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Israel and Iran traded fire on Monday, seriously testing a fragile truce and threatening hopes for a deal to end the Middle East war. The new attacks, including a strike on an Iranian petrochemical complex, came hours after US President Donald Trump called on Israel to refrain from retaliating against Tehran’s missiles. AFP journalists in Jerusalem heard a series of explosions as they took shelter and the Israeli army said it worked to intercept a new wave of Iranian missiles. The retaliation followed Israel saying it fired on western and central Iran, tit-for-tat action against Tehran’s strikes on Sunday of 11 missiles, all of which were intercepted, with no casualties. Israel’s military and Iranian local media said Monday that Israel struck a petrochemical company in Mahshahr in southwestern Iran. Trump had sought to rein in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Israel accused Tehran of making a “grave mistake”. Trump has also said new strikes by Israel and Iran would not affect his administration’s peace talks with Tehran, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “doesn’t call the shots.” He has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks in Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran, including rebuking Netanyahu with obscenities in a phone call last week. However, earlier on Sunday, Israel launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the US announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week. Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation, putting US-Iran peace talks at risk. But Trump insisted that an agreement to end the wider war remained well within reach. “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” Trump told the Financial Times. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots.” A few hours later, Israel’s defence forces said they had struck Iranian military targets. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attacks. “Everyone has had enough of this maniacal Iranian regime,” Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said on X, adding that Iran had fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel. “No self-respecting country in the world would tolerate such an attack, and neither will Israel,” he said, adding that Israel was targeting Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launch sites and infrastructure facilities unrelated to the energy sector. The latest hostilities drove oil prices up more than three per cent in early trading on Monday, with benchmark Brent futures back above $96 a barrel. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted Ramat David air base, near Nazareth. The Israeli military said it identified missiles launched from Iran and its defence systems had intercepted them. As air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, according to a Reuters witness, the Israeli military added it had identified the launch of a missile from Yemen toward its territory with aerial defence systems activated to intercept the threat. The attack is also the first from Yemen on Israel since the April 8 truce. Trump urges Netanyahu Trump spoke with Netanyahu by telephone from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for a little less than half an hour on Sunday, an Israeli official said, without giving details. The White House and the Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump told Netanyahu during the call to refrain from further strikes because “we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal,” according to a US official quoted by Axios. In a separate interview with Fox News, Trump said: “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.” Since the start of the talks, Israel has kept up attacks in Lebanon in a conflict with Hezbollah that Israeli officials insist should be treated separately from any Iran ceasefire. Tehran has long said any peace deal with the US would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March. Iran’s chief peace negotiator, Parliamentary Speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, said US bases and Israeli assets were legitimate targets because of hostile acts, including the “violation of agreements over Lebanon.” Before Sunday, Iran had not attacked Israel since a ceasefire in the wider war started in April, although Hezbollah had done so. Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington and Tehran were close to an agreement on ending the war. “We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them,” Trump told NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ in a recorded interview that aired on Sunday to mark 100 days of the conflict. Trump wants no attacks in Lebanon Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people and driven hundreds of thousands more from their homes. Hezbollah, which kept out of truce talks, has also continued its attacks and says it will not give up its weapons unless Israel halts its attacks and withdraws from Lebanon. Netanyahu said Israel’s Sunday strikes on Beirut’s southern outskirts, a district known as Dahiyeh and a longtime Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered in response to Hezbollah firing toward Israel. The wider war has been stalled since the US and Israel paused attacks on Iran in early April, with Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the main transit route for a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports. Though Washington and Tehran have said they are close to a preliminary deal to reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded strikes, with escalations in recent days that included attacks on nearby Arab states hosting US bases. Trump has said any agreement to end the war must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and he is under pressure to deliver terms tougher than those agreed in 2015 under then-President Barack Obama in a deal Trump later repudiated. Tehran’s demands include the lifting of US and international sanctions, recognition of its sway over the strait and the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets.

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From poplars to pistachios, Afghans rediscover the value of trees

Under the shade of recently planted poplars in Afghanistan, village leader Ghulam Ali Poya is proud to see residents rediscover the value of trees after years of wartime deforestation. “There were forests of pistachio trees,” he told AFP, gesturing to the bare mountains that surround Char Bagh’s mud homes. “During the conflicts and the civil war, they were destroyed; no one could stop the logging.” From the 1979 Soviet invasion until the fall of the first Taliban government in the early 2000s, “around 50 per cent of Afghanistan’s forest cover was lost”, said Mohammad Nasir Shalizi, a researcher at North Carolina State University. In eastern Afghanistan, timber smuggling to Pakistan drove massive logging, while in the more arid central and northern “pistachio belt”, residents used wood for heating and cooking. This photograph taken on May 18, 2026 shows Afghan farmer Bas Begum Ahmadi (R) with her husband Abdul Samad Ahmadi standing next to paulownia trees at her family-owned plot. —AFP But in the last two decades, deforestation has slowed “substantially”, Shalizi said. Forest cover has increased 35pc nationwide since 2011, according to the National Statistics and Information Authority, though just 2.5pc of Afghanistan was forested in 2025 and cover is still shrinking in some areas. But experts say communities are working to improve forest cover. Both the US-backed government, in place until 2021, and the current Taliban administration have supported tree-planting campaigns. In Char Bagh, the Aga Khan Development Network funded a kilometre-square grove which includes poplars, paulownias, pomegranates and persimmons. This photograph taken on May 11, 2026 shows pine seedlings at a nursery in Paghman district, Kabul province. Under the shade of recently planted poplars in northeastern Afghanistan. —AFP ‘A model’ The land belongs to farmer Bas Begum Ahmadi, who hopes to sell fruit and homemade jam, but it is also open to the community of 350 families. “Having these trees makes me feel good; my environment is green, and we breathe fresh air,” said the 45-year-old, who tends the trees with her husband to support their four children. This photograph taken on April 20, 2026 shows Afghan municipality workers and residents planting trees next to a park in Charikar district, Parwan province. —AFP This “micro-forest” follows Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki’s principles: dense planting of mostly local species of varying heights. It is noticeably cooler than the surrounding bare fields and offers twigs for stove fuel and leaves that feed livestock. Micro-forests “restore ecosystems, improve soil fertility, help climate resilience, and support community livelihood,” said Parisa Malikzada, Afghanistan agriculture coordinator for the organisation, which has planted 500 micro-forests in seven provinces. Poya said the forest, next to a river, prevents soil erosion during flooding and offers “a model for people”. This photograph taken on May 18, 2026 shows Afghan farmer Abdul Samad Ahmadi examining a paulownia tree at his family-owned plot, which supports a micro-forest in the Char Bagh area of Doshi district, Baghlan province. —AFP “Everyone comes to have a look, and they’d like to have one too,” he told AFP. In Afghanistan, where many places are hard to reach and the state has limited funds, community-based forest management is the most effective approach to reforestation, experts told AFP. Penalties for tree cutting Afghan authorities have set a goal of planting 200 million trees between 2023 and 2030, relying partly on NGOs, the United Nations and the private sector. “Last year, the target was eight million, but in the end, 17 million were planted,” said Rohullah Amin, head of climate change at the General Environmental Protection Agency, where he has worked for more than a decade. This year’s goal is nine million. This photograph taken on May 11, 2026 shows deodar cedar seedlings at a nursery in Paghman district, Kabul province. Under the shade of recently planted poplars in northeastern Afghanistan. —AFP Challenges include selecting native, climate-adapted species, water scarcity, and livestock damaging saplings. Some forests have struggled with “lack of care or water”, Amin acknowledged, including one site where drought killed 70pc of the planted pines. In some places, tribal councils protect forests and penalise residents who damage them. Elsewhere, “forest management associations” run by elected villagers and farmers have been set up. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has helped them plant five million trees since 2019, according to its climate change chief, Muhammad Safi. Birds coming back The government created nurseries to grow local species in places such as Paghman on state land on Kabul’s outskirts. Head gardener Mahmood Khwajazada carefully tends almond, pine nut and walnut trees, as well as deodar cedars, for distribution nationwide. “Our Prophet said, ’Even if you have only one day left, plant a tree,” he told AFP. This photograph taken on May 11, 2026 shows Afghan farmers tending to a nursery in Paghman district, Kabul province. Under the shade of recently planted poplars in northeastern Afghanistan. —AFP In Charikar, northeastern Afghanistan, where thousands of saplings were planted this year along streets, in parks and on hillsides, the municipality sees “a change” in people’s attitude towards trees. Ahmad Khalid Sabiri, a resident, said he volunteered to help plant “because it’s beneficial for the environment”. Experts said more work is needed to protect the remaining old growth, as well as planting in forests rather than just in urban areas.

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2020 motorway gang rape case: LHC dismisses convicts' appeals against sentences

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Wednesday dismissed appeals filed by the two men convicted in the 2020 Sialkot-Lahore Motorway gang rape case against their sentences. An anti-terrorism court had handed down death sentences besides life imprisonment and multiple jail terms to the two convicts, Abid Ali alias Malhi and Shafqat Ali alias Bagga, on March 20, 2021. They challenged their convictions on March 25, 2021. The appeals contended that several infirmities created doubts about the prosecution’s version of the events and the trial court’s judgement was harsh and against the settled principles of law. A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Tariq Mehmood Bajwa, issued the verdict on their appeals today after the prosecution concluded its arguments. In his final arguments, the state prosecutor contended that the prosecution had overwhelming evidence against the convicts and requested the court to uphold their sentences. He said there was no flaw in the trial court’s decision. The defence lawyers had completed their arguments before the prosecution’s final arguments. Motorway gang rape The country seethed with anger in September 2020 as details had emerged of the gang rape on the outskirts of Lahore, with remarks by the then-city police chief implying that the rape survivor shared responsibility for her rape. The convicts had gang-raped a French woman of Pakistan-origin in front of her three children after dragging her out of her car that ran short of fuel and stopped during her late night travel on Sialkot-Lahore Motorway. The Gujjarpura police registered a first information report (FIR) of the incident on September 9, 2020 under multiple sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

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Anticipatory action financing

Residents clear debris of a damaged house due to heavy monsoon rainfall on the outskirts of Quetta on July 5, 2022. — AFP Tracking climate disaster trends since 2010, the official climate chapter of the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-2025 notes that Pakistan is among the...

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Israel captures Lebanon's medieval Beaufort Castle in 'deepest incursion in 26 years'

Israel’s flag flew over the medieval fortress on Beaufort in Lebanon on Sunday as it warned Lebanese civilians to evacuate a large area of the south of the country ahead of stepped-up ground operations. The Associated Press noted that Israel’s capture of the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and its strategic ridge in southern Lebanon was Israel’s deepest incursion into the country in 26 years. Shelling was audible and smoke rose from the surrounding area as the invading army’s banner was seen by AFP above the castle, which Israeli forces famously used as a base during their previous two-decade-long occupation. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said troops had captured the historic strongpoint, which commands sweeping views of south Lebanon, as they expanded their ground operations, which Lebanon’s prime minister has condemned as a “scorched earth” policy. “Forty-four years after the heroic Battle of Beaufort, and on this day commemorating the soldiers who fell in the First Lebanon War, our troops have returned to the summit of Beaufort and once again raised the Israeli flag there,” Katz said, in a social media post. “Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and my direction, the IDF expanded the operations in Lebanon, crossed the Litani River, and captured the Beaufort Ridge — one of the most important strategic points for defending the communities of the Galilee and safeguarding the security of our forces.” Describing the capture as a “major gain for Israel”, AP said Israeli troops previously captured the castle in 1982 and held it until they withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. It elaborated that the 1982 capture of the castle from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was a “major victory for the Israeli military” led by then-defence minister Ariel Sharon, which “pushed all the way north and occupied Beirut” at the time. The push to Beaufort came as the Israeli military issued a sweeping displacement order to areas south of the Zahrani River, north of the Litani and around 40 kilometres from the border, claiming that it was targeting Hezbollah. “Anyone present near Hezbollah elements, facilities, or combat means endangers their life. Any building used by Hezbollah for military purposes may become subject to targeting!” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned in a social media post. ‘Collective punishment’ “A significant number of IDF ground soldiers commenced offensive operations aimed at expanding the Forward Defence Line… The operation is currently expanding to additional areas,” the Israeli military said. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had accused Israel on Saturday of pursuing a “scorched-earth policy and collective punishment” in the south, urging a halt to the fighting and warning it was “destroying towns and villages, and forcing their inhabitants into exile”. Military delegations from both countries held security talks in Washington on Friday, with more US-brokered negotiations planned next week. Salam said the outcome of the negotiations was “not guaranteed”, but called them “the least costly path for our country and our people”. A truce to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah officially began on April 17, but has never been observed. Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other daily of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by the other’s alleged breaches. A US statement issued after Friday’s Israel-Lebanon talks made no mention of the truce, but said the “productive military-to-military discussions” would inform next week’s political meeting. Hezbollah vehemently opposes the direct talks. On Saturday, the armed group said it launched multiple attacks targeting northern Israel and clashed with Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. ‘Drone death’ Hezbollah said it was confronting Israeli forces around the outskirts of the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, Yohmor al-Shaqif and Dibbine, adding that the troops “had not yet succeeded in taking control of the towns”. The Israeli military told AFP that more than 25 projectiles were launched from Lebanon towards Israel on Saturday, while air alert sirens sounded in the northern cities of Karmiel and Safed for the first time since the ceasefire, according to the army’s Home Front Command. Public broadcaster Kan aired footage shared on social media showing rockets falling into the sea off Israel’s Nahariya, near the border, sending beachgoers fleeing. The Israeli army also said on Sunday that one of its soldiers had been killed a day prior by a Hezbollah explosive drone, bringing to 25 the number of Israeli military deaths in Lebanon since early March. The Lebanese health ministry says that Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,371 people since March 2.

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WHO chief visits epicentre of Ebola outbreak in DR Congo

UN health chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus landed on Saturday in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) province worst-hit by a severe Ebola outbreak. The World Health Organisation’s director general told reporters in Bunia, capital of Ituri province, that the international community was helping the DRC government cope with the outbreak, but “at the same time, community ownership is important”. He said that was the reason for his trip: “We are here to discuss with the community, to see how the response is running and if there are challenges to help.” The highly contagious haemorrhagic fever is already present in three eastern DRC provinces and in neighbouring Uganda, where nine confirmed infections, including one death, have been recorded. There have been at least 1,077 suspected cases of Ebola in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on May 15, including 246 deaths, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. The true reach of the outbreak in the DRC, which is thought to have been circulating before it was detected, is likely to be much wider, the WHO has warned. The vast, unstable central African country — whose impoverished east has been plagued by three decades of conflict — has limited capacity to conduct laboratory tests to confirm cases. Conflict and Ebola Uganda closed its border with the DRC this week and ordered a 21-day quarantine for anyone arriving from that country. On Friday, the WHO announced that a patient had recovered on Wednesday, left hospital and was discharged into the community after two negative tests. WHO’s Anais Legand told reporters in Geneva it marked the “first” among patients who had been confirmed Ebola carriers in the current outbreak. Ebola, which is passed on through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. The deadliest outbreak in the DRC claimed nearly 2,300 lives out of 3,500 cases between 2018 and 2020. The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a statement of the latest outbreak that “never has an Ebola epidemic recorded so many cases in the first days after it being declared”. It said the numbers of medical experts being deployed to the region was still insufficient. State services are largely lacking in Ituri province, where access is hindered by insecurity due to the presence of Islamic State-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces militants and other militias that regularly kill civilians. The nearby North and South Kivu provinces, which have also seen Ebola cases in the outbreak, have been plagued by near-continuous violence for three decades. Swathes of the region are controlled by the Rwanda-backed armed group M23 which has been battling government forces. Millions of people have fled the fighting and are living in displacement camps with poor hygiene conditions. Nearly a million of those displaced are in Ituri province, where the prospect of the epidemic spreading throughout the camps has sparked alarm. “If Ebola comes, we’ll be wiped out as we’re packed like sardines,” Dorcas Mapenzi said at the Kingonze camp on the outskirts of Bunia. No vaccine or specific treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is behind the current outbreak. But the head of the CDC Africa said on Thursday that a vaccine should be ready by the end of the year.

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Haj begins as Middle East war's trajectory hangs in the balance

Over 1.5 million Muslims began filling a vast tent city in Makkah on Monday for the annual Haj pilgrimage carried out against the backdrop of hopes for an end to the war in the Middle East. The white-robed pilgrims on buses or on foot arrived at the sprawling encampment in Mina after performing the tawaf. The start of the Haj came as US President Donald Trump continued to send mixed signals over a possible agreement to extend an uneasy ceasefire with Iran and a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. This year’s rites, drawing Muslim worshippers from across the world, including Iran, follow waves of attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours. Saudi officials have been keen to keep conflict far from the minds of visitors, many of whom have travelled long distances for one of the world’s largest annual pilgrimages. Despite the uncertainty triggered by the conflict, Saudi officials noted over the weekend that more pilgrims had travelled from abroad to participate in this year’s Haj than in 2025. But, amid the spiritual euphoria experienced by the pilgrims in the days ahead of the Haj, authorities in the kingdom signalled their readiness. A video posted on social media by the Saudi defence ministry showed advanced air defence batteries positioned on the outskirts of Makkah. “The air defence forces are responsible for protecting the skies over the holy sites and dealing with all aerial threats, ensuring the safety and peace of mind of the guests,” read the post. Many pilgrims who spoke to AFP expressed their hope that peace would prevail soon. “The war in Iran has affected the entire world. Nobody wants wars or harm to countries and peoples,” said Mohammed Chahada, an Egyptian in his 50s, as he walked through a crowd exiting the Grand Mosque. The pilgrimage will be held against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions but also under punishing heat, with temperatures forecast to top 40 degrees Celsius for much of the week. Despite the heat and the uncertainty over the war, pilgrims in Makkah were ecstatic. “I have wanted to perform the pilgrimage my entire life, for 40 or 50 years,” said Jreish Mohammed, a 68-year-old decked out in the traditional attire from his native Morocco. “And this year, my dream came true.”

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Going cashless at the mandi

Pakistan’s obsession with everything Bakra Eid is hard to overstate. Whether it’s young boys heading to the mandi every other night to size up animals, uncles asking the price outside your house, or families having barbecues for the entire week — the festival generates a level of commercial and cultural energy that few other events in the country can match. And all of that energy translates into an enormous amount of money changing hands; almost entirely cash. More than seven million animals were sacrificed nationally in 2025, according to the Pakistan Tanneries Association, with total estimated sales of roughly Rs600 billion. Few other segments of the economy concentrate this much money in so few places over such a short period. The activity clusters around a small number of large mandis, often at city outskirts, where buyers and sellers carry large sums across distances with real risks of theft and counterfeit notes. It is precisely the kind of environment where digital payments should, in theory, take off. No wonder the State Bank has been trying to do exactly that since 2024, through its “Go Cashless in Cattle Markets” campaign, which has now entered its third year. In 2024, the campaign facilitated around 13,000 digital transactions worth Rs560 million across its initial set of markets. Last year, the coverage expanded to 54 markets with 24 participating banks, and the numbers jumped to 64,553 transactions valued at Rs4.65bn ie roughly an eightfold increase in throughput and a fivefold rise in volume. Similarly, the average ticket size climbed from approximately Rs43,000 to Rs72,000. While the growth is promising, the base is still too small. Going by the estimates above, not even one per cent of the mandi economy is routing via digital payments. For context, almost 65pc of the banking transactions are going through an online channel. So why has the uptake remained low? In 2025, the campaign’s coverage increased fivefold in volume over 2024; this year nearly double that number of markets are covered One major, and perhaps underappreciated, part of the problem remains data reporting. Monitoring digital transactions for a specific use is tricky, as the overwhelming majority prefers the regular fund transfers, which are technically not meant for commercial purposes but have a massive organic pull. But that makes it difficult to attribute to a specific campaign. In fact, background conversations with sellers for this piece suggest a real shift towards digital payments, even though not necessarily attributable to the Go Cashless campaign. One middleman, who sources animals from rural parts of Sindh and usually sells them to buyers in Karachi, said that almost half of their transactional value is now going through online channels, both inflows and outflows. Another farm owner, Jameel Memon, shared a somewhat similar mix, saying that around 60pc of the inflows come through digital channels. While not exactly a significant hindrance for relatively wealthier clients, a majority of financial services app users in Pakistan happen to have m-wallets, whose limits are often not enough to purchase even a goat, let alone a cow, based on the current market prices. In the latest scheme, the SBP has introduced temporary relaxations on transaction and account balance limits, effective May 14 through June 5, to accommodate the higher values typical of livestock purchases. On the demand side, a recurring complaint remains network connectivity, which makes the whole digital payment experience clunky and unreliable. Despite these challenges, there is good reason to believe the transaction numbers will shoot up as campaign coverage has nearly doubled to 96 cattle markets. The campaign has also expanded beyond mandis to include institutions involved in collective sacrifice arrangements ie ijtemai qurbani, potentially capturing a segment that involves larger, more structured payments, according to Ahson Saeed, the CEO of Raast Payments Pakistan, the State Bank-owned entity responsible for operating and proliferating the national instant payment scheme in the country. This initiative needs to be looked at as part of the broader cashless economy drive from the Prime Minister’s office. To push QR codes, the government, last year, announced a subsidy to cover the merchant discount rate on transactions, covering 0.5pc or Rs100 — whichever is lower. Though the Go Cashless campaign comprises both person-to-person and person-to-merchant, the regulator is naturally pushing towards the latter. In fact, one major move this season is that of QR transactions; financial institutions have been instructed to ensure settlement on the merchant leg instantly. Such payments require instant credit to the payee by the payor, as delays can cause disputes which are difficult to manage, considering the nature of trade in the mandis, according to Mr Saeed. Meanwhile, financial institutions seem to have significantly amped up their efforts and deployed a field force across key cattle markets. “Our representatives are guiding both merchants and buyers to drive adoption,” said Suhail Jan, Head of Channels at JazzCash, which is active across 85 markets this season. But what do the early results show? Well, it is too early to say. “The data is still preliminary, as around 60pc of transactions happen in the last three to four days before Eid ul Azha. However, we are seeing a noticeable increase in QR transactions as the State Bank of Pakistan and financial institutions have ramped up awareness campaigns,” he continued. Pakistan is not the only country trying to crack this. Bangladesh, which is believed to be the largest market in terms of Bakra Eid economy, launched a similar central bank-led pilot at cattle markets in 2022. It’s not exactly clear if the objectives were achieved or not, since there have been few monitoring updates ever since. For us, that could be the biggest takeaway: measuring performance the right way is almost as important as the campaign itself. Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, May 25th, 2026

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Four CTD men martyred in operation near Quetta

QUETTA: As many as 13 terrorists were killed, while four Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel were martyred and six others injured during separate operations conducted by the CTD and security forces in the Panjpai and Noshar areas on the outskirts of Quetta, and in Pishin. A spokesperson for CTD said that nine terrorists belonging to a banned outfit were killed, while four Counter-Terrorism Department personnel were martyred and six others injured during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) conducted by the CTD and security forces in the Panjpai and Noshar areas near Quetta district on Saturday. He said the operation was carried out on the outskirts of Quetta after authorities received information about the presence of terrorists. “A heavy gun battle continued for more than three hours. Nine terrorists were killed, while four CTD personnel embraced martyrdom and six others were injured in the intense exchange of fire,” the spokesperson said. 13 terrorists killed during IBOs in Pishin, Panjpai and Noshar He added that a large quantity of weapons, ammunition, explosives and other equipment was recovered from the terrorists’ hideout. The bodies of the nine terrorists were shifted to the Civil Hospital, while the injured personnel were admitted for treatment. The bodies of the martyred CTD personnel were handed over to their families. Shahid Rind, an aide to the chief minister on media and political affairs, also confirmed the gun battle and said four CTD personnel were martyred while nine terrorists belonging to a banned organisation were killed. He said security forces would continue strict action against terrorists and their facilitators with full force. Four terrorists killed Meanwhile, the Balochistan Counter-Terrorism Department has killed four terrorists in an intense exchange of fire during an operation in Pishin district late on Friday. Upon receiving information of terrorist presence, an operation was launched in the Surkhab refugee camp area, 20 kilometres from Pishin town, CTD spokesperson Babar Yousufzai said. Four terrorists were killed in the “heavy gun battle”, the spokesperson said, adding that a large quantity of arms and ammunition — including hand grenades, locally made bombs, automatic rifles and explosives — was recovered from their hideout. The bodies of all four terrorists were shifted to the Quetta Civil Hospital. Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2026

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