Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif today said he’s ready for a “neutral investigation” of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam where 26 people, including a Nepalese national, were gunned down. 
The terror attack, one of the deadliest since the scrapping of Article 370 in 2019, has triggered high-level diplomatic and security responses from the government against Pakistan, which has been accused of harbouring the handlers and backers of this terrorist group. 

Addressing a graduation ceremony at the Pakistan Military Academy in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Kakul, Prime Minister Sharif said that his country is open to taking part in a “credible” investigation. 

“The recent tragedy in Pahalgam is yet another example of this perpetual blame game, which must come to a grinding halt. Continuing with its role as a responsible country, Pakistan is open to participating in any neutral, transparent and credible investigation,” Mr Sharif said. 

The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy for the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, has claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack. Pakistan has often been accused of harbouring and funding terror groups engaged in cross-border infiltrations. 

“Pakistan has always condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” Mr Sharif added. 

Mr Sharif’s remark comes a day after Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif in an interview with New York Times said that Pakistan was “ready to cooperate” with “any investigation which is conducted by international inspectors”.

(NDTV)

Dozens of world leaders and thousands of mourners are gathering for the funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday aged 88.

The service will begin at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) in front of St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

More than 250,000 people came to pay their respects to the late pontiff over the three days he was lying in state, the Vatican says.

Preparations have begun for the conclave, the process by which cardinals will elect the next Pope.

In Sri Lanka, the government has declared today a national day of mourning in honour of the funeral of His Holiness Pope Francis.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism – Vijitha Herath will represent the Government of Sri Lanka at the funeral.

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Myanmar authorities have arrested an astrologer for causing panic by predicting a new earthquake in a viral TikTok video.

John Moe The posted his prediction on 9 April, just two weeks after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 3,500 people and destroyed centuries-old temples in the South East Asian nation.

He was arrested Tuesday for making “false statements with the intention of causing public panic”, Myanmar’s information ministry said.

John Moe The had warned that an earthquake would “hit every city in Myanmar” on 21 April. But experts say earthquakes are impossible to predict due to the complexity of the factors involved in such disasters.

In his video, which got more than three million views, John Moe The urged people to “take important things with you and run away from buildings during the shaking.”

“People should not stay in tall buildings during the day,” read its caption.

A Yangon resident told AFP that many of her neighbours believed in the prediction. They refused to stay in their homes and camped outside the day John Moe The said the earthquake would happen.

His now-defunct TikTok account, which has more than 300,000 followers, claims to make predictions based on astrology and palmistry.

He was arrested during a raid on his home in Sagaing, central Myanmar.

The areas of Mandalay and Sagaing were hit especially hard by the earthquake on 28 March, which prompted a rare request from the Myanmar junta for foreign aid.

That earthquake was felt some 1,000km away in Bangkok, where a building collapsed at a construction site, killing dozens.

(BBC News)