Stories from South Asia
“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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]