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The Taliban After Mullah Omar

The Taliban after Mullah Omar

The story of Afghanistan is one of superpower stupidity accompanied by the hare-brained ‘strategic’ ambitions of neighbouring states and the insatiable lust for power among local warlords. These three factors…

Mullah Omar’s Eid Message

Mullah Omar’s Eid message

“The Afghans have slain the black ox and are marching to battle. They have beaten upon their shields with spears, and have put on their helmets,” wrote Oscar Wilde at…

Meeting Mullah Omar

Meeting Mullah Omar

The day I was reassigned to the Afghanistan Desk at the foreign office in November 1996,I had my first,and somewhat comical,encounter with the Taliban. President Farooq Leghari had just dismissed…

Rahimullah Yusufzai: journalism as war

WITH the passing away of Rahimullah Yusufzai ends an important phase in the reporting of imperialist wars in Afghanistan and the adjacent Pakhtun tribal areas. Despite his painful cancer treatment…

Rahimullah Yusufzai

With the death of Rahimullah Yusufzai, a chapter of journalism in the South Asian region has ended forever. I was lucky to have known him, and, over the years, I…

Mullah Mansour Exits

Mullah Mansour exits

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour's killing in a drone strike in Dalbandin district near the Iran border has once again altered all the permutations and combinations attending the Afghan…

The Taliban character

THE Afghan Taliban’s character has remained tricky throughout their history. Their leadership is notorious for shifting positions and breaking its promises. Who knows better than Pakistan’s security institutions, which have…

Return to the dark ages

IT is a year since the Taliban stormed Kabul to retake control of Afghanistan some two decades after the conservative Islamic regime was routed by American forces following the events of 9/11.…

Tackling militancy

The January 30 terror attack inside a mosque in Peshawar has terrified the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), who had been warning the government of the possible resurgence of militancy…

Learning from Afghanistan

WHAT did Afghan kids study after Mullah Omar’s Taliban were ousted in 2001? What was their school curriculum and, most importantly, how does it differ from PTI’s controversial Single National…