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GALLE: Dhananjaya de Silva hit an unbeaten 94 as Sri Lanka recovered from an early collapse to reach 242-6 at stumps on a rain-hit day one of the first Test against Pakistan on Sunday.
The fifth-wicket pair of de Silva and Angelo Mathews (64) put on 131 after Sri Lanka had slipped to 54-4 in the opening session, with Shaheen Shah Afridi taking three wickets on his Test return.
De Silva stood firm in an extended final session in Galle despite losing his partner Sadeera Samarawickrama, who made 36, after a 57-run stand.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Samarawickrama fell to Agha Salman’s spin and play, which had witnessed two rain interruptions at a cost of 24.2 overs lost, was called off for the day.
De Silva batted elegantly with deft cuts, drives and pulls, and amassed 10 fours and three sixes — one of them to reach his fifty.
But he slowed down in the final hour of play as he awaits his 10th Test century in his 50th match.
Mathews, playing his 105th Test, raised his 39th half-century in the five-day format.
The pair seemed comfortable and de Silva started to take on the bowlers with boundaries, but leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed got former captain Mathews caught behind at the stroke of tea.
Sri Lanka had looked in trouble at lunch, which was put back by an hour after officials adjusted the session timings to make up for a first rain delay of nearly 90 minutes.
Shaheen, a left-arm quick playing his 26th Test, moved from 99 to a century of wickets on his return from injury when he sent back Nishan Madushka caught behind for four in his second over.
The 23-year-old Pakistani star injured his knee at the same venue a year ago.
Rain soon arrived in Galle to interrupt proceedings but Shaheen took another wicket when action resumed as he got Kusal Mendis out for 12.
Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne hit back with a few boundaries before Shaheen got him out for 29, caught behind attempting a glance down the leg side.
Fast bowler Naseem Shah soon joined in to get Dinesh Chandimal out for one with a quick delivery as skipper Babar Azam pulled off a tough catch at third slip.
 
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari denied on Thursday his country supplied any weapons to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia while expressing his country’s support for the revival of the Black Sea grain initiative.
Bhutto-Zardari issued the statement during a joint news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, who arrived in Islamabad on a two-day visit earlier today. Pakistan has not condemned the Russia since it invaded Ukraine last year in February, though it raised concern over the war and urged China and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to mediate the crisis.
Multiple media reports suggested in recent months claimed the administration in Islamabad was supplying weapons to Ukraine, though the Pakistani minister called them unfounded.
“Since the war began, we have not concluded any agreement for defense supplies to Ukraine, keeping in view our principled, consistent, and nonpartisan position,” he told reporters in the joint media briefing.
The Ukrainian foreign minister also corroborated the statement.
“I can confirm that there are no contracts or intergovernmental arrangements between Ukraine and Pakistan in this area,” Kuleba told reporters, adding the military and technical cooperation between the two countries dated back to the contracts signed in 1996 and led to the production of high-quality tanks in Pakistan with the support of the Ukrainian defense industry.
Asked about Russia’s decision to quit the Black Sea grain deal, the Pakistani minister called the understanding a positive initiative of the United Nations, Türkiye and Ukraine. He added the restoration of the deal would not only serve the interest of Russia but also much of the world’s developing nations.
“I will be reaching out to the United Nations Secretary General, to my counterpart in Türkiye, in Russia, to discuss Pakistan’s concerns and our desire for the Black Sea grain initiative to be restored,” he added.
The deal, which was reached last year in July, allowed the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain through its ports in the Black Sea. It was also instrumental in addressing the global food crisis that followed the Russian invasion and led to soaring inflation across the world. However, Russia refused to cooperate earlier this week and decided to exit the deal.
Bhutto-Zardari also maintained he shared with his Ukrainian counterpart Pakistan’s deep concern over the prevailing conflict and offered condolences on the loss of precious lives and immense human suffering.
“We have a vested interest in promoting peace and reconciliation and hope for a peaceful resolution through dialogue and diplomacy,” he added.
In his remarks, Kuleba thanked Pakistan for providing Ukraine with humanitarian assistance at a time when his country needed it the most.
“We know that Pakistan supports our territorial integrity, and the rest is in the hands of the Pakistani government to choose appropriate forms of finding a way to support a country that is fighting for its sovereignty and territorial integrity against a much stronger neighbor,” he commented.
The Ukrainian minister said he briefed his Pakistani counterpart during the delegation level talks about the opportunities offered by his country in the area of digitization of state services to make it more convenient for the government to engage with for its citizens.
He said Ukraine would also appreciate if Pakistan voiced its support of the continuation of the Black Sea grain deal.
“I was happy to hear from Bhutto-Zardari that Pakistan will engage in this matter with the United Nations and European Union as facilitators of the Black Sea grain initiative,” he added.
KABUL: Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi has said his government will work to ensure regional security and stability as he met Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani during the latter’s visit to Kabul.
Muttaqi held talks on Wednesday with Durrani, a veteran diplomat Islamabad appointed to his current post in May at a time of growing concerns over Afghanistan’s stability under Taliban rule. The two neighbors have increasingly strained relations due to growing violence on the border and a sharp rise in militant attacks inside Pakistan, many of them claimed by the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which Islamabad says has been emboldened by the Afghan Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.
On Thursday, two TTP militants carried out a suicide attack on a compound that houses a police station and government houses in northwestern Pakistan, killing four and injuring 10 others. The attack came hours after the faction claimed responsibility for the shooting deaths of two policemen in an overnight gun attack in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Earlier in the week, a paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle was targeted by militants in Peshawar, leaving eight people injured.
“Afghans will never harm anyone; we will allow none to use our soil against another country; & our efforts will always be directed at working for regional security & stability,” Muttaqi told Durrani during the meeting, according to a Wednesday evening statement from Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of foreign affairs.
“We hope with your [Durrani] appointment, the political & economic relations between the two countries will develop further, & this requires joint work,” the statement read, adding that “ensured security in Afghanistan” offered an opportunity to strengthen the economy and increase trade between the two countries.
Cross-border fire and shootouts have occurred along the Afghan-Pakistan border for years, but Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks since November when the TTP unilaterally ended a monthslong cease-fire with the government.
Though the TTP openly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban after the fall of Kabul in 2021, they were not accepted by the latter and remained a separate militant group.
ISLAMABAD: Two Pakistanis on Thursday successfully climbed Broad Peak, the world’s 12th tallest mountain, with Sajid Ali Sadpara achieving the feat without using supplemental oxygen or porter assistance and Naila Kiani becoming the first Pakistani woman to conquer the summit.
Broad Peak stands as one of the 14 independent mountains on Earth, collectively known as the “8,000-ers,” owing to their elevation surpassing 8,000 meters (26,247 ft) above sea level. These majestic peaks are situated in the Karakoram and Himalaya ranges, spanning across Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan, Nepal, and China’s Xinjiang province.
“Broad Peak summited without the use of supplemental oxygen and assistance,” Sadpara announced in a Twitter post on Wednesday evening.
 

#BroadPeak summited without use of supplemental oxygen & assistance.
Single push from basecamp to summit with best outfit @sst8848 @ChhangDawa
pic.twitter.com/CBQ1xT2gfC
Sadpara, the son of Pakistan’s late iconic high-altitude climber Muhammad Ali Sadpara, earlier became the first Pakistani to scale Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and personal sherpa. Prior to that, he had twice summited K2 (8,611 meters) and scaled several other treacherous peaks including Mount Manaslu (8,163 meters) and Mt Annapurna (8,091 meters) in Nepal.
Kiani, meanwhile, is a Dubai-based Pakistani climber who also became the first woman from her country to climb eight 8,000-ers after successfully summitting Broad Peak.
“Naila has successfully ascended Pakistan’s fifth and final 8,000-meter peak at 2:03 AM today (Thursday),” the Secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP), Karrar Haidri, said in a statement.
“She is the first Pakistani woman to ascend Broad Peak, complete the climb of all five 8,000-meter peaks in Pakistan, and scale eight 8,000-meter peaks worldwide,” he added.
KARACHI: Pakistani actress Ainy Jaffri Rahman has called for a separation between art and politics, weeks after announcing that she would be starring in an upcoming Indian film called Coke.
Pakistan banned the screening of Indian movies after ties with New Delhi reached a new low in 2019 over the disputed Kashmir region. Before this, Pakistani artists were banned from working in India in 2016 after militants that India claimed were from Pakistan attacked an Indian Army brigade headquarters near the town of Uri in the part of Kashmir administered by India. Pakistan denies state complicity.
India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed neighbors, have fought two out of three wars over Kashmir. Both claim the region in full but control it in part.
“I humbly believe art should have no politics or boundaries but alas the political situation, as we all well know, is extremely complicated,” Rahman, 34, told Arab News this week, speaking about Coke, an Indian film entirely shot in Stoke-on-Trent, England and which will be released on a streaming platform.
“There are collaborations happening every day [so] if you’re shooting on neutral soil, there isn’t usually an issue.”
Rahman said cultural exchanges were “extremely necessary” for a nation’s personal growth as well as in its ambitions to become a global player.
“There’s so much to offer both ways and it’s such a shame that there are these horrible bans,” she said, adding that Pakistan would be a “global force to be reckoned with” if art were allowed to flow freely.
Speaking about Coke, which is directed by Sarim Momin, Rehman said that the film would revolve around the themes of human greed, the fight for survival, family, and loyalty.
“I have a complicated nuanced character [in the film],” said Rahman, declining to reveal more about the film.
“After so many years in the business, you start looking for something different – something out of your comfort zone, something uncomfortable that will help you push boundaries. This role provides me with that, so I’m very excited about it.”
Rahman added that many Indian producers and casting directors had offered her work over the last decade but the projects never worked out for her for several reasons.
“[But] a casting agent reached out for Coke, and this time, the timing was right,” she said, “so everything just clicked into place.”
PESHAWAR: At least four people were killed and 10 were injured in the northwestern Pakistani district of Khyber on Thursday after two suicide bombers attacked a compound that housed a police station and several government offices, the police said.
The attack took place in the Bara neighborhood of Khyber district, which borders Afghanistan. Police said one of the suicide bombers blew himself up while the suicide vest of the other bomber detonated after the police shot him.
Thursday’s attack came hours after militants of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the Pakistani Taliban shot and killed two police officers and wounded two others in an overnight gun attack at a roadside checkpoint in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 
“Two suicide blasts have occurred at the gate of a compound where government offices and the Bara Police station are located,” a spokesperson for Khyber Police, Zaheer Khan, told Arab News, adding that the area had been cordoned off and a search operation was ongoing.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.
Bilal Faizi, the spokesperson for Rescue 1122 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Arab News four people were killed in the attack.
District Khyber was a part of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) but was later merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018. It was for long a stronghold of TTP militants who have carried out some of the deadliest attacks against Pakistan’s security forces.
Militancy in the district declined following the Pakistan Army’s operations there, but with the return of the Afghan Taliban to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021, the South Asian country has seen an uptick in violence in border areas, particularly after a fragile truce between the TTP and the state broke down in November last year.
On Tuesday, eight people were injured when militants targeted the vehicle of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) in Peshawar.

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