MUZAFFARABAD: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto yesterday [May 1] reassured the Kashmiri people that their struggle for self-determination … was inseparably linked with the ideal of Pakistan. In a message addressed to the people of occupied Kashmir, [he] expressed his confidence that their days of tribulations would ultimately be over. Pointing out that the ideal of Pakistan envisaged inclusion of all Muslim majority areas of the Subcontinent in the Islamic State, he said this struggle was not yet complete. It would be complete only after the Kashmiri people got their right to self-determination. The [PM’s] message was recorded by Azad Kashmir Radio, Muzaffarabad, during a meeting with Kashmiri editors… . — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Teheran,] fourteen Pakistani pilgrims were killed and 18 injured in an explosion in a house in Zahidan city, in south-east Iran … newspapers here reported. Official sources said the cause of the explosion, which also shattered windows of several nearby houses, was being investigated. The explosion … was blamed on gunpowder which the Pakistani travellers had brought in from Pakistan to be used in making fireworks, the reports published here said.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2026