Global terrorist threat
THE deadly attack on a concert hall in Moscow last week, which left around 140 people dead, marks the expansion in the terrorist operations of the so-called Khorasan chapter of…
Going all wrong – Part II
In the decade or so after school as I negotiated various economics and law degrees at Cambridge, London and Harvard, I kept returning to Pakistan and the conversations that were…
Regional militant sanctuaries
THE dreaded militant outfit that once held sway over Pakistan’s former Fata may have been driven out from its stronghold and splintered, but its sanctuaries across the border in Afghanistan…
Intra-Afghan peace talks
WITH the last hitch removed, the elusive intra-Afghan dialogue is now likely to take place next week to discuss the country’s political future that could bring an end to the…
Talking Afghan peace
IN what is being described as the most tangible step forward in the Afghan peace talks, US officials and the Afghan Taliban seem to have come close to a deal…
Legal eye: Cops as scapegoats
The police are not a powerful club in Pakistan: the military is, the judiciary is, intelligence agencies are and even the DMG, but not the police. Cops probably remain the…
The Taliban tightrope
The killing of Mullah Akhtar Mansour signals a more aggressive US policy stance, as hopes of the Afghan Taliban coming to the negotiating table fade. The death of the recently…
Decentralised chaos
It is a great sight: Pakistan and Afghanistan security kingpins sitting together trying to iron out differences. Even better is to hear Abdullah Abdullah, Kabul’s significant co-sharer of power with…
Forget all else but the real evil
THE killing of the two military policemen in Karachi was a grim reminder, if one was needed, of the existential challenge facing Pakistan despite the sacrifices, and battlefield successes, of…
ISIS is no Taliban
The dramatic rise of the Islamic State organisation formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its proclamation of a so-called caliphate portend a new and more…
