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Theme: Pakistan

Wire

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York and vowed to deepen bilateral cooperation with Dhaka and Tehran, according to the Hindustan Times, citing the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency. With Pezeshkian, Sharif said he had reaffirmed ties with Iran and urged restraint, de-escalation and sustained diplomacy in the face of the prolonged conflict, according to a post by the premier himself cited by the paper.

Pakistan’s security forces foiled an attempt by Afghan Taliban fighters to carry out an attack in the Gulistan sector, on the border between the two countries, and killed several of them in a retaliatory operation, according to The News, which cited security sources. An attempted Afghan incursion was repelled and several Afghan Taliban members were killed, Pakistani security sources told Reuters, which reported intermittent exchanges of fire and border forces on alert. Hours earlier, Pakistan had carried out precision air and drone strikes on 10 targets in Afghanistan in response to attempted drone attacks it attributed to the Taliban government, and shot down 8 drones entering from Afghan airspace, according to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, as quoted by The News.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan will hold an urgent meeting of their chiefs of staff, announced by the Saudi foreign ministry, to discuss ways to back Riyadh in the escalation with Yemen’s Houthis. The barrage of ballistic missiles and drones against Saudi targets, which included the holy city of Mecca, is testing the mutual defence pact signed in August with Turkey and Pakistan. The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement states that an armed attack against one of the three countries is considered an attack against all of them.