Taliban as partners
“We view the Taliban as ...an important partner in a peaceful Afghan-led reconciliation process. We are not actively targeting the Taliban”, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis. This is a…
It’s good to be the Taliban
AFGHANISTAN is back in the news and you’ve heard the boys’ version. They want to make peace happen, but there’s only so much they can do. The Taliban aren’t our…
Freed afghan village reveals key to taliban ‘success’
Flanked by shaggy-haired gunmen, commander Ghulam Farooq peered out from a hilltop at the biggest military prize of his storied career as a warlord - a mud-walled Afghan village captured…
PML-N’s bad-maza (tasteless) government
Islamabad diary Sindh’s strongman, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, and the army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif, have one thing in common. Every other day the Sindh CM has to be in…
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…
‘Did the Indians ask about the Taliban?’
Two sets of discussions on Pakistan, its politics and its political economy revealed a very different perspective on how the west (primarily London and Washington) sees Pakistan from its vantage…
Rohingyas, Taliban and the licence to kill
This is just what Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingyas needed – solidarity vows from Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Taliban! The militant group has urged Muslims in Myanmar to “rise up and fight” the country’s rulers,…
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…
The other Taliban
A couple of Western diplomats from Islamabad were in Delhi the other day to probe the prospects of improving India-Pakistan ties, and to find out what if anything the media…
Talks with the Taliban
We need to see how matters stood on the ground before 9/11. There was no army in Fata. All matters of government and those of the tribes were dealt with…
