Pakistani security officials secure the Pakistan Stock Exchange a day after terrorists attacked the building, in Karachi, Pakistan, 30 June, 2020. EPA
Pakistani security officials secure the Pakistan Stock Exchange a day after terrorists attacked the building, in Karachi, Pakistan, 30 June, 2020. EPA
Pakistani security officials secure the Pakistan Stock Exchange a day after terrorists attacked the building, in Karachi, Pakistan, 30 June, 2020. EPA
Pakistani security officials secure the Pakistan Stock Exchange a day after terrorists attacked the building, in Karachi, Pakistan, 30 June, 2020. EPA

Pakistan says 'no doubt' India behind stock exchange attack


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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday accused India of being behind a shooting and grenade attack on the Pakistani stock exchange that left seven people dead in Karachi a day earlier.

India said on Monday that it had nothing to do with the assault.

"There is no doubt that India is behind the attack," Mr Khan said in his address to parliament. "For the last two months, my Cabinet knew [there would be an attack], I had informed my ministers. All our agencies were on high alert."

A group armed with guns and grenades attacked the Pakistan Stock Exchange in the city of Karachi on Monday in a bid to take hostages, killing two guards and a policeman before security forces killed all four attackers, security officials said.

Separatist insurgents from the troubled south-western province of Balochistan claimed responsibility, according to officials.

The Baloch Liberation Army used Twitter to claim the attack, but spokesmen for the group were not available.

"They had come to carry out an attack inside the building and take hostages inside," said Omer Ahmed Bukhari, the director general of the Sindh Rangers paramilitary force.

He said all attackers were killed within eight minutes.

Pakistan's military praised the swift response of the city's security forces in Monday's attack, while the Karachi police released a video of one member of a provincial security unit describing the firefight.

"I shot one of them dead... The second guy saw me and... he took out a grenade. I shot him twice in his hand and his weapon fell down. I then shot him in the head as he tried to pull out the grenade pin," said Mohammad Rafiq, a member of an elite rapid response team.

The video of the officer was shared widely online, with social media users calling Rafiq a hero.

Last year, the US State Department designated the BLA as a global terrorist group, making it a crime for anyone in the United States to assist the militants and freezing any US assets they may have.

Following Monday's attack, Pakistani authorities vowed to strike back against any group found responsible, promising to dismantle their networks and destroy their bases.

"An investigation has been launched and very soon we will reach their masterminds," Interior Minister Ijaz Ahmad Shah said in a video message.

The gunmen never made it into the stock exchange and business continued as usual after the attack.

Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule

1st Test July 26-30 in Galle

2nd Test August 3-7 in Colombo

3rd Test August 12-16 in Pallekele

Fixtures

Friday Leganes v Alaves, 10.15pm; Valencia v Las Palmas, 12.15am

Saturday Celta Vigo v Real Sociedad, 8.15pm; Girona v Atletico Madrid, 10.15pm; Sevilla v Espanyol, 12.15am

Sunday Athletic Bilbao v Getafe, 8.15am; Barcelona v Real Betis, 10.15pm; Deportivo v Real Madrid, 12.15am

Monday Levante v Villarreal, 10.15pm; Malaga v Eibar, midnight

The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat 

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There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.

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Various Artists 
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
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Company profile

Name: Dukkantek 

Started: January 2021 

Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani 

Based: UAE 

Number of employees: 140 

Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service) 

Investment: $5.2 million 

Funding stage: Seed round 

Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office  

Libya's Gold

UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.

How to donate

Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200

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Edited and Introduced by Sjón and Ted Hodgkinson
Pushkin Press 

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Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015

- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France