence of a country that has, for decades, looked away from the suffering of its most vulnerable,” read a statement issued by the HRCBM.

The human rights organisation also mentioned that the law enforcement officials failed to arrange a mandatory medical examination, delayed filing her First Information Report (FIR) until June 29, and later deflected blame by claiming it was “up to her” to pursue medical treatment.

The HRCBM mentioned that the critical delays in filing the FIR, failure to conduct a medical examination within the first 24 hours, and a dismissive attitude toward the survivor’s rights point to “systemic negligence,” adding that suggesting the survivor should arrange her own medical exam represented a “gross violation of procedural and ethical standards.”

The human rights body also said that despite public pressure and “media manipulation by Islamist groups portraying the crime as consensual,” one primary perpetrator and several accomplices involved in the distribution of the assault video were eventually arrested. However, several others remain at large.

The HRCBM asserted that in video statements received by the organisation from members of the local Muslim community, some of them were attempting to “downplay” the incident and “protect” the primary accused, Fajar Ali, and his gang — despite the “brutal nature of the assault.”

Such actions by community actors, it further stated, “obstruct justice and enable the normalisation of gender-based violence against minorities.”

“This incident is not isolated. It is a horrific example of an entrenched pattern in Bangladesh where minority women are routinely targeted, raped, abducted, forcibly converted, and shamed into silence,” it said.

According to the HRCBM, since April 2025 alone, 13 gang rape cases have been recorded in Cumilla District involving Hindu women. Additionally, across the country, reports of headless bodies, mass abductions, and forced conversions of young minority girls are rising at an alarming pace.

“Families now contact HRCBM regularly, pleading to rescue their daughters,” said the human rights organisation.

The HRCBM also criticised the mainstream Bangladeshi media for its largely silent response. They noted that the Muradnagar case, similar to many others, would likely have been “buried under layers of political denial and communal pressure” if it weren’t for the viral circulation of the assault video, which compelled public and institutional attention.

The HRCBM is preparing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) demanding a judicial inquiry into the condition of minority women and girls in Bangladesh.

At the same time, it called upon the international community — UN agencies, human rights defenders, and global civil society — to support its efforts, pressure the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, and push for accountability mechanisms.

Condemning the horrific incident, Bangladesh Students League President Saddam Hussain said that in a country that increasingly resembles a “fascist Islamist regime,” the cries of women and Hindu minorities in Bangladesh continue to go unheard.

He stressed that each passing day brings another chilling tale of “temples desecrated, families displaced, and daughters brutalised.”

“The latest horror comes from Cumilla, where a young Hindu mother of two was raped at knifepoint by Fazar Ali and others. He is reported to be an active member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), a party which has a long and controversial history regarding its treatment of religious minorities,” he said in a post on X.

“Her ordeal didn’t end there; they filmed the assault and continued to beat her mercilessly. The video, too disturbing to share, stands as a grim testament to the escalating violence and persecution faced by Hindu women and minorities in Bangladesh,” he said in a post on X.

“Her only crime: being a Hindu woman in a land where religious identity has become a target. As the nation turns a blind eye and justice remains elusive, the question lingers: How long will the Hindu community and women in Bangladesh be forced to live in fear? How much more must they endure before the world pays attention?” the post added.

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International

Israeli soldier killed in Gaza

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Jerusalem, June 30: An Israeli soldier was killed in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said.

In a statement, the military said Sergeant Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld, 20, of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion of the 401st Brigade, “fell during combat,” Xinhua news agency reported.

Israel’s state-owned Kan TV reported that Rosenfeld was killed by an explosive device in Jabalia, in an area where the military had begun demolishing buildings in preparation for constructing outposts as part of a planned buffer zone in northern Gaza.

Since the beginning of June, 21 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the Gaza Strip, bringing the military’s death toll to 880 since October 2023, according to official figures.

Earlier on Sunday, Palestinian sources reported heavy bombardments in northern Gaza, with at least 88 people killed and 365 wounded in Israeli attacks, according to Gaza health authorities.

The strikes came as the Israeli military issued new evacuation warnings, calling on residents of Gaza City and Jabalia to move immediately toward the al-Mawasi area.

Meanwhile, Gaza health authorities said on Sunday that the Palestinian death toll from Israeli military operations since October 2023 had risen to at least 56,500.

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Crime

25 prison officials in Punjab suspended in crackdown against drug networks

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Chandigarh, June 28: In a major action against corruption and drug networks in prisons, the Punjab government on Saturday said it has suspended 25 officials, including three Deputy Superintendents and two Assistant Superintendents.

The government said the action is part of the drive to root out corruption and dismantle drug networks operating inside prisons.

“Following reports of irregularities and drug-related activities within jails, the government said the action was to end corruption and drug networks. The big action was taken as per information received about corruption and drug networks in jails,” the government said in a statement.

In March, the government shifted notorious jailed gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria from the high-security Bathinda Central Jail to Silchar Jail in Assam as authorities suspected that detained gangsters were running drug syndicates from Punjab’s prisons.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had arrested Bhagwanpuria, also an accused in the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (PIT NDPS) Act.

Bhagwanpuria, against whom 128 FIRs have been registered in Punjab and other states, was arrested in a murder case in 2015 and, since then, has been lodged in several jails, previously in Punjab.

In the singer Moosewala’s murder case, it was Bhagwanpuria and gangster Lawrence Bishnoi who had hatched a conspiracy to kill him.

However, later, both fell apart. Bhagwanpuria, a native of Gurdaspur district, is considered the most dreaded gangster of Punjab after Bishnoi and has more than five cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for hatching conspiracies to disturb communal harmony in Punjab.

Bhagwanpuria is facing 15 cases of arms and drug smuggling. On his shifting to Assam, the NCB had said then that Bhagwanpuria was moved out of Punjab as he had “established linkages” with international operatives in Canada, the US and Pakistan. His relocation was a must to disrupt the ecosystem, facilitating continued criminal activities, it added.

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