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  FEARING getting caught up in violent clashes or breaking curfew, many students are braving food shortages while remaining holed up in hostels.—AFP/file Many moved to ‘safer places’ after medical colleges close, hostels shut due to violent protests • Those still left face food shortage, dare not venture out due to risk of being accosted • FO advises Pakistani students not to get involved in the protests WHEN Irfan*, a final-year medical student from Pakistan, returned to Dhaka after vacations last month, he could have never imagined the dramatic turn his life would take in the days to come. Over a matter of days, he found himself face to face with blood-soaked bodies, faced a curfew and has been forced to hide in hostel rooms to save himself. “There’s still a curfew; we don’t know how long it will last,” he told Dawn from the Bangladesh capital. The principal of their college, he said, had indicated that the campus could remain closed for two to three weeks. Each year, 23 students...

  ISLAMABAD : Prime Min­i­ster Shehbaz Sharif assured the lawmakers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that the development of the province, particularly its merged districts, is the top priority of the government. Talking to members of the national and provincial assemblies from KP here on Thursday, the PM claimed that the PML-N government has always given priority to the development of merged districts of KP. Assuring provision of top standard health and education facilities in the merged districts, Mr Sharif said the government would establish Danish Schools in the area to provide quality education to students of these districts. He also emphasised the need to stop electricity theft, promote solar energy and provide relief to the poor and middle class. Reaffirms Pakistan’s support to ECO in boosting intra-regional trade He said the government is converting agricultural tubewells into solar energy across the country because it would help development of the agriculture sector, increase cultiva...

  US President Joe Biden met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and called on the Israeli leader to swiftly finalise a deal on a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages, AFP reports. “President Biden expressed the need to close the remaining gaps, finalize the deal as soon as possible, bring the hostages home, and reach a durable end to the war in Gaza,” according to a White House readout, which added they discussed the “humanitarian crisis” in the embattled Palestinian territory and the need to remove obstacles to the flow of aid