Pakistan has banned New Year celebrations to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the government said late Thursday, urging people instead to “be modest in their observances,” AFP reported.
In a televised address to the nation in the evening, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said that due to the situation in the Gaza Strip, the government has “completely banned all kinds of events related to New Year’s celebrations.”
Israel’s relentless aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, in retaliation for Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, left much of the northern territory in ruins and killed at least 21,320 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
An attack by Palestinian militants on October 7 killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli data.
Kakar said on Thursday that the entire Pakistani nation and the Muslim Ummah are deeply saddened by the genocide of the oppressed Palestinians, especially the massacre of innocent children, in Gaza and the West Bank.
New Year’s Eve in Pakistan is usually celebrated in a boisterous way, with fireworks and aerial firing, and January 1 is also celebrated as a national holiday.
Sharjah, the emirate of the United Arab Emirates, banned New Year’s fireworks on Thursday because of the war in Gaza.
The ban decision is “a sincere expression of solidarity and humanitarian cooperation with our brothers and sisters in the Gaza Strip,” Sharjah Police said in a Facebook post.
