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New Zealand qualified for the T20 World Cup semi-finals after Sri Lanka avoided a big defeat against Pakistan on Saturday in Kandy.Pakistan, who needed to win by 65 runs in their final Super Eights match to pip New Zealand on net run rate, won by only five after scoring 212-8 with Sri Lanka just falling short on 207-6.Sahibzada Farhan hit a 60-ball century for Pakistan, his second of the tournament, to take his side to their highest total in any T20 World Cup.Pakistan needed to keep Sri Lanka down to 147 or fewer, but Pavan Rathnayake hit 58 and captain Dasun Shanaka struck an unbeaten 76 off just 31 balls to snuff out Pakistan hopes of advancing “When I lost the toss, it was always going to be challenging (bowling second) because of the dew,” said Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha. “Then it was a very good pitch and restricting them below 148 was going to be a challenge. But we tried. “I think if I won the toss then it could have been a different story.” After a thrilling chase, Sri Lanka needed six off the last ball but Shanaka failed to connect after hitting three of his eight sixes in the final over as he took 22 off Shaheen Shah Afridi.”It was that close of a game, I could have finished it. But, yeah, unfortunate. Well bowled to Shaheen,” said Shanaka. The result puts New Zealand through to a likely meeting with South Africa in Kolkata on Wednesday for a place in the final.Spinner Abrar Ahmed was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers with 3-23 in his four overs.After Pakistan were asked to bat first, Farhan followed his group-stage century against Namibia with another ton to become the first player to score two hundreds in the same T20 World Cup.Fellow opener Fakhar Zaman cracked 84 off 42 balls.Farhan scored five sixes and nine fours as he took his aggregate for the tournament to 383 runs, a T20 World Cup record, passing India’s Virat Kohli’s 319 in 2014.Farhan and Zaman put on an opening stand of 176 in 15.5 overs. Zaman hit four sixes and nine fours.  Farhan pushed Shanaka for a single to complete his century off 59 balls before being dismissed by Dilshan Madushanka in the final over.Madushanka was the best Sri Lankan bowler with 3-33.Pakistan’s previous highest at a T20 World cup was the 201-5 they made against Bangladesh in Kolkata in 2016.

Sahibzada Farhan became the first player to score two centuries in the same T20 World Cup as Pakistan kept their semi-final hopes alive by scoring 212-8 against Sri Lanka in Kandy on Saturday.Pakistan need to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 or fewer to win by the 65 runs they need to pip New Zealand to second place in the Super Eights group on net run rate.Farhan smashed a 60-ball 100 while fellow opener Fakhar Zaman cracked 84 off 42 balls as Pakistan, after being asked to bat, recorded their highest total at a T20 World Cup.Farhan scored five sixes and nine fours as he took his aggregate for the tournament to 383 runs, a T20 World Cup record, passing India’s Virat Kohli’s 319 in 2014.Farhan and Zaman put on an opening stand of 176 in 15.5 overs. Zaman hit four sixes and nine fours.  Farhan pushed Dasun Shanaka for a single to complete his century off 59 balls before being dismissed by Dilshan Madushanka in the final over.Madushanka was the best Sri Lankan bowler with 3-33.Pakistan’s previous highest at a T20 World cup was the 201-5 they made against Bangladesh in Kolkata in 2016.

Afghan construction workers in rural Kandahar said they were building homes for migrants who had recently returned to the country when Pakistani air strikes hit the area on Saturday.A major escalation following months of cross-border violence has seen deadly fighting along the frontier and multiple Pakistani strikes on Afghanistan since Thursday.Construction worker Noor Agha, 21, said he was busy tiling “when the Pakistani planes attacked” the site near Takhta Pul village on Saturday.”They bombarded the sheds, then we went inside the mountain,” he told AFP, with hills visible in the distance. “Some people were martyred, two or three were wounded.”The head of the facility gave a figure of three killed and seven wounded.Agha said two strikes hit the site, where a destroyed car sat in front of a building covered in shrapnel marks.The Pakistani military did not respond to an AFP request to comment on the incident.Construction was underway to support Afghan returnees from Pakistan and Iran, local officials said.Around 5.4 million Afghans have entered the country from the two neighbours since late 2023, according to UN figures, largely the result of pushbacks by Tehran and Islamabad.Bahawaldin Nazim, the head of the facility, said it was “being built for returned migrants” and there was “no military site” there.”Labourers travelling from Khost, Kabul and other areas were killed.”- ‘Everything went dark’ -Jobs are scarce in Afghanistan, which is suffering from an economic crisis compounded by aid cuts, banking restrictions, and the mass returns.Rahimullah, a labourer who only gave one name, said he had sent his son to get generator fuel when the first strike hit.His other son called on his brother to return, and the family “wanted to escape from the area, but then there was another air strike”, said the 52-year-old.The Afghan government said Pakistani fire has killed more than 30 civilians since Thursday.Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.In Takhta Pul, Rahimullah’s 20-year-old son Enamullah said “everything went dark before our eyes” after the second strike.”We didn’t understand anything,” he said, with blood stains on his tattered shirt and plasters on his face.”I came from Kabul just to earn a piece of bread,” the construction worker told AFP.strs-ba-qb/rsc/ami

Afghanistan accused Pakistan of killing civilians in rural Kandahar on Saturday, as deadly violence flared between the South Asian neighbours.Months of cross-border clashes escalated Thursday when Afghanistan launched an offensive along the frontier, with Pakistani forces hitting back on the border and from the skies.On the road between the Afghan capital Kabul and the border, an AFP journalist in Jalalabad heard a jet and two explosions on Saturday. Afghan security forces said they had downed a Pakistani fighter jet and captured its pilot, which Islamabad denied as “totally untrue”.In rural southern Kandahar, construction workers said they were hit by two air strikes, which the manager of the site said killed three people.”Everything went dark before our eyes,” said 20-year-old Enamullah, who only gave one name. “I came from Kabul just to earn a piece of bread.”Pakistan acknowledged bombing key cities a day earlier including Kabul and Kandahar, which is home to Afghanistan’s supreme leader. Islamabad has not commented on civilian casualties.Afghan officials said Thursday’s border offensive was a response to earlier air strikes that killed civilians, which Pakistan said targeted militants.In addition to those killed in Kandahar, the Afghan government’s deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said Pakistani fire has killed 30 civilians across eastern Khost, Kunar and Paktika provinces since Thursday.Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.- ‘Everyone just got out’ -On Saturday, residents in Paktika told AFP exchanges of fire were ongoing, while in Khost some people had fled their homes near the frontier.”The bombardments started, children, women, everyone just got out,” said Mohammad Rasool, 63, who had reached another district.”Some didn’t have shoes, some weren’t veiled,” he told AFP.Diplomatic efforts have failed to secure a truce, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar engaged in efforts to halt the fighting. China said it was “working with” both countries and called for calm.The United States backed “Pakistan’s right to defend itself against Taliban attacks”, Allison Hooker, the under secretary of state for political affairs, wrote on X after talks with her Pakistani counterpart.Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government rejects.Many attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since 2021, the year the Taliban authorities returned to power in Kabul.This week’s escalation marked the first time that Pakistan has focused its air strikes on Afghan government facilities, analysts noted, a stark change from previous operations that it said targeted militants.Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister, told AFP that gunmen he said were associated with the Pakistani Taliban had attacked a checkpoint in the northwest. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack.”Pakistan’s immediate and effective response to aggression continues,” Zaidi said Friday, giving a figure of nearly 300 Afghan soldiers and militants killed.- ‘Open war’ -Pakistan’s information minister said on Saturday that 37 locations across Afghanistan had been hit by air strikes since its operation began.Islamabad said earlier 12 of its soldiers had been killed.Fitrat, Afghanistan’s deputy spokesman, said more than 80 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 27 military posts captured.The Afghan government earlier put the death toll among its troops at 13.The defence ministry in Kabul has also said it carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory over the past two days, which observers said could have been drones.Islamabad declared “open war” on Friday against the Taliban authorities, while the Afghan government called for “dialogue” to resolve the conflict.This month’s violence is the worst since October fighting killed more than 70 people on both sides, with land borders between the neighbours largely shut since.Several rounds of negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan last year followed a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey.Saudi Arabia intervened this month after repeated breaches of the initial truce, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October.burs-pbt/rsc/ami

Afghanistan said it downed a Pakistan fighter jet and captured its pilot on Saturday, a claim denied by Islamabad a day after it declared an “open war” with its South Asian neighbour.The Afghan military and police said the aircraft was shot down in the eastern city of Jalalabad, but Islamabad’s foreign ministry told AFP that it was “a false claim” and “totally untrue”.Pakistan launched air strikes in several cities and provinces on Friday including the capital Kabul and Kandahar, where Afghan Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, in a flare-up of cross-border fighting.The United States voiced its diplomatic support for Pakistan’s actions after Islamabad said it would not stop strikes that were meant to pressure the government in Kabul, which it accuses of backing militancy.The Taliban government has denied harbouring militants and its spokesperson has called for “dialogue” to resolve a previously simmering conflict that Pakistan’s defence minister said on Friday was now “open war”.An AFP journalist heard a jet flying over Jalalabad on Saturday, followed by the sound of two explosions from the direction of the Afghan city’s airport.Jalalabad residents told AFP that they saw a person who parachuted from the plane before being detained.The pilot was “captured alive”, said Jalalabad’s police spokesman Tayeb Hammad and the military spokesman in eastern Afghanistan, Wahidullah Mohammadi.The defence ministry in Kabul has also said it carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory over the past two days, which observers said could have been drones.The Taliban government said its forces began a border offensive late on Thursday in response to Pakistani strikes. The uneasy neighbours have clashed at the border intermittently for months.Pakistan’s information minister said on Saturday that 37 locations across Afghanistan had been hit by air strikes since its operation began.- ‘Effective response’ -“Pakistan’s immediate and effective response to aggression continues,” Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister, posted on X late on Friday.The United States “expressed support for Pakistan’s right to defend itself against Taliban attacks”, Allison Hooker, the under secretary of state for political affairs, wrote on X after talks with her Pakistani counterpart.The European Union called for “immediate de-escalation and a halt of hostilities”, adding in a statement by policy chief Kaja Kallas that “Afghan territory must not be used to threaten or attack other countries”.Saudi Arabia and Qatar engaged in efforts to halt the fighting, while China said it was “working with” both countries and called for calm.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Friday Afghan forces had killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and captured several others. He put the death toll among Afghan troops at 13.Pakistan’s Zaidi said 297 Afghan Taliban and militants had been killed. Islamabad said earlier 12 of its soldiers had been killed.The Afghan government’s deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said Pakistani fire overnight and early on Saturday had killed 11 residents in the border pronice of Kunar, with three more killed at a refugee camp in Kandahar.Fitrat said earlier at least 19 civilians had been killed in eastern Khost and Paktika provinces.Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.- Militants -This week’s escalation marked the first time that Pakistan has focused its air strikes on Afghan government facilities, analysts noted, a stark change from previous operations that it said targeted militants.Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with land border crossings largely shut since fighting in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides.Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since 2021.Pakistan’s Zaidi told AFP on Saturday that there had been no reports of border clashes during the night, but that gunmen he said were associated with the Pakistani Taliban had attacked a checkpoint in the northwest. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack.Several rounds of negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan last year followed a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey. Those efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.Saudi Arabia intervened this month after repeated breaches of the initial truce, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October.

Pakistan air strikes on Afghanistan drew diplomatic support from Washington as Islamabad said on Saturday it would not stop military operations pressuring the Afghan government, which it accuses of backing militancy.The Taliban government has denied harbouring militants and its spokesperson has called for “dialogue” to resolve a previously simmering conflict that Pakistan’s defence minister said on Friday was now “open war”.After both countries’ forces clashed at the border intermittently for months, Pakistan launched the strikes in the early hours of Friday morning in response to a cross-border Afghan offensive on Thursday night.Pakistan’s information minister said on Saturday that 37 locations across Afghanistan had been subject to aerial targeting since its operation began.It was not clear if strikes had taken place on Friday night, but authorities signaled operations were still taking place.”Pakistan’s immediate and effective response to aggression continues,” Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister, posted on X late on Friday.The United States “expressed support for Pakistan’s right to defend itself against Taliban attacks,” Allison Hooker, the under secretary of state for political affairs, wrote on X after talks with her Pakistani counterpart.The operation was Pakistan’s most widespread bombardment of the Afghan capital Kabul and its first air strikes on the city of Kandahar, the southern power base of the Taliban’s supreme leader since they returned to power in 2021.Zaidi did not confirm whether Pakistan had carried out air strikes overnight between Friday and Saturday.- Surge in hostilities -The sharp surge in hostilities drew international concern, with China, Britain, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross calling for immediate de-escalation and return to dialogue.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Friday Afghan forces had killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and captured several others, while putting the death toll among Afghan troops at 13.Zaidi, the Pakistan government spokesman, said 297 Afghan Taliban and militants had been killed. Islamabad earlier said 12 of its soldiers had been killed.The Afghan government’s deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said at least 19 civilians had been killed in eastern Khost and Paktika provinces.Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.This week’s escalation marked the first time in on-off fighting that Pakistan had focused its air strikes on Afghan government facilities, analysts noted, a stark change from previous operations it had carried out on Afghan territory that it said were targeting militants.Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with land border crossings largely shut since deadly fighting in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides.Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since 2021.Zaidi told AFP on Saturday that there had been no reports of border clashes during the night, but that gunmen — who he said were associated with the Pakistani Taliban — had attacked a checkpoint in northwest Pakistan near Afghanistan’s Khost province. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. – Push for negotiations -Iran, which shares an eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, offered on Friday to help “facilitate dialogue”, while Saudi Arabia and Qatar moved to allay tensions, and China said it was “working with” both countries while calling for calm.In Geneva, ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric said the organisation was preparing relief operations but stressed that “no humanitarian response can compensate for political will to respect the rules of war and prioritise de-escalation”. Last year, several rounds of negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan followed a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.After repeated breaches of the initial truce, Saudi Arabia intervened this month, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October.Just days later, Pakistan carried out strikes in eastern Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, which the UN mission in Afghanistan said killed at least 13 civilians. 

Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan and declared a state of “war” with its neighbor on Friday, drawing diplomatic support from Washington but a chorus of concern from others in the international community.Pakistan, which launched the strikes to retaliate for a cross-border Afghan offensive on Thursday night, said that 29 locations across Afghanistan had been “subjected to aerial targeting.” “Pakistan’s immediate and effective response to aggression continues,” Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister, posted on X.In response to the sharp surge in hostilities, Britain, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross called for immediate de-escalation while diplomats in China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar began efforts to calm the tensions.  The United States for its part “expressed support for Pakistan’s right to defend itself against Taliban attacks,” Allison Hooker, the under secretary of state for political affairs, wrote on X after talks with a Pakistani counterpart.The operation was Pakistan’s most widespread bombardment of Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and included strikes on their southern power base, Kandahar, as well as the Afghan capital. It was launched after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night in retaliation for earlier air strikes by Islamabad. Both sides claimed they inflicted significant casualties.– Casualties –Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghan forces killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and captured several others, while putting the death toll among Afghan troops at 13.Zaidi, the Pakistan government spokesman, said 297 Afghan Taliban and militants had been killed. Islamabad earlier said 12 of its soldiers had been killed. Afghanistan government spokesman Hamdullayh Fitrat said at least 19 civilians had been killed in Khost and Paktika provinces. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.Near the key Torkham border crossing, an AFP journalist heard shelling on Friday morning, and a camp accommodating Afghans who had returned from Pakistan was hit by the fighting overnight.”Children, women, and old people were running,” Gander Khan, a 65-year-old man, told AFP in front of rows of tents at the Omari camp.- Relations plunge -Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with land border crossings largely shut since deadly fighting in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides.Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power.Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared an “all-out confrontation” with the Taliban government, posting on X: “Now it is open war between us and you.”Taliban government spokesman Mujahid said Afghanistan wanted “dialogue” to resolve the conflict.”We have repeatedly emphasised a peaceful solution, and still want the problem to be resolved through dialogue,” Mujahid told a news conference, adding: “Right now, Pakistani planes, reconnaissance aircraft, are flying over Afghanistan’s airspace.”- Delicate ceasefire broken -The strikes mark a “significant and dangerous escalation from earlier clashes”, South Asia expert Michael Kugelman said on X.”Pakistan appears to have expanded its targeting beyond TTP to the Taliban regime itself,” he said.Several rounds of negotiations between Islamabad and Kabul followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.The military operation follows recent Pakistan strikes on Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, which the UN mission in Afghanistan said killed at least 13 civilians. Besides military operations, there have been a series of deadly suicide blasts in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months. They included an attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad that killed at least 40 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.The militant group’s regional chapter, Islamic State-Khorasan, also claimed a deadly suicide bombing at a restaurant in Kabul last month.burs-je/ksb/msp

India’s economy grew at a faster pace than expected in the last quarter of 2025 driven by solid consumer spending, data showed Friday, using a new framework that calculates economic output more accurately.Gross domestic product rose 7.8 percent in the October-to-December quarter from the same period a year earlier, according to data from the statistics ministry.While growth slipped from the 8.4 percent recorded in the previous quarter, it edged past market expectations of 7.6 percent.Aditi Nayar of ratings agency ICRA said the GDP growth number was “healthier than what we had expected”.”The moderation was expectedly driven by the agriculture and the non-manufacturing industrial sectors,” she said in a note.Friday’s reading re-affirmed India as the world’s fastest-growing major economy and is a shot in the arm for policymakers who have struggled with steep US tariffs, a falling rupee and muted consumption for most of 2025.Last year, the government claimed India had surpassed Japan to become the world’s fourth-largest economy.However, the data for 2025 shows India’s nominal GDP in dollar terms was still under the $4 trillion mark compared to Japan’s $4.4 trillion — indicating that while it was close, the crossover has yet to happen.Based on current numbers, India will cross the $4 trillion mark comfortably in 2026-27, India’s chief economic advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran said.”The relative ranking will also depend on other countries’ growth rates and exchange rates as well,” he said.Faced with a dimming economic outlook, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to bolster the economy by slashing income and consumption taxes which have helped rebound consumer spending in recent quarters.- Data overhaul -New Delhi also managed to secure a trade deal with Washington in early February, which boosted sentiment around the rupee but came just weeks before the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.The GDP numbers are the first data released under a revised framework that New Delhi said better captures “the realities of a fast-changing economy”.The data overhaul has seen India shift its GDP base year to 2022-23 from 2011-12 and adopt more granular price deflation to help quell concerns that earlier methods relied too heavily on the wholesale price index.Growth calculations are now also based on sources of data including India’s online tax and vehicle registration databases.The government said the new data aligns official numbers “more closely with the structure and dynamics of today’s economy”.The data revamp also sees New Delhi raising its growth projections for the current financial year that ends in March.The Indian economy is now projected to grow 7.6 percent for the full fiscal year, up from a forecast of 7.4 percent published last month, a press release from the statistics ministry said.The latest figures bring Modi closer to his goal of transforming India into a developed nation by 2047 — a target that most analysts say would require the economy to record about 8 percent growth every year until then.Analysts say New Delhi’s growth trajectory reduces the likelihood of any rate cuts from India’s central bank.”The important point from a monetary policy perspective is that the new data confirm that the economy is performing strongly,” Shilan Shah of Capital Economics said in a note.”They don’t change our view that the Reserve Bank’s easing cycle has come to an end.”

Afghans who recently returned from Pakistan and residents near a key crossing expressed their fears of deadly border clashes on Friday, as smoke billowed from the mountains.AFP journalists heard shellfire and gunfire in Torkham, with Afghan soldiers heading towards the frontier after overnight bombardment by Pakistan, in a major escalation following months of tit-for-tat clashes.Fighting overnight hit a camp for Afghans who had just crossed from Pakistan, killing one and wounding several others, according to a provincial health official.Gander Khan, a 65-year-old returnee, described how “children, women and old people were running”.”I saw blood. It wounded two or three children and two or three women,” he told AFP, standing in front of rows of tents.The Torkham crossing has remained open for Afghans returning en masse from Pakistan, despite the land border being otherwise largely shut since fighting between the neighbours in October.The Omari camp accommodates returnees near the crossing and was hit by a mortar shell overnight, Nangarhar provincial official Qureshi Badlun said.Zarghon, a 44-year-old returnee who only gave one name, said two or three children went missing in the panic.”Some have left their papers, and just escaped. They didn’t even take their money, they didn’t take their aid which they received. Because of fear, everyone left,” he told AFP.In the provincial capital Jalalabad, an AFP photographer saw several women who were wounded in Omari camp receiving treatment.Naqibullah Rahimi, Nangarhar’s public health spokesman, said nine women and five men had been hospitalised.”A woman, among others wounded, passed away after she was brought to the hospital,” he told AFP.- ‘Great suffering’ -Back near the border, returnees sat in the open air after fleeing the violence.A ground offensive was launched by Afghan forces late Thursday, in what the Taliban authorities said was retaliation for deadly Pakistani air strikes days earlier.The outbreak of cross-border fighting was followed by Pakistan launching air strikes on the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the key city of Kandahar, which were heard by AFP journalists.On a Torkham roadside, resident Waqas Shinwari indicated shells being fired in the distance.”There should be peace and reconciliation on both sides, because people are in great suffering,” he told AFP.The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said it had “temporarily paused operations” at Omari camp as it assesses the situation.”Reports of a mortar impact last night… underscore the urgent need for safety, restraint, and international protection for vulnerable populations,” the agency said in a statement.Although returnees have been able to cross the frontier in recent months, the broader closure has hit Torkham residents hard.Muhammad Kareem said he and every neighbour “earns a living because of this border”.”If there is peace on this border, we can have a life. But if there is no peace on the border, then we will leave,” he told AFP.strs-rsc/ami/lga

Fast bowler Salman Mirza vowed on Friday that Pakistan will finish the Super Eights with a flourish against already-eliminated Sri Lanka, whether or not they still have hopes of reaching the semi-finals.Pakistan need England to beat New Zealand handsomely in Colombo on Friday and then post a big victory of their own against Sri Lanka on Saturday to sneak into the final four on net run rate. A New Zealand win will end Pakistan’s hopes, rendering the Sri Lanka clash in Kandy meaningless in terms of the tournament. “It’s a critical situation as reaching the semi-final is not in our control,” Mirza told reporters”But if we reach the semi-final we have the capability to do better,” Mirza said.Pakistan’s campaign started on a nervy note with a three-wicket win in a thrilling last-over finish against the Netherlands before overcoming the United States and Namibia.In between they lost heavily to India in a highly anticipated clash in Colombo.Pakistan’s first Super Eight match against New Zealand was washed out in Colombo before they lost to England and Harry Brook’s sparkling century in Kandy on Tuesday.”We needed to win the match against England and that defeat has given us this position,” said Mirza. After Brook was dismissed near the end of England’s run chase, Pakistan hit back with two wickets in the penultimate over.Mirza bowled the final over with three runs to defend and two wickets to take for victory but Jofra Archer hit the first ball for four.”I had the opportunity to become a hero in the final over, but I couldn’t grab that one,” said Mirza.”Such opportunities do not come your way every day. Had I taken two wickets we would have won that match, but it was not to be.”