Afghanistan Is Trying to Save Its Child Bombers
In a room full of loud teenagers, 17-year-old Mohammad Ehsan is the quietest. (The names of the boys in this piece have been changed to protect their identities.) The other boys in this juvenile ...
“Anyone who takes the side of Pakistan and blames India, please unfriend [me] from Facebook, otherwise I will [say things that] upset you,” Mohammad Iqbal Afzali wrote on social media on Tuesday. A quick scroll through his Facebook feed reveals a strong stance in support of India’s recent cross-border airstrikes on Jaish-e-Mohammed targets in Balakot,...
A planned meeting between the Taliban and the Pakistani leadership has been cancelled following a complaint by the Afghan government to the United Nations about their neighbor interfering in Afghan affairs. A representative of President Ashraf Ghani’s government at the United Nations sent a letter to the UN Security Council last Friday, saying an invitation...
Saina Hamidi, a psychological counsellor in Kabul, Afghanistan, says she was around nine years old when she first heard mention of women who bleed. Her older sister had come across one of their cousins washing bloodied clothes and told their mother about it. “I overheard my mother reprimand my sister for talking about it and...
The Taliban called off a meeting with the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday, saying a UN blacklist prevented their members from travelling. News that the meeting had been planned angered some Afghan politicians who accused Islamabad of supporting the insurgents. Kabul sent a letter to the UN Security Council late last week complaining...
Mohammad Wazir Razi “Kabuli”, now about 52, was very young when the Soviet Army invaded his country. But his memory of what followed in the years after is impeccable. “I was in grade six and everything changed overnight, our school, our neighbourhood. The Soviets hadn’t just invaded the country, they invaded our culture and religion...
The recent round of talks between the US government and Taliban leaders in Qatar has renewed hopes for peace in Afghanistan, a country plagued by nearly four decades of war. However, peace talks with the militant group also raised concerns among Afghan citizens with regard to the political and social achievements of the last 18 years,...
Despite progress in peace negotiations between the Taliban and the United States, Afghan civilians have found no respite in the ongoing war, with casualties continuing to mount. Local news outlets reported over 1800 civilian casualties in January, reducing hope for a peaceful winter—a period usually considered as a respite from fighting season. About 986 people...
Ordinary Afghans and political observers say they fear the talks hosted by Russia last week have harmed the prospect of long-term peace and given the Taliban insurgents the upper hand in negotiations with the United States. The two-day Moscow meeting was the first time senior Afghan politicians held talks with the militants directly, and the...
Earlier this month, the Taliban met with a group of Afghan politicians in Moscow. While the government was not included in the talks, prominent Afghan leaders like ex-President Hamid Karzai, former National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar, Deputy-Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq, and Opposition leader Atta Mohammad Noor were among those present. Both sides called the gathering...
The US-led effort to launch peace talks between Taliban insurgents and the Afghan government presents Pakistan with a chance to mend ties with Washington by playing a positive role and giving up a longstanding policy of trying to retain influence in Afghanistan, according to Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US. The US,...
