Stories from Afghanistan and India
Fifteen Taliban members thought to be responsible for a spate of assassinations in Kabul and beyond were captured on Tuesday, Afghanistan’s primary intelligence organisation announced. The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the men were tasked with carrying out assassinations […]
On the morning of Sept. 12, just hours ahead of a historic meeting between the Afghan government and the Taliban, a short note, written in Dari, was posted on the insurgent group’s website. It attempted to explain why, even after months of […]
National identity cards in Afghanistan will carry a person’s mother’s name alongside that of the father following the latest decree signed into law by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The move comes after years of campaigning by Afghan women seeking greater […]
A historic meeting between the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgency to negotiate the end of two decades of war in the country began on Saturday. After months of delays, the Afghan delegation, led by Dr Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of […]
The much delayed intra-Afghan talks are set to begin on Saturday, the Afghan government and Taliban confirmed. US President Donald Trump revealed on Thursday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had left for Doha, Qatar, for the talks. Mr Trump […]
“Mohammed Gul” insists he was never a member of the Afghan Taliban, even though he was one of 5,000 inmates released by the government as a condition to bring the insurgents to the negotiating table. But if the peace talks […]
Since he was a child, 60-year-old Nidan Singh Sachdeva has never missed a single Saavan mela, an annual religious gathering celebrated by the Sikh community in Afghanistan’s Paktya province to mark the monsoon season. The dry mountainous terrains of Afghanistan […]
Farahnaz Forotan was three when the Taliban had arrived in Kabul. It was 1996. “I have this memory of a snowy day, I was sitting on my mother’s lap, in a minibus, and she was crying. I didn’t understand why she was […]
LAM GUL ALAM’S symptoms had been steadily worsening for weeks when he decided to visit an herbalist named Haji Mohammad Alkozai. The 30-year-old civil servant from Kabul had intently watched a video clip making the rounds on Afghan social media, in which […]
An assembly of prominent Afghans on Sunday approved the release of hundreds of Taliban prisoners accused of serious crimes, a decision that clears the way for peace talks with the insurgent group but evokes mixed emotions among victims of their […]