#pakistan cricket official | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

beardedmrbean · 2 months ago

Text

Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The relatives of 10-year-old Sara Sharif were found guilty of her murder, a British court ruled Wednesday.

A British court on Wednesday found her father Urfan Sharif, 43, the girl's stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and Urfan's brother, Faisal Malik, 29, guilty in the 2023 death of Sara Sharif.

"I know a murder trial is always stressful and traumatic but this case almost above any other has been extremely stressful and traumatic," Judge Justice Cavanagh said at the conviction after the eight-week trial.

Her father was characterized as a "manipulative, serial abuser of vulnerable women" and "abuser of children" for "many years as confirmed in police and social service records." Her death sparked conversations by officials in Britain over its system that prioritizes unification with a parent over the safety of a child with Sara having been placed temporarily in child protective services at birth.

The Crown Prosecution Service stated it was a "complex case" working with foreign authorities but has "today secured justice for Sara."

They initially were charged in September 2023. The court deliberated for roughly two days.

A post-mortem revealed that Sara sustained 71 "multiple and extensive injuries" over her body including burns, bruises and human bite marks along with 25 fractures and 11 to her spine.

It was described to the jury in court how the young girl suffered a torturous "daily living hell" over the course of several months by her father who had been described as a "controlling, violent bully" and psychopath. As the verdict was delivered he reportedly wept and held his head in his hands.

"Her death is a heartbreaking reminder of the profound weaknesses in our child protection system that, as a country, we have failed time and time again to correct," Britain's children's commissioner said Wednesday in a statement. "We have been here before -- and each time we have said 'never again.'"

Sharif, Batool and their five other children along with Sharif's brother Faisal Malik, fled to Pakistan on Aug. 9, 2023 where Urfan then called British emergency services from Pakistan the next day to inform them about Sara which sparked an international manhunt.

They were arrested at London's Gatwick Airport after voluntarily flying home before police discovered Sara's body in a bunk bed on Aug. 10 in the family home in Surrey.

He told police that he beat his daughter "too much" for being "naughty" and left a handwritten confession near where her body was discovered.

"I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it," his note read in part.

However, the ex-taxi driver allegedly lied to the jury over a period of six days and denied the brutal attacks on his daughter.

On the seventh day of the trial Sharif then told the court he took "full responsibility" for Sara's death, and admitted to binding her with packing tape and beating her with a series of objects like a metal pole, a cricket bat or a cell phone. But he did deny biting her and putting her in a homemade hood before burning her with boiling water and an iron.

His partner, Batool, reportedly had refused to provide dental evidence and was uncooperative at trial while Sharif seemingly has an extended history of prior abuse allegations.

More disturbingly, the jury heard evidence of Sharif's previous arrests related to allegations of assault on other children. Reports go as far back as 2007. Sharif also was arrested for the alleged abuse of three Polish women including Sara's mother, Olga Domin. Sharif married Olga in 2009 and got arrested a year later for allegedly assaulting her, which he denied, according to the BBC.

The jury heard how the now-convicted Sharif created a "culture of violent discipline where assaults of Sara had become completely routine, completely normalized." Sara had been "brutally mistreated, abused and violently assaulted" for years, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones told the court.

#nunyas news #cw: child death

6 notes · View notes

world-of-wales · 1 year ago

Text

❥ PAKISTAN TOUR : DAY IV - 17 OCTOBER 2019

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the cultural capital of Pakistan - Lahore on their fourth day in the city.

William and Catherine called in to meet the Governor of Punjab at his official residence as their first engagement of the day. They then visited SOS Children's Villages Pakistan and played cricket at the National Cricket Academy.

Afterwards, the Duke and Duchess visited the historical Badshahi Mosque and attended an interfaith meeting. For their final engagement of the day, they visited the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre and spent time with the families and patients receiving treatment there.

35 notes · View notes

xtruss · 1 year ago

Text

“Pakistan’s Corrupt to their Cores Army Generals, Politicians, Election Commission and Judges” Can Keep Imran Khan Out of Power, but It Can’t Keep His Popularity Down

— By Charlie Campbell | January 17, 2024 | Time Magazine

Supporters of PTI, the Most Popular Political Party of Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, rally against the national election commission’s decision to ban the party’s cricket bat symbol, in Karachi on Jan. 14, 2024. Fareed Khan—AP

It’s not been a great couple of years for Pakistan’s Imran Khan. Since his ouster as Prime Minister in an April 2022 no-confidence vote, the cricketer-turned-politician has been shot, hit with over 180 charges ranging from rioting to terrorism, and jailed in a fetid nine-by-11-foot cell following an Aug. 5 corruption conviction for allegedly selling state gifts. As Pakistan approaches fresh elections on Feb. 8, the 71-year-old’s chances of a comeback appear gossamer thin, despite retaining broad public support.

Pakistan’s military kingmakers are using every trick at their disposal to sideline the nation’s most popular politician and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Over recent months, thousands of PTI workers have been arrested, dozens of party leaders resigned following lengthy interrogations, Khan’s name was banned from mainstream media, and constituency boundary lines were redrawn to allegedly benefit his opponents. Khan’s own nomination papers have also been rejected.

“Elections are being held but I’ve got serious doubts whether real democracy or democratic principles are being followed,” says Samina Yasmeen, director of the Centre for Muslim States and Societies at the University of Western Australia.

And now Khan won’t even have his cricket bat.

On Monday, Khan’s PTI party was banned from using its iconic cricket bat logo on ballot papers, significantly hampering its chances amongst an electorate which is up to 40% illiterate. Most crucially, it effectively bans the PTI as a party and means its candidates will likely have to stand as independents, who will reportedly use a range of symbols ranging from a rollercoaster to a goat. “The election symbol is an integral component of fair elections,” Raoof Hasan, PTI’s principal spokesman and a former special assistant to Khan, tells TIME. “It’s rendering the party toothless.”

Pakistani lawmakers are constitutionally obliged to vote along party lines for certain key matters, including the leader of the house and financial legislation. But if PTI-backed candidates are officially independents, they are under no such constraints, making it much easier for the opposition to cobble together a coalition by targeting individuals with inducements. Additionally, PTI will be ineligible to receive its rightful proportion of the 200-odd parliamentary “reserved seats” for women and minorities that are allocated according to a party’s proportion of the overall vote, which would instead be divvied out to the other registered parties.

Imran Khan Waves a Cricket Bat, the Election Symbol of His Pakistan’s Most Popular PTI Party, during a rally in Faisalabad on May 5, 2013. Daniel Berehulak—Getty Images

Then again, even registering as independents has not been easy for the PTI. Each candidate must file their nomination in the constituency where they intend to stand, but PTI’s candidates frequently find their nomination papers snatched from their hands by shadowy security personnel. To avoid this, the PTI has taken to dispatching several candidates with nomination papers in the hope that one might break through the security cordon.

But even if one does manage to submit papers, each candidate requires a proposer and seconder to attend the nomination in person. On many occasions, a PTI candidate has presented his papers only to find either or both has abruptly been “kidnapped,” says Hasan, meaning that an alleged 90% of its candidates’ nomination papers have been rejected. “This is massive pre-poll rigging.”

The hurdles facing Khan and PTI stand in stark contrast to the lot dealt to Nawaz Sharif, three-time former Prime Minister, who was most recently ousted for corruption in 2017 and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. In 2018, Sharif traveled to London on bail for medical treatment but absconded and remained a fugitive in exile. But on Oct. 21, an apparently healthy Sharif returned to Pakistan, where his corruption conviction was swiftly quashed and last week his lifetime ban from politics also overturned. On Monday, Sharif, 74, launched his campaign to return as Prime Minister for a fourth time—much to the chagrin of disenfranchised PTI supporters.

“The temperature is going to rise in the next few weeks when candidates step out to do rallies,” Khan’s sister, Aleema, tells TIME. “There’s going to be anger on the streets.”

It’s no secret that Pakistan’s military kingmakers have thrown their support behind Sharif, which ultimately means he’s a shoo-in to return to power. But Khan’s enduring popularity means more heavy-handed tactics will be required. Despite all PTI’s headwinds, and extremely patchy governance record while in power, a Gallup opinion poll from December shows the imprisoned Khan’s approval ratings stand at 57%, compared to 52% for Sharif. PTI remains confident that they will win if allowed to compete in a fair fight.

“People, especially at the grassroot level, are very pro-Imran Khan,” says Yasmeen. “Even if he tells them to vote for a piece of furniture, it will be elected.”

Corrupt to His Core, Thief, Looter, Traitor, Money Launderer, Morally Bankrupted Boak Bollocks and Pakistan Army’s Production Pakistan's Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addresses his supporters in Lahore on Oct. 21, 2023. Aamir Qureshi—AFP/Getty Images

A big question is why the international community has been so muted in the face of such brazen irregularities—especially the U.S., which under the Joe Biden administration claims to have made democracy promotion a key foreign policy priority. The stakes are high; nuclear-armed Pakistan is drowning in $140 billion of external debt, while ordinary people are battling with Asia’s highest inflation, with food prices rising 38.5% year-on-year.

The truth is that Khan has few friends in the West after prioritizing relations with Russia and China. “From a Washington perspective, anyone would be better than Khan,” says Michael Kugelman, the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

Sharif, by contrast, is perceived as business-friendly and pro-America. Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Washington’s foreign policy priorities have shifted to China, Ukraine, and now Gaza. Yet the importance of a trusted partner in Islamabad was made plain this week following an Iranian airstrike on alleged Sunni militants in Pakistan territory that killed at least two children and threatens a further escalation of the violence already roiling the Middle East.

American priorities in Pakistan are keeping a lid on terrorism and stabilizing relations with arch-nemesis India—and Sharif has a better record on both. However, these priorities aren’t necessarily shared by Pakistan’s military overlords, who may be backing Sharif today but have engineered his ouster thrice in the past—once via a coup d’état. There remains “a lot of bad blood between Nawaz and the military,” says Kugelman, “even if he were to become the next Prime Minister, civil-military relations could take the same turn for the worse.”

After all, no Pakistan Prime Minister has ever completed a full term—and if Sharif gets back in, few would bet on him becoming the first at the fourth time of asking. It may be part of the reason why Khan has adopted a stoic disposition despite the deprivations of his prison cell. “He is cold in jail but quite happy,” says Aleema Khan. “He’s read so many books, maybe two to three every day, and he’s very content to have this retreat time—spiritually, mentally, and physically, he says he feels better.”

Perhaps content in the knowledge that, while February’s election may be beyond hope, in Pakistan you may be down, but you’re never truly out. And that’s all the more reason to keep fighting. “We shall be in the election,” says Hasan. “We’re not going to back off, we’re not going to walk away, we’re not going to forfeit even a single seat throughout the country.”

#Pakistan 🇵🇰#Pakistan’s 🇵🇰 Sham Elections #Under the Guns of Corrupt Pakistan’s Army General #Imran Khan | PTI #Without Party’s Synbol Cricket Bat 🏏#Corrupt Election Commission | Politicians | Judges #Popular Imran Khan & PTI

6 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 1 year ago

Text

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan—Mohsin Dawar’s campaign for re-election to Pakistan’s parliament was almost cut short before it began in early January when his convoy was ambushed in a village just a few minutes’ drive from his home in Miran Shah in Pakistan’s North Waziristan district, near the lawless borderlands with Afghanistan. As his car came under attack from militants armed with automatic weapons, sniper rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades, he and his team were lured into a compound by residents who promised them safety.

It was a trap. Once the gates closed behind Dawar, the attack intensified. For almost an hour, he said, they were pinned down. Police and Pakistan Army backup finally arrived but not before two of Dawar’s team had been shot and injured. The vehicle took more than 80 bullets, and the windows show just how accurate the attackers’ aim was: Either one of the shots to the windshield or passenger window would have struck and likely killed him if he hadn’t been protected by bulletproof glass.

The Jan. 3 attack on a popular, outspoken, liberal leader in one of the most vulnerable regions of a country fighting a growing insurgency by extremist militants hardly registered in Pakistan, where most believe the military attempted—and failed—to manipulate the Feb. 8 election in an effort to install Nawaz Sharif as prime minister for a fourth time and where media operate under tight government control.

The election wasn’t quite the foregone conclusion that had been expected, with candidates aligned with the jailed cricket star-turned-populist leader Imran Khan winning more votes than each of the major parties—the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party—forcing them into a coalition to get the majority needed to form a government. PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif nominated his brother, Shehbaz Sharif, to become prime minister and his daughter Maryam Nawaz as chief minister of Punjab province, ensuring the dynastic line continues.

Candidates across the country, not only those loyal to Khan, alleged that the results had been rigged against them and in favor of military-backed candidates. Two days after the election, with his seat still undeclared amid growing concerns nationwide about vote rigging, Dawar and about a dozen of his supporters were injured when security forces opened fire on them as they gathered outside the official counting room.

At least three people died of their injuries; What Dawar had believed was an unassailable lead, according to polling by his secular National Democratic Movement party, had disappeared. In the count that was listed as final by Pakistan’s Election Commission, the seat went to Misbah Uddin of the Taliban-aligned Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl party. Dawar is still recovering from a serious leg wound.

Dawar’s hometown is, once again, the battleground of what he calls “Project Taliban”—a war against the Pakistani state.

The Taliban’s transnational ambitions are threatening security beyond the borders of Afghanistan, and nowhere is this more evident than in Pakistan’s northwest, where the militant presence has been growing since the terrorist-led group came back to power in August 2021. Attacks on civilians, soldiers, and police have soared. The region bristles with checkpoints and hilltop outposts and is heavily patrolled on the ground and in the air by the Pakistan Army and armed border police. That’s during daylight hours, Dawar told Foreign Policy. Once night falls, it’s a different story.

“The Army checkposts you will only see during the daytime. Before sunset, they go to their barracks, and the people of Waziristan are at the disposal of the militants. Everyone has to secure himself or herself for their own protection,” he said. “It is militarized, and I believe it is a continuation of a proxy war that was started long ago. ‘Project Taliban’ is still continuing.”

The roots of militancy and terrorism in Waziristan go back to colonial times, when the mostly Pashtun people here were characterized as fearless fighters and pressed into service for the British. The stereotype stuck; the region became a center of recruitment and training for young men to fight the Soviets after Moscow’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

After the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks, leaders of the Taliban and al Qaeda moved over the border and for the following 20 years enjoyed the protection of the Pakistani military’s intelligence wing, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

The ISI wanted a tame Taliban-led Afghanistan to thwart the ambitions of archrival India to become the dominant regional power. The Taliban had different ideas. The group’s return to power has inspired affiliated and like-minded groups worldwide, as the extremist regime provides safe haven for dozens of militant groups, according to the U.N. Security Council. They now openly use Afghanistan as a base to train fighters seeking to overthrow governments from China and Tajikistan to Iran and Israel. Among them is Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which, Afrasiab Khattak, a former Pakistani lawmaker and now a political analyst, said, is “just Taliban, there is no difference.”

Earlier this month, the Taliban reiterated the group’s stance on the international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan when the acting foreign minister, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, said the government doesn’t recognize the Durand Line that has delineated the two countries since 1893. The line runs through the tribal regions, dividing ethnic Pashtun and Baloch tribespeople. Recent bilateral tensions have often focused on the border, with tit-for-tat closures impacting cross-border trade.

In comments that Pakistan’s foreign ministry later called “fanciful” and “self-serving”—and which underlined the simmering hostility between Pakistan and the Taliban it helped put in power—Stanikzai said: “We have never recognized Durand and will never recognize it; today half of Afghanistan is separated and is on the other side of the Durand Line. Durand is the line which was drawn by the English on the heart of Afghans.”

The Security Council said in 2022 that the TTP had up to 5,500 fighters in Afghanistan. That number has likely risen, Dawar said, as neither country, mired in economic mismanagement and crisis, can offer its youthful population an alternative livelihood. Victory brought strength, Dawar said, and the Taliban “can attract the youth because money and power is what attracts youth the most.”

The simmering conflict threatens to return Pakistan’s northwest to the wasteland of less than decade ago, when the TTP controlled the region: Dissenters were routinely killed. Terrorists turned the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), now part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after an administrative merger in 2018, into a death zone. Millions of people were displaced as those who could leave fled to peace and safety.

Those who stayed lived in fear and poverty until the Army finally took action in 2016 and ended the TTP’s 10-year reign by simply killing them, often in attacks that also killed civilians, or pushing them over the porous border into Afghanistan, where they joined Taliban forces fighting the U.S.-supported republic until it collapsed in 2021.

The TTP wants an independent state in these border regions. It broke a cease-fire with the government in November 2022 and has demanded that the merger of the FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa be reversed. Attacks on the military and police have escalated alarmingly, presenting what a senior government official, who spoke anonymously, called “not only an existential threat to the state but also to the common man”—a recognition that what Dawar calls “Project Taliban” not only threatens to engulf the northwest but, if not contained, poses a potential threat to a fragile and barely stable state.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar disagreed, telling reporters before the Feb. 8 vote that the military had the upper hand in the region, by virtue of numbers alone. “I don’t see that they pose an existential threat to the state of Pakistan,” he said, while nevertheless conceding it was a “big challenge” that could take years to dislodge.

He could be right. After the failure of peace talks, ironically brokered by the Taliban’s acting interior minister, U.N.-listed terrorist Sirajuddin Haqqani, Pakistan stepped up pressure on the TTP. Asfandyar Mir, an expert on South Asian political and security issues, said this appeared to have made a “marginal” difference.

“For instance, we haven’t seen a complex or suicide bombing attack by the TTP or one of its fronts for a couple of months now,” he said. “In that sense, it appears the Taliban is sensitive to pressure,” though “smaller-scale attacks and the erosion of Pakistani state authority in parts of the northwest continue.” Things could change, he said, once a new government is installed and, perhaps, brings some stability to the political landscape.

For the people of Waziristan, struggling to survive unemployment, a lack of development, and government neglect of basic services such as roads, electricity, clean water, and education—coupled with a downturn in vital cross-border trade with Afghanistan—priorities have again switched to peace. “The local people have learned through their own bitter experience of devastating war” what a Taliban resurgence means, said Khattak, the political analyst. The security establishment is playing a dangerous game, indulging the TTP so that “local people become so desperate they want the military to come in and help them,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of people have marched through the streets and bazaars of North and South Waziristan over the past year, demanding action against terrorism and an end to state violence. Yet it continues. “No one is safe. Everyone is a target,” said a man in his 30s as he rolled off a list of potential victims: politicians, business people, teachers, doctors, journalists, civic activists, women’s rights advocates, anyone deemed “un-Islamic.” Even barbers are not immune from extremists who ban men from shaving: The day before the Jan. 3 attack on Dawar’s convoy, the bodies of six young hairdressers were found in the nearby town of Mir Ali.

Another local resident pointed to a “Taliban checkpoint” on the road between Miran Shah and the bustling town of Bannu. The long-haired, kohl-eyed, gun-toting youths in sequined caps stand outside their roadside hut in the shadow of an Army post on the hill above. Around the clock, the resident said, they randomly stop vehicles to shake down the drivers. “It’s just for money,” he said. “Money and power.”

But it’s killing, too, “on a daily basis,” said a government worker who left Miran Shah with his family at the height of the TTP terror and visited in early February from Peshawar so he and his wife could vote for Dawar. The aim, he said, is “to create an atmosphere of fear so that people leave and what is here is theirs.”

Dawar said the turning of the Taliban tables on Pakistan “was predictable.” The Taliban “are now a threat to Central Asia. They are now a threat to Iran, to Pakistan, and to even China. All of them thought we will control the Taliban after the takeover. The problem is it didn’t happen,” he said.

In 2011, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Pakistan’s leaders that they couldn’t keep “snakes,” as she called the Taliban, in their own backyard and “expect them only to bite your neighbors.”

“There used to be a time when people were sent from here to Afghanistan. Now they are coming around, they are biting,” Dawar said.

4 notes · View notes

stoookes · 8 months ago

Note

hey! I wanna ask one thing, did you watch the highlights of the India vs Pakistan match from the 2022 t20 world cup? considering Ind vs Pak is today, star sports was showing the highlights of the 2022 T20 again. So the 2022 match, held at Melbourne, is hands down one of the biggest nailbiters in cricket history, and features a famous rescue act by Virat Kohli. He top-scored with 82 not out in a chase of 160, which enabled us to win the match by 4 wickets. And we had got off to a horror start, we were something like 40/4 at a point, and we weren't even near to the required run rate. That was when Virat and Hardik combined for a vital partnership. I remember that match crystal clear, India needed 22 from 8 balls, Haris Rauf was bowling, and Virat hit him for two successive sixes. The first of those sixes was just sublime and like, unreal, and was officially voted the ICC shot of the century. Not the year, not the decade, the whole damn century. 🤯🤯🥹🥹

So I was thinking of how this match would happen in Omegaverse, or more specifically how it would help improve public reaction to omegas playing. With Virat open and out omega, and his six being voted as the ICC shot of the century, people would be kinder to the idea of omegas in cricket, wouldn't they? Also, in my headcanon, Hardik is also an omega-- a bit like Stu, he's in hiding, pretending to be an alpha, despite VK's debut, because BCCI made it pretty loud and clear that Virat was a special case, and other omegas shouldn't expect the same privileges extended to them. So Hardik, just like Stu, is taking pills to conceal his identity and like Stu, conforming to a hyper-alpha lifestyle he doesn't subscribe to, but follows for fear of letting himself out accidentally. But Hardik has also come out as omega by the time this iconic match happens. So imagine this now: your team is in major trouble, both your openers (kl Rahul and rohit in this case), are gone, Suryakumar Yadav, the number one ranked batter in t20s has gotten out, and Axar Patel, the sole left-hander in your lineup has gotten run out in a terrible mix-up. Who's left now? Virat and Hardik. Two omegas, who despite their achievements can't seem to earn the kind of respect and awe that playing alphas do. These two omegas end up stitching together a partnership that takes us over the line against our arch-rivals in an utter humdinger. Pure cinema. 🤌🏻

Aww I really like that - and yeah Stuart isn't an exception; there's quite a few players around the world posing as alphas when they're really omegas.

The opinion of omegas will be much better come 2022, but they'll probably be an undertone of 'two omegas can't get this over the line' when it goes down to it. I don't think it's like the turning point because, as I said, omegas are much more accepted and respected by this time, but it'll definitely have positive effects

2 notes · View notes

brookstonalmanac · 11 months ago

Text

Events 3.16 (after 1970)

1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War. 1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped; he is later murdered by his captors. 1978 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing 73. 1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time. 1979 – Sino-Vietnamese War: The People's Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ending the war. 1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah; he later dies in captivity. 1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut; he is not released until December 1991. 1988 – Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. 1988 – Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people. 1988 – The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded. 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865. 2001 – A series of bomb blasts in the city of Shijiazhuang, China kill 108 people and injure 38 others, the biggest mass murder in China in decades. 2003 – American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah by being run over by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer while trying to obstruct the demolition of a home. 2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control. 2010 – The Kasubi Tombs, Uganda's only cultural World Heritage Site, are destroyed in a fire. 2012 – Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batter in history to score 100 centuries in international cricket. 2014 – Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia. 2016 – A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 30. 2016 – Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 24 and injuring 18. 2020 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (1929). This follows the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing that it will cut its target interest rate to 0–0.25%. 2021 – Atlanta spa shootings: Eight people are killed and one is injured in a trio of shootings at spas in and near Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. A suspect is arrested the same day. 2022 – A 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurs off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, killing 4 people and injuring 225.

#Events

2 notes · View notes

sportsnewsofficial · 2 hours ago

Text

WATCH: Shoaib Akhtar shares a hilarious moment with Dolly Chaiwala during ILT20 2025

In a lighthearted moment that has gone viral, former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who is serving as one of the brand ambassadors for the International League T20 (ILT20) 2025, shared an amusing video with Instagram sensation Sunil Patel, famously known as Dolly Chaiwala. The clip, posted by Akhtar on his official X (formerly Twitter) account, shows the cricket legend engaging in a playful…

0 notes

magicaltragedyballoon · 1 day ago

Text

Match Officials for Tri-Nation ODI Series Announced

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the match officials for the upcoming tri-nation ODI series, which will feature teams from New Zealand, South Africa, and Pakistan.

Australia’s David Boon, a member of the ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees, will lead the playing control team for the series. The matches will take place from February 8 to 14 in Lahore and Karachi, with the newly upgraded Gaddafi Stadium and National Bank Stadium hosting international cricket once again.

The opening match of the series, scheduled for Saturday, February 8 at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, will see Pakistan face New Zealand. England's Michael Gough, an ICC Elite Panel Umpire, will join Pakistan’s Faisal Khan Aafreedi, an ICC International Panel Umpire, as the on-field umpires for this match. ICC Elite Panel Umpire Richard Illingworth will serve as the third umpire, while Rashid Riaz, a member of the ICC International Panel of Umpires, will be the fourth umpire.

On February 10, Gaddafi Stadium will host the New Zealand vs. South Africa match, with Richard Illingworth and Rashid Riaz officiating as the on-field umpires. Michael Gough will be the third umpire, and ICC International Panel of Umpires member Asif Yaqoob will be the fourth umpire for this day match.

The action then moves to Karachi’s National Bank Stadium for the final league match and the tri-series final. For the Pakistan vs. South Africa fixture, Asif Yaqoob and Michael Gough will be the on-field umpires, while Richard Illingworth and Faisal Khan Aafreedi will take on the roles of third and fourth umpires, respectively.

In the final, on Friday, February 14, ICC Elite Panel Umpire Ahsan Raza will be one of the on-field umpires alongside Richard Illingworth, while Michael Gough will be the third umpire. Asif Yaqoob will act as the fourth umpire for the final.

For live cricket updates, don't miss the action on mobicri.org.

#cricket australia #cricket #cricket green #cricket news

1 note · View note

champions-trophy · 3 days ago

Text

PCB to Launch Champions Trophy 2025 Without Traditional Captain’s Event

The Pakistan Cricket Board is set to host an event in Lahore on February 16 to officially mark the beginning of the Champions Trophy 2025

#championstrophyfinaltickets #championstrophytickets #iccchampions2025trophytickets #championstrophy2025tickets #sellchampionstrophytickets #ChampionsTrophy1stSemiFinalTickets #ChampionsTrophy2ndSemiFinalTickets

0 notes

therepublicreport · 3 days ago

Text

Mohammad Wasim Jr. begins wedding celebrations, shares moments

Listen to article The wedding celebrations of Pakistan’s young all-rounder Mohammad Wasim Jr. have officially begun, with images from the event circulating on social media. The 23-year-old cricketer shared pictures from his Mehndi and Dholki ceremonies on Instagram, capturing the festive spirit of the occasion. Wasim Jr. had quietly tied the knot last year but is now preparing to bring his wife,…

0 notes

beardedmrbean · 1 year ago

Text

Two bomb explosions near candidates' offices in the Pakistani province of Balochistan killed at least 28 people and wounded dozens on the eve of general elections, officials said.

The first blast killed 16 people in Pishin district, north of Quetta city.

A second explosion left 12 people dead in Qila Saifullah to the east. There was no immediate claim for the attacks.

The vote has been marred by violence and claims of poll-rigging. Former PM Imran Khan is barred from contesting.

Police are still trying to determine the cause of the two blasts.

Resource-rich Balochistan - Pakistan's largest, and poorest, province - has a history of violence. It has seen a decades-long struggle for greater autonomy by various groups, some of them armed. Islamist militants, including the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), operate along the border with Afghanistan.

The bomb in Pishin, a town about 100km (62 miles) south-east of the Afghan border, went off in front of an independent candidate's party office. The provincial authorities said 25 people were also wounded.

Images on social media showed cars and motorbikes blown apart by the force of the explosion. Officials told the BBC the candidate was meeting his polling agent at the time.

The second blast targeted the election office of the JUI-F party. A senior police official told AFP news agency it took place in the main bazaar of Qila Saifullah, about 190km (120 miles) east of Quetta.

Twenty people were wounded in the incident and the number of casualties in the two attacks could rise, officials said.

There have been violent incidents in both Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces in the week before Thursday's vote, and the violence in Pishin and Qila Saifullah was not unexpected.

In mid-January, Baloch Liberation Army-Azad (BLA) insurgents released a pamphlet after claiming responsibility for bombing an election training office. The pamphlet urged people to boycott the elections. Soon after, reports of hand grenade attacks on political party offices were reported from various cities in the province.

Many voters in Balochistan feel neglected by the country's political parties, given the province has so few seats in parliament. They often feel candidates are foisted on them, with few if any links to Balochistan.

And many feel the vote is unfair. "It is a selection," numerous people told BBC Urdu in the city of Turbat last month.

Following Wednesday's attacks, the Balochistan government said Thursday's vote would proceed as planned.

"Rest assured, we will not allow terrorists to undermine or sabotage this crucial democratic process," provincial information minister Jan Achakzai posted on X, formerly Twitter.

More than 128 million voters are eligible to cast ballots in the election. In Pakistan's first-past-the-post system, 266 of 336 National Assembly seats are directly elected.

But many people are questioning the credibility of the vote as Khan and his party, the PTI, have been sidelined.

The PTI won the largest number of seats in the last general election but Khan was jailed on corruption charges last year and disqualified from running for public office. Last week he was convicted in three other cases and faces years in prison - he says all the charges are politically motivated.

The authorities deny carrying out a crackdown, but many PTI leaders are behind bars, in hiding or have defected. Thousands of the party's supporters were rounded up after protests - at times violent - when Khan was taken into custody last year.

PTI candidates are having to run as independents following the electoral commission's decision to strip the party of its cricket bat symbol. Electoral symbols are vital in helping voters mark their ballots in a country with high rates of illiteracy.

The man tipped to win Thursday's election is three-time former PM Nawaz Sharif, who himself was behind bars at the last election. Analysts say it appears he has done a deal with the military to facilitate his return to politics.

A high turnout will be key to the PTI's chances, many analysts say. How to tackle, and who to blame for, the country's economic crisis will be high in voters' minds. Results must be announced within 14 days of the election.

#nunyas news

3 notes · View notes

trendingnews19 · 3 days ago

Link

There will be no official ICC captain's meet or photoshoot ahead of Champions Trophy 2025. The event has traditionally taken place in the host country of an ICC tournament, but it will not be part of the build-up to the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, the first ICC tournament in the country since 1996.There was no opening ceremony in the build-up to the most recent Champions Trophy - in the United Kingdom in 2017 - though there was a captain's event and official photoshoot. The PCB said neither the ICC nor the cricket board had ever announced an opening ceremony this time. However, the PCB will host an event in Lahore on February 16, three days out from the first game, to mark the start of the tournament. A PCB official told ESPNcricinfo the event would be "supported by the ICC" and expected ICC officials present in Lahore at the time would be in attendance.The PCB said the absence of a captain's press conference and photoshoot was down to logistical concerns. With the tournament being held across four different venues in two countries, and with scheduling clashes for several sides in the build-up to the tournament, the PCB said teams were slated to arrive in Pakistan for the Champions Trophy close to the start of the tournament. Australia do not get to Pakistan until February 19, the day of the opening match.Incidentally, the ICC did not organise a captains event ahead of the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup, which was played across the Caribbean and the USA. With teams playing warm-up matches in several countries, the ICC instead opted to do the official launch via a lighting projection show that featured all 20 captains beamed onto New York City's Rockefeller Center building.The development resolves the question of India captain Rohit Sharma's potential presence in Pakistan. Had there been a formal captain's press conference or photoshoot, it would have required Rohit to be present.Until last week, the BCCI told ESPNcricinfo the issue of Rohit travelling to Pakistan had "not yet been discussed" and was "not on the agenda". As the Indian government had not given permission for their cricket team to travel to Pakistan for the tournament, it was unclear whether they would have done so for Rohit for any captains' event.Because of the political tension between the two countries, India and Pakistan have played no bilateral series since 2012, although they continue to meet at ICC tournaments. While the Pakistan men's team has travelled to India for two ICC tournaments in this period, India have not played any international cricket in Pakistan since 2008. That context has meant the Champions Trophy had to implement a hybrid model, with Dubai to host India's games, including the final if they make it. That model will also be in use for ICC events in India until 2027, allowing Pakistan to play their matches outside India.As an illustration of the two countries' fraught relationship, the BCCI's new secretary Devajit Saikia had to publicly clarify last week that India would follow "every uniform-related ICC rule", in response to unconfirmed reports and speculation that the BCCI had objected to the name of the official host, Pakistan, on their jersey.The PCB, meanwhile, will also host ceremonies to mark the completion of refurbished stadiums in Lahore and Karachi. The Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, which is currently undergoing a revamp, is set to be inaugurated by Pakistan prime minister Shahbaz Sharif on February 7, the day before the venue hosts its first international game - the opening ODI of a tri-series featuring South Africa and New Zealand - since its reconstruction. The National Stadium in Karachi will be inaugurated by Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari on February 11.

0 notes

itsicn · 6 days ago

Text

ICC Champions Trophy 2025: PCB Confident Rohit Sharma will Defy Government Orders and Visit Pakistan

Champions Trophy 2025: There is growing suspense surrounding whether Team India captain Rohit Sharma will travel to Pakistan for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025 opening ceremony. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) remains hopeful that Rohit Sharma will attend the captains' photoshoot and pre-event press conference.

The opening ceremony of the event is set to take place on either February 16 or 17. The PCB is awaiting confirmation from the International Cricket Council regarding the schedule for the captains' photoshoot and press conference. All eight team captains are expected to attend the ceremony in Pakistan.

Read Also: AFG vs UGA Dream11 Prediction T20 World Cup

Pakistan Hopeful of Rohit Sharma’s Visit for ICC Champions Trophy 2025

According to a PTI report, the Pakistan Cricket Board is hopeful that Rohit Sharma will attend the Champions Trophy event in Pakistan. The PCB has received the necessary government approvals to issue visas for all visiting captains, players, and team officials attending pre-tournament events.

"This obviously includes Rohit or any other Indian team player or official or board official," the source said.

Read Also: AFG vs SA 2nd ODI Dream11 Prediction

BCCI Yet to Issue Official Statement on Rohit Sharma's Visit to Pakistan

If it happens, it will mark the first time in over a decade that an active Indian cricketer visits Pakistan. According to ICC rules, all team captains must attend the opening ceremony of the Champions Trophy.

There were earlier speculations about Rohit traveling to Pakistan for the opening ceremony and captains' photoshoot. The discussions about his possible visit arose because India will not be playing any matches in Pakistan. However, the BCCI has not yet issued an official statement on the matter.

Read Also: AFG vs SA 1st ODI Dream11 Prediction

SportsTeam India Set to Play Champions Trophy Matches in Dubai

The Indian national cricket team will play its Champions Trophy matches in Dubai rather than travel to Pakistan due to ongoing political tensions. The marquee tournament will be held under a hybrid model after the Indian government and the BCCI declined to send their team to Pakistan, citing security concerns.

Pakistan agreed to host all events by India from 2024-2027 at neutral venues. The eight-team tournament will run from February 19 to March 9, with matches taking place in Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi, while all India-related games will be in Dubai. India and Pakistan will face each other in Dubai on February 23.

Former Pakistan batter Basit Ali urged Rohit Sharma to visit Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Basit expressed doubts about whether Rohit will attend the opening ceremony. He said that while Rohit might want to go, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) may prevent him.

"When the World Cup happened Babar Azam and Kane Williamson took a flight and went to Australia together. Will Rohit Sharma come to Pakistan? He should. He should come to the ICC event. I want him to come and he would have the wish to come too. Maybe he will give a reason that the ties with Pakistan are not good. Maybe the BCCI will give that reason," Basit said.

Read Also: AJMB vs BGT Match Prediction Abu Dhabi T10 League

#Sports #News #Cricket #BCCI

0 notes