Regional
More than 65 missing, six dead after huge Karachi blaze
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab told reporters at the scene that 65 people were still missing.
Firefighters in Karachi searched on Sunday for more than 65 missing people after a massive fire tore through a shopping mall in the historic downtown district, killing six and reducing parts of the building to rubble, Reuters reported.
Videos showed flames rising from the building as firefighters laboured through the night to stop the blaze, which started on Saturday night, from spreading in the dense business district. After fighting the flames for over 24 hours, firefighters began cooling the steaming rubble of the nearly collapsed structure.
Firefighters told Pakistan’s local television station Geo News that the lack of ventilation in the mall, which houses over 1,200 shops, caused the building to fill with smoke and slowed rescue efforts.
“It appears to have been caused by a circuit breaker,” Sindh police chief Javed Alam Odho told reporters at the site, according to Dawn News.
“The layout and construction of this market was such, and secondly, the nature of the items in it — such as carpets, blankets and other objects made of resins — so the fire is still simmering because of these.”
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab told reporters at the scene that 65 people were still missing.
Rescue officials said six people had been killed and 20 others were wounded, read the report.
According to media reports, people chanted slogans criticising the mayor who came to the site after 23 hours.
Hundreds of people had gathered around the building, including distraught store owners whose businesses had turned to ash.
“We’ve been left high and dry, reduced to zero; 20 years of hard work, all gone,” shopowner Yasmeen Bano said.
The fire erupted on Saturday night, with rescue services receiving a call at 10:38 p.m. (1738 GMT) reporting that ground-floor shops at the multi-storey Gul Plaza shopping centre were ablaze.
“When we arrived, the fire from the ground floor had spread to the upper floors, and almost the entire building was already engulfed in flames,” Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassanul Haseeb Khan told Reuters.
Images of the mall’s interior revealed the charred remains of stores and a bright orange glow as flames continued to rise throughout the building.
By Sunday evening, the blackened and broken metal frame of the building was strewn on the street alongside fallen air conditioners and some store signboards, Reuters reported.
Rescue workers said that parts of the building had started to collapse and that the whole structure could come down.
At least 15 people, including 11 civilians and four security personnel, have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to local authorities.
The unrest was triggered by opposition to the reservation of 12 seats in the regional legislative assembly for Kashmiri refugees. The Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) called for a march to Muzaffarabad, but authorities banned the group, accused it of sedition, and ordered action against its leaders.
Despite the restrictions, thousands of protesters joined the march, leading to violent confrontations in several areas.
Dozens of people have also been injured, and concerns remain over further violence. Amnesty International has criticized the authorities’ response, citing mass arrests, internet shutdowns, and the use of excessive force against protesters.
The demonstrators are demanding the abolition of the reserved seats, arguing that all legislative seats should be contested by residents of the region. However, the region’s Supreme Court has ruled that the seats are constitutionally protected and cannot be removed through political or administrative measures.
Regional
US hits China- and Hong Kong-based entities with sanctions over Iran weapons
The U.S. State Department also designated two companies and individuals based in Iran and Belarus in connection with Iran’s conventional arms-related activities, Treasury said.
The U.S. government on Wednesday said it was imposing sanctions against 11 people and entities, including several based in China and Hong Kong, for supporting weapons procurement by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian military, Reuters reported.
Nine of those designated were China- and Hong Kong-based individuals and companies that facilitated the procurement of weapons for Iran’s military, and a Hong Kong-based company operating within Iran’s clandestine banking network, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement.
The U.S. State Department also designated two companies and individuals based in Iran and Belarus in connection with Iran’s conventional arms-related activities, Treasury said.
All personnel on board a military helicopter have been killed in a crash near Muzaffarabad in Pakistani Kashmir, Pakistan’s military said in a statement on Wednesday, without specifying the number of deaths.
“An Mi-17 helicopter of Pakistan Army Aviation crashed near Muzaffarabad today during take-off due to technical fault,” the military said in a statement, Reuters reported. “There were no survivors.”
Rescue teams have reached the site and a board of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the exact technical cause of the accident, it said.
The helicopter crashed while taking off and caught fire, a Reuters witness said, adding that firefighters were trying to control the flames.
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