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Peshawar school roof collapse kills five children of same family

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A family was mourning the deaths of five children Friday after the roof of their school collapsed in Peshawar, killing 35 people and forcing authorities to urge safety inspections across the region.

The victims included 11-year olds Mubasshir Naeem and Sanan Asad, seven-year olds Amir Mangal and Haleema Haleem and eight-year old Romaisa Ismail, among 34 children murdered after the roof of their private school fell in Peshawar’s Dir Colony on Thursday. Also killed was a teacher.

“It is all quiet around,” Tausif Uddin, an uncle of the five children, told Arab News as visitors flocked to the family’s hujra, a traditional guest room, to offer condolences on Friday afternoon.

“When I was lying down at nite, I opened the window and it was completely silent. “The whole neighborhood has been silent since yesterday.”

Uddin said he was at home Thursday morning when some youngsters unexpectedly came home from school with their clothes muddy.

“It was 8:30 in the morning and I was at home. At about 8:45 a.m. there was a knock on the door. “The children don’t come home at this time,” he told his wife.

“When I saw them through the window they were mucky. I asked them what happened and they informed me the roof had collapsed.

The family rushed to the school without pausing to put on their shoes.

“Then we didn’t look at nothing’. We didn’t even have slippers on our feet to run to the school. “When we got there, it was like doomsday,” Uddin added.

“We pulled the children out of the rubble by hand. They died in torment.”

“We just can’t comprehend the scale of the disaster as the news of the collapse is spreading,” said another uncle, Zubair Khan.

“We didn’t know what happened, what was going on, for up to an hour,” he added. “The mind could not understand it at first. Then we went and witnessed the situation and [heard that] children died.”

The most painful recollections for Khan were within the family home, where the normal talks and routines of the children were suddenly absent.

“The children who would laugh and scream, saying We need this thing, I am going to school tomorrow, it is late, and this and that. “They’re not living any more,” he added. Their voices, their discourse, are gone forever.

The proprietor of the school has been arrested by police and a commission has been set up by the provincial administration to investigate the disaster.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa council’s education adviser Dr Syed Amir Abdullah said the authorities have begun a province-wide evaluation of school buildings’ safety.

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Trophy unveiled as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England gear up for ODI tri-series

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The trophy for the upcoming ODI tri-series between Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England has been unveiled with the captains of the three sides sitting for photographs with the silverware.

Pakistan skipper Shaheen Shah Afridi, England captain Harry Brook and Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis were present at the trophy unveiling ceremony ahead of the much-awaited tournament.

The tri-series begins on October 18 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, with hosts Pakistan facing Sri Lanka in the opening game. The match is set to commence at 1:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time (PST).



Rawalpindi will host the first three matches of the competition before the action shifts to Lahore.

The final will be played at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore on October 31.

The teams will face each other twice in a double round-robin format throughout the league stage, creating a competitive series amongst the three nations.

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Indian students hold ‘stop vote theft’ protest against Modi govt in London

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Hundreds of Indian students gathered at Parliament Square in the British capital on Saturday to protest against India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and seek the dismissal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a disputed alteration of electoral lists.

The event, organized by the Indian Overseas Congress Youth branch, with backing from UK-based Indian students’ groups and other diaspora organizations, included appeals to end “vote theft” and defend India’s democratic institutions.

The rally was addressed by Dhruv Rathee, an activist who was the keynote speaker during the “Stop Vote Chori” (Stop Vote Theft) protest.

He demanded the replacement of the chief election commissioner through a mechanism negotiated by the administration and the opposition leader.

“It is important that the message against ‘vote chori’ is spread in our country,” Rathee stated in Hindi. “These protests will continue until the Chief Election Commissioner is removed and a person accepted by the government and Leader of the Opposition is appointed.”

Hundreds of Indian students gathered at the Parliament Square in the British capital on Saturday to protest against India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and demand the sacking of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a disputed alteration of electoral lists.

The event, organized by the Indian Overseas Congress Youth branch, with backing from UK-based Indian students’ groups and other diaspora organizations, included appeals to end “vote theft” and defend India’s democratic institutions.

The rally was addressed by Dhruv Rathee, an activist who was the keynote speaker during the “Stop Vote Chori” (Stop Vote Theft) protest.

He demanded the replacement of the chief election commissioner through a mechanism negotiated by the administration and the opposition leader.

“It is important that the message against ‘vote chori’ is spread in our country,” Rathee stated in Hindi. “These protests will end when the Chief Election Commissioner is replaced by a person acceptable to both the government and the Leader of the Opposition.

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Canada reports deaths after ‘incident’ on military base in Alberta

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Late on Saturday, Canadian Defense Minister David McGuinty stated there were “fatalities and injuries” following an incident at a military base in western Canada.

“I am saddened to say that there have been fatalities and injuries as a consequence of an incident on the base,” McGuinty added, named as Wainwright in Alberta.

Prime Minister Mark Carney had previously posted to X on Saturday that “a serious incident creating a major fire” had occurred at the base.

Neither gave specifics about how many injuries there were or what happened at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, some 200 kilometers southeast of Edmonton.

“We’ll have more to say in the hours and days to come,” added McGuinty.

CFB Wainwright is among the busiest army bases in Canada.

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