Pakistan-Afghan border crossings closed after heavy clashes

Key border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan were closed on Sunday after fierce clashes erupted overnight following Taliban accusations that Islamabad had carried out air strikes this week, officials said.Neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan have had frosty relations since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad accuses authorities there of harbouring militants carrying out strikes on its soil, an accusation Afghanistan denies.Afghanistan’s Taliban forces attacked Pakistani soldiers along their shared border on Saturday night, accusing Islamabad of violating its sovereignty after explosions were heard in Kabul and in the southeast two days earlier.Officials from both sides of the border told AFP that crossings at Torkham, which connects Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with Nangarhar in Afghanistan, and Chaman, more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) to the southwest, were closed.Pakistani Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif condemned what he said were “provocations by Afghanistan” along Pakistan’s border area overnight.”There will be no compromise on Pakistan’s defence, and every provocation will be met with a strong and effective response,” Sharif said in a statement, accusing Taliban authorities in Afghanistan of allowing their land to be used by “terrorist elements”.- Border crossings ‘sealed’ -A senior Pakistani official in Torkham told AFP extra paramilitary troops had been sent to the area, which sits on the border between Kabul and Islamabad.”The Torkham border has been completely closed for pedestrian movement and trade,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.”Security forces have also pulled out all civilian staff posted at the border, so they are not harmed in case of further firing,” he said.Another Pakistani border official at Chaman, which links Balochistan province with Kandahar, the birthplace of the Afghan Taliban, said the crossing was “sealed”.Other Pakistani officials said there had been clashes using heavy weapons in at least four border districts but there had been no casualties on its side.The Afghan military said on Saturday night Taliban forces were engaged “in heavy clashes against Pakistani security forces in various areas”.Taliban defence ministry spokesman Enayat Khowarazm later told AFP that the “successful” operations had ended at midnight.Several border security officials told AFP that no further clashes had been reported on Sunday morning.Militancy has surged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the withdrawal of US-led troops from neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021 and the return of the Taliban government.The TTP, separate to the Afghan Taliban but which shares the same ideology and is trained in combat in Afghanistan, and its allies are accused by Islamabad of killing hundreds of its soldiers since 2021. Islamabad has not confirmed that it was behind Thursday’s strikes that sparked the border clashes.Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar have urged both sides to “exercise restraint”.TTP militants have intensified their campaign of violence against Pakistani security forces in the mountainous areas bordering Afghanistan in recent months.More than 500 people, including 311 troops and 73 policemen, have been killed in attacks between January and September 15, a military spokesman said on Friday.A UN report this year said the TTP “receive substantial logistical and operational support from the de facto authorities”, referring to the Taliban government in Kabul.Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament on Thursday that several efforts to convince the Afghan Taliban to stop backing the TTP had failed.”Enough is enough,” he said. “The Pakistani government and army’s patience has run out.”

Five-wicket Kuldeep runs through West Indies, India enforce follow-on

Spinner Kuldeep Yadav claimed five wickets as India bowled out the West Indies for 248 and enforced the follow-on in the second Test on Sunday.The tourists resumed on day three at 140-4 and their innings ended in the second session 270 runs adrift of India’s first innings 518-5 declared.West Indies lost regular wickets and were in deep trouble at 175-8, but Khary Pierre and Anderson Phillip, who hit 24 not out, put on a stubborn stand of 46 to steer their team through to lunch.Jasprit Bumrah bowled the left-handed Pierre for 23 in the first over after lunch but Phillip and Jayden Seales further frustrated the bowlers.Kuldeep, a left-arm wrist spinner, finally trapped Seales lbw for 13 for his fifth five-wicket haul in his 15th Test.He bowled the first over of the day and struck inside 30 minutes as he bowled Shai Hope for 36, the batsman adding just five to his overnight score.Tevin Imlach was the next to go when Kuldeep had him given out lbw for 21, a decision that was reviewed but the ball was shown to be hitting leg stump.Justin Greaves also fell lbw to Kuldeep for 17 and Jomel Warrican was bowled by Mohammed Siraj for one.India won the first Test in Ahmedabad by an innings and 140 runs.

Pakistan 107-1 at lunch in first South Africa Test

Opener Imam-ul-Haq hit a solid half-century as Pakistan reached 107-1 at lunch on the opening day of the first Test against South Africa in Lahore on Sunday.Haq was unbeaten on 59 while skipper Shan Masood was 44 not out as the duo steadied Pakistan after losing opener Abdullah Shafique for two off the third ball of the match.With the Gaddafi Stadium pitch likely to take spin, Masood opted to bat after winning the toss and named specialist spin duo Noman Ali and Sajid Khan in the team.Haq completed his 10th Test fifty, including five fours, in an unbroken 105 stand with Masood.South African captain Aiden Markram introduced spin in the sixth over and by lunch had used all three of his spinners — Prenelan Subrayen, Simon Harmer and Senuran Muthusamy.But it was pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada who got the lone breakthrough in the first over, trapping Shafique leg-before.The two-match series is part of the new World Test Championship two-year cycle. South Africa won the title by beating Australia in June.

Australian airline Qantas says millions of customers’ data leaked online

Australian airline Qantas said Sunday that data from 5.7 million customers stolen in a major cyberattack this year had been shared online, part of a leak affecting dozens of firms.Disney, Google, IKEA, Toyota, McDonald’s and fellow airlines Air France and KLM are also reported to have had data stolen in a cyberattack targeting software firm Salesforce, with the information now being held to ransom.Salesforce said this month it was “aware of recent extortion attempts by threat actors”.Qantas confirmed in July that hackers had targeted one of its customer contact centres, breaching a computer system used by a third party now known to have been Salesforce.They secured access to sensitive information such as customer names, email addresses, phone numbers and birthdays, the blue-chip Australian company said.No further breaches have taken place since and the company is cooperating with Australian security services.”Qantas is one of a number of companies globally that has had data released by cyber criminals following the airline’s cyber incident in early July, where customer data was stolen via a third party platform,” the company said in a statement.Most of the data leaked was names, email addresses and frequent flyer details, the firm said.But some of the data included customers’ “business or home address, date of birth, phone number, gender and meal preferences”.”No credit card details, personal financial information or passport details were impacted,” Qantas said.It also said it had obtained a legal injunction with the Supreme Court of New South Wales, where the firm is headquartered, to prevent the stolen data being “accessed, viewed, released, used, transmitted or published”.Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt told AFP that would do little to prevent the spread of the data.”It’s frankly ridiculous,” he said.”It obviously doesn’t stop criminals at all anywhere, and it also really doesn’t have any effect on people outside of Australia.”- Hackers ‘laying siege’ -In response to questions about the leak, tech giant Google pointed AFP to an August statement in which it said one of its corporate Salesforce servers had been targeted. It did not confirm if the data had been leaked.”Google responded to the activity, performed an impact analysis and has completed email notifications to the potentially affected businesses,” Melanie Lombardi, head of Google Cloud Security Communications, said.Cybersecurity analysts have linked the hack to individuals with ties to an alliance of cybercriminals called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters.Research group Unit 42 said in a note the group had “asserted responsibility for laying siege to customer Salesforce tenants as part of a coordinated effort to steal data and hold it for ransom”.The hackers had reportedly set an October 10 deadline for ransom payment.- ‘Oldest tricks in the book’ -The hackers stole the sensitive data using a social engineering technique, referring to a tactic of manipulating victims by pretending to be a company representative or other trusted person, experts said.The FBI last month issued a warning about such attacks targeting Salesforce.The agency said hackers posing as IT workers had tricked customer support employees into granting them access to sensitive data.”They have been very effective,” expert Hunt said.”And it hasn’t been using any sophisticated technical exploits… they have exploited really the oldest tricks in the books.”The hack of data from Australia’s biggest airline comes as a string of major cyberattacks in the country has raised concerns about the protection of personal data.Qantas apologised last year after a glitch with its mobile app exposed some passengers’ names and travel details.And major ports handling 40 percent of Australia’s freight trade ground to a halt in 2023 after hackers infiltrated computers belonging to operator DP World.