During exchange of fire, four terrorists got killed. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the killed terrorists.
The killed terrorists remained actively involved in terrorist activities against security forces.
He said that when Bilawal went abroad as foreign minister he received calls from his old friends who told him Bilawal would brighten the name of the country.
He was speaking to newly-elected candidates of local government and PPP workers at Zardari House in Nawabshah on Tuesday evening.
He said that when he was president, he transferred power to the prime minister and the provinces through constitutional amendments. “Now, Islamabad says you have weakened us but I say I have strengthened the provinces,” he added.
He said that he would encamp in Punjab to patronise the party and strengthen it. “This land is mine, I am yours, you are mine. We all have to work hard for the betterment of Pakistan,” he said.
Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said Kashmiri people are facing unprecedented oppression, tyranny and barbarism and they are in dire need of diplomatic help at the time.
Congratulating Muslims around the world on the occasion of Eidul Azha, he said that Muslims of India-held Kashmir should be especially remembered on the occasion of Eid. All Muslims must remember them in their prayers, he said.
He said that Kashmiris were in dire need of diplomatic help at this time. Muslims around the world should raise their voice in support of their oppressed brethern and sisters, he said.
He asked people to help the poor and the helpless in the joys of Eid, ‘as the day teaches to love and sacrifice’.
He said that PPP had always raised its voice against political and social injustices, and would continue to fight against poverty and the darkness of ignorance
He said: “We are fighting for a society where every citizen has economic and social justice and the state is a paradise for them”.
He said that they must all work together to discourage those elements who were trying to mislead the people under the guise of religion.
The former president offered Eid prayers at Zardari House where he met with local party leaders and notables.
Later, he arrived at his ancestral graveyard Baloo Ja Quba where he offered fateha and laid wreaths on the graves of his father Hakim Ali Zardari and other family members.
PPP local leaders Mir Nadir Magsi, Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, Ali Hassan Zardari, Ashiq Ali Zardari and others were also present on the occasion.
Mr Zardari also contacted Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and directed him to drain out rainwater from rain-hit parts of Sindh, specially from Karachi.
He said that when Bilawal went abroad as foreign minister he received calls from his old friends who told him Bilawal would brighten the name of the country.
He was speaking to newly-elected candidates of local government and PPP workers at Zardari House in Nawabshah on Tuesday evening.
He said that when he was president, he transferred power to the prime minister and the provinces through constitutional amendments. “Now, Islamabad says you have weakened us but I say I have strengthened the provinces,” he added.
He said that he would encamp in Punjab to patronise the party and strengthen it. “This land is mine, I am yours, you are mine. We all have to work hard for the betterment of Pakistan,” he said.
Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said Kashmiri people are facing unprecedented oppression, tyranny and barbarism and they are in dire need of diplomatic help at the time.
Congratulating Muslims around the world on the occasion of Eidul Azha, he said that Muslims of India-held Kashmir should be especially remembered on the occasion of Eid. All Muslims must remember them in their prayers, he said.
He said that Kashmiris were in dire need of diplomatic help at this time. Muslims around the world should raise their voice in support of their oppressed brethern and sisters, he said.
He asked people to help the poor and the helpless in the joys of Eid, ‘as the day teaches to love and sacrifice’.
He said that PPP had always raised its voice against political and social injustices, and would continue to fight against poverty and the darkness of ignorance
He said: “We are fighting for a society where every citizen has economic and social justice and the state is a paradise for them”.
He said that they must all work together to discourage those elements who were trying to mislead the people under the guise of religion.
The former president offered Eid prayers at Zardari House where he met with local party leaders and notables.
Later, he arrived at his ancestral graveyard Baloo Ja Quba where he offered fateha and laid wreaths on the graves of his father Hakim Ali Zardari and other family members.
PPP local leaders Mir Nadir Magsi, Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, Ali Hassan Zardari, Ashiq Ali Zardari and others were also present on the occasion.
Mr Zardari also contacted Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and directed him to drain out rainwater from rain-hit parts of Sindh, specially from Karachi.
As news of the president's flight spread, thousands of people gathered at the main protest site in Colombo chanting "Gota thief, Gota thief", referring to him by a nickname.
Hundreds of others stormed the prime minister's office, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as acting president has declared a state of emergency and imposed curfew in the western province, the prime minister's media secretary Dinouk Colombage told Reuters.
The president's flight brings an end to the rule of the powerful Rajapaksa clan that has dominated politics in the South Asian country for the last two decades.
Protests against the economic crisis have simmered for months and came to a head last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people took over key government buildings in Colombo, blaming the Rajapaksas and their allies for runaway inflation, corruption and a severe lack of fuel and medicines.
Government sources and aides said the president's brothers, former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, were still in Sri Lanka.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards left the main international airport near Colombo aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane early on Wednesday, the air force said in a statement.
A government source and a person close to Rajapaksa said he was in Male, the capital of the Maldives. The president would most likely proceed to another Asian country from there, the government source said.
Rajapaksa was due to step down as president on Wednesday to make way for a unity government after protesters stormed his and the prime minister's official residences.
Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the speaker of Sri Lanka's parliament, told Reuters partner ANI he was yet to receive any communication from Rajapaksa. A source in the ruling party said the president would send in a letter of resignation later on Wednesday.
That would make Wickremesinghe the acting president, although he has also offered to resign. If he does, the speaker will be the acting president until a new president is elected, as per the constitution.
Protest leaders, however, say the prime minister is allied to the Rajapaksas and have warned of a "decisive fight" if he does not resign by Wednesday afternoon.
"If we don't hear of the resignation of the president and the prime minister by the evening, we may have to gather back and take over parliament or another government building," said Buddhi Prabodha Karunaratne, one of the organisers of recent protests.
"We are strongly against the Gota-Ranil government. Both have to go."
Amid the economic and political chaos, Sri Lanka's sovereign bond prices hit fresh record lows on Wednesday.
The US Embassy in Colombo, which is in the central district of the city, said it was cancelling consular services for the afternoon and for Thursday as a precautionary measure.
During a meeting with Iran's Consul General Hasan Nourian in Karachi, the President stressed the necessity of taking constructive measures to expand bilateral economic cooperation at the joint border crossings.
Iran's Consul General in his remarks said that the increase in exchange at border points is also stressed by Iran.
During a meeting with Iran's Consul General Hasan Nourian in Karachi, the President stressed the necessity of taking constructive measures to expand bilateral economic cooperation at the joint border crossings.
Iran's Consul General in his remarks said that the increase in exchange at border points is also stressed by Iran.
The number of Covid cases reported to the WHO increased 30 per cent in the past two weeks, driven by sub-variants of the Omicron strain and the lifting of control measures.
"New waves of the virus demonstrate again that Covid-19 is nowhere near over. As the virus pushes at us, we must push back," he insisted.
He told a news conference that as transmission increases, governments must also deploy tried-and-tested measures like mask-wearing and improving ventilation.
"Sub-variants of Omicron, like BA.4 and BA.5, continue to drive waves of cases, hospitalisation, and death around the world," Tedros said.
"Surveillance has reduced significantly — including testing and sequencing — making it increasingly difficult to assess the impact of variants on transmission, disease characteristics, and the effectiveness of counter-measures."
Furthermore, tests, treatments, and vaccines are not being deployed effectively.
"The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity," he said, both in terms of hospitalisation of acute cases and the expanding number of people with long Covid.
'Uncertain and unpredictable'
The WHO's Covid-19 emergency committee met Friday via video conference and determined the pandemic remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern — the highest alarm the WHO can sound.
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told the meeting recent changes in testing policies were hindering the detection of cases and the monitoring of virus evolution.
The committee stressed the need to reduce transmission as the implications of a pandemic caused by a new respiratory virus would not be fully understood, the WHO said in a statement Monday.
The group voiced concern over steep reductions in testing, resulting in reduced surveillance and genomic sequencing.
"This impedes assessments of currently circulating and emerging variants of the virus," the WHO said, feeding the inability to interpret trends in transmission.
The committee said the trajectory of virus evolution and the characteristics of emerging variants remained "uncertain and unpredictable".
It said the absence of measures to reduce transmission increases the likelihood of "new, fitter variants emerging, with different degrees of virulence, transmissibility, and immune escape potential".
Booster boost
Meanwhile, the WHO's European office recommended a second booster shot of a Covid vaccine for older people and vulnerable groups.
Covid cases have been rising sharply since the end of May around most of Europe.
The call followed the EU's health and medicine agencies' recommendation on Monday of a second booster shot for people over 60 years old.
Coronavirus cases have risen 57 per cent in Moscow over the past week, the Russian capital's health authorities said.
"We recommend that you wear a mask in public places because the new Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 spread more rapidly from person to person," Moscow social services wrote on Telegram.
And hundreds of thousands of people were under lockdown in a small Chinese city after just one case of Covid-19 was detected, as Beijing's strict no-tolerance virus strategy showed no sign of abating.
The steelmaking hub of Wugang in Henan province announced three days of "closed control".
None of the city's 320,000 people are allowed outside their homes until midday Thursday. Local authorities were to deliver basic necessities.
China is the last major economy glued to a zero-Covid policy, crushing new outbreaks with snap lockdowns, forced quarantines, and onerous travel curbs despite mounting public fatigue and damage to the economy.
A District and Sessions court of Islamabad dismissed the post arrest bail petition of PTI leader Shahbaz Gill on Tuesday. Additional Dist...
