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His Excellency the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, met Tuesday with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.**media[420605]**They discussed bilateral relations and ways to support and strengthen them, in addition to a number of regional and international issues of common interest. HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs affirmed Qatar’s full support for all efforts aimed at enhancing security and stability at the regional and international levels. 

Pakistani security forces killed 145 militants in a ‌40-hour battle launched as a series ‍of co-ordinated gun and bomb attacks across Balochistan left nearly 50 people dead, the province's chief minister said Sunday.Authorities in the ⁠southwestern province are battling one of the deadliest ⁠flare-ups in years, as insurgents in the resource-rich province bordering Iran and Afghanistan step up assaults on security ‍forces, civilians and infrastructure.Attackers dressed as ordinary civilians entered hospitals, schools, banks and markets on Saturday before opening fire, Pakistan's junior interior minister Talal Chaudhry said."In each case, the attackers came in dressed as civilians and indiscriminately targeted ordinary people working in shops," he said, adding militants had used civilians as human shields.The banned separatist group Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it had launched a coordinated operation dubbed Herof, or "black storm", targeting security forces across the province.In Quetta, ‌the provincial capital, the aftermath was visible in burnt-out vehicles at a police station, bullet-riddled doors and streets sealed off with yellow tape, as security forces tightened patrols and restricted movement following the attacks.Chief Minister of Balochistan Sarfraz ‍Bugti said 17 law enforcement personnel and ⁠31 civilians were killed ‌in the militant attacks. Pakistan's military said 92 militants were killed on Saturday, while 41 were killed on Friday."We had intelligence reports that this kind of operation was being planned, and as a result of those, we started pre-operations a day before," Bugti said.The latest total is the highest number of militants killed in such a short span since the insurgency intensified, Bugti said, without providing comparative figures.Officials said the militant assaults were launched almost simultaneously across Quetta, Gwadar, Mastung and Noshki districts, with armed men opening fire at security installations including a Frontier Corps headquarters, attempting suicide bombings and briefly blocking roads in urban areas, prompting large-scale counter-operations by the army, police and counterterrorism units.Outside a damaged shop, private security guard Jamil Ahmed Mashwani said attackers struck shortly after ​midday. "They hit me on my face and ‌head."Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, has faced a decades-long insurgency led by ethnic Baloch separatists seeking greater autonomy and a larger share ⁠of its natural resources.The group claimed it ‍had killed 84 members of Pakistan's security forces and captured 18 others. Reuters could not independently verify the claim. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that two of the attacks involved female perpetrators and militants were increasingly targeting civilians, labourers and low-income communities.The military said security forces had repelled attempts by militants to seize control of any city or strategic installation.Pakistan's military ​said on Saturday the attacks were carried out by "Indian-sponsored militants". India denied that assertion Sunday."We categorically reject the baseless allegations made by Pakistan," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement".The United States condemned the attacks, with US Charge d'Affaires Natalie Baker calling them acts of terrorist violence and saying Washington stood in solidarity with Pakistan. The Balochistan Liberation Army is designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation.Pakistan has faced periodic attacks by Islamist ⁠militants elsewhere in the country, including factions linked to the Pakistani Taliban. 

A Pakistani court sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to 17 years Saturday for corruption involving gifts the jailed leader received while in office.The former prime minister faces dozens of cases filed since he was ousted from office in 2022, ranging from corruption to anti-terrorism and state secrets charges.Khan has denied wrongdoing in all the cases, which his party says are politically motivated."The court announced the sentence without hearing the defence and sentenced 17 years imprisonment to Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi with heavy fines," Khan's family lawyer Rana Mudassar Umer told Reuters.They were handed 10 years' rigorous imprisonment ⁠under Pakistan's penal code for criminal breach of trust and a further seven years under anti-corruption laws, the special court of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency said in its verdict.Khan's jail term from Saturday's ruling would begin after he has served the 14 years from the land graft case, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said.Under Pakistani law, government officials must declare all gifts, but are allowed to keep those below a certain value or buy them back at a discount.Saturday's sentencing came on charges of undervaluing a jewellery set made by the Italian luxury brand Bulgari that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented to Khan and his wife in May 2021.The case is separate from an earlier case, linked to luxury watches also presented by Prince Mohammed, in which Khan was sentenced to 14 years and Bibi seven.In a post on X, the former prime minister's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said that the latest conviction by a "kangaroo court is just to prolong Imran Khan's illegal, unjust incarceration"."The entire world knows these cases are politically motivated," it added.Party spokesman Syed Zulfikhar Bukhari told AFP that the ruling "ignores basic principles of justice"."Criminal liability has been imposed without proof of intent, gain or loss, relying on a retrospective reinterpretation of the rules," he said.Khan has told his ⁠legal team to appeal the decision at the Islamabad High Court, Salman Safdar, another one of his lawyers, told reporters outside the jail where the trials were being held, Geo News reported.Khan's family have ratcheted up their efforts to draw attention of his prison conditions.In a recent interview with Sky News, the former leader's son Kasim Khan said that his father was in "complete isolation" and not even allowed to communicate with guards."It's all kind of psychological torture tactics. No contact with family, no contact with personal physician or anything like that. They use these tactics to try and completely isolate him," he said.Pakistan's government has repeatedly rejected such allegations.Following Saturday’s verdict, the PTI announced plans for protests across Punjab today.Khan, a former cricket star turned politician, remains one of Pakistan's most ⁠polarising figures, with his legal battles unfolding as the PTI remains sidelined from power. 

Pakistani authorities have evacuated more than 1mn people from homes in Punjab province this week, officials said Thursday, as the worst flooding there in four decades caused havoc in hundreds of villages and submerged vital grains crops.Torrential monsoon rain and neighbouring India's release of excess water from its dams swelled three rivers that flow into the eastern province, forcing authorities to breach river banks in some places – causing flooding in more than 1,400 villages, Punjab's disaster management authority said.Residents of villages such as Qadirabad were walking through water up to their chests Thursday after the River Chenab overflowed, causing sudden flooding."We spent the whole night awake and frightened," Nadeem Iqbal, 26, a labourer, told Reuters as he waded through the water with one of his children. "Everyone was frightened. Kids cried. Women were worried. We were helpless."Officials say that flooding has been worsened in Punjab – home to half of Pakistan's people and a major producer of wheat, rice and cotton – by the release of water into the three rivers, the Ravi, Sutlej and Chenab, from Indian dams that were full.India, which routinely releases water from dams when they get too full, passed on three flood warnings to its arch rival Pakistan this week, calling them a humanitarian measure.Both countries are battling a heavy monsoon season that has unleashed flash floods.At least 60 people have died this month in hard-hit Indian Kashmir, while Pakistan's death toll since late June stands at 819.At least 12 people have died this week in Punjab province, said Marriyum Aurangzeb, a senior minister in the provincial government.The waters of the Chenab threatened early Thursday to burst through a 3,300’ (1,000m) concrete barrage at Qadirabad that regulates flows, siphoning some of the water into a canal irrigation network.A collapse of the barrage would have inundated two nearby towns.To avert the danger, authorities deliberately blew up part of the riverbank at two places to release water onto nearby land before it reached the barrage, the provincial disaster management authority said.By afternoon, the level was down to 754,966 cusec, having reached nearly 1mn cusec overnight – well over its capacity of 800,000 cusec.A cusec is a flow of volume equivalent to one cubic foot, or 28 cubic litres, every second."We have evaded the threat," a spokesperson for the authority said.Officials said shifting weather patterns were to blame for the floods in Pakistan, which has repeatedly been battered by flooding in recent years.In 2022, unprecedented flash floods caused by historic monsoon rains washed away roads, crops, infrastructure and bridges, killing at least 1,000 people.The head of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), Inam Haider Malik, said that for the first time, weather systems coming from the east, south and west had converged over Pakistan this monsoon season.Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said climate change "is the new normal"."But it isn't unmanageable," he added.On the other side of the India-Pakistan border, Himalayan river levels began to recede after days of downpours and forecasters said they expected the rain to start easing.