Abubakar Siddique, a journalist for RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, specializes in the coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is the author of The Pashtun Question: The Unresolved Key To The Future Of Pakistan And Afghanistan.
In this week’s Gandhara Briefing, we bring you our reporting on the price Pakistani pays for failing to politically resolve a separatist conflict in Balochistan, the woes of displaced Afghans who lost their houses to fighting, and the alleged forced disappearances of Afghan women by the Taliban.
Deadly attacks in Balochistan have revived a simmering conflict between secular ethnic Baluch separatists and Pakistan's military. The fighting has revealed an internal dispute among the separatists regarding their approach and laid bare Islamabad's failure to find a solution to the insurgency.
Baluch separatists who sought sanctuary in Afghanistan amid a military crackdown in Pakistan appear to be on the move after the Taliban's seizure of power in Kabul and longstanding ties with Islamabad placed their safe haven under threat.
In this week’s Gandhara Briefing, we bring you insights on why Afghan children are dying from hunger, the ethnic infighting within the Taliban ranks, and how the Taliban victory in Afghanistan has bolstered Islamist political parties in Pakistan.
The number of malnourished children in Afghanistan is rapidly rising, as witnessed by increased hospital admissions of starving children. Aid agencies warn that more than 1 million children could die of starvation this winter amid a deepening humanitarian and economic crisis.
In this week’s Gandhara Briefing, we bring you insights on how the Taliban is misappropriating international aid, the Taliban’s use of water to appease Iran, and Pakistan’s new effort to negotiate with the TTP.
The Taliban recently released water from a dam in southwestern Afghanistan into Iran, which is suffering from a severe drought. Many observers have seen the move as a sign of deepening cooperation between the Sunni militant group and Iran's Shi'ite clerical regime.
In this week’s Gandhara Briefing, we bring you insights into why Afghan diplomats are resisting a Taliban takeover of their missions, the Taliban’s war on music, and the miseries of Afghans stranded in Indonesia.
Many of Afghanistan's embassies still represent the previous Western-backed Afghan government, which was toppled by the Taliban in August. Many exiled diplomats are defying the Taliban and frustrating its efforts to take over their missions.
This week’s Gandhara Briefing brings you insights on increasing TTP attacks in Pakistan, the Taliban’s relations with Central Asian neighbors, and why former Afghan prosecutors fear for their lives.
A female Afghan prosecutor overcame a crippling disease and discrimination to pursue an education and get her dream job. But since the Taliban takeover, she has been unemployed as the militants have barred many women from returning to work.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you insights on Afghan opposition to the Taliban’s religious policing, what's behind the border clash between the Taliban and Turkmenistan, and Pakistani university students who are volunteering to educate child laborers.
The Taliban's feared Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has issued a spate of draconian decrees in recent weeks. Afghans say the directives, including ordering men to grow beards and women to travel with a male chaperone, infringe on basic human rights and freedoms.
In this week’s Gandhara Briefing, we bring you insights on the Taliban’s future, the potential new Great Game in Afghanistan, and a university graduate who is running a secret school to educate teenage Afghan girls.
Since the Taliban seized power, it has vandalized or destroyed the graves of some of its slain foes, including prominent military commanders in the former Afghan Army. The militants have also targeted monuments dedicated to figures who fought the group during its first stint in power in the 1990s.
The Taliban defied expectations by seizing power in Afghanistan during a lightning military campaign in August. But the militant group faces many challenges to its rule, including the threat by rival IS-K militants, growing internal rifts, and its failure to win domestic or international support.
A young Afghan woman is running a secret school for girls inside her home in Kabul. The woman, a university graduate, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that she is teaching around 50 girls at her own expense.
This week’s Gandhara Briefing brings you insights on Central Asia’s fragile truce with the Taliban, the Afghan boxers who are seeking asylum in Europe, and a senior Afghan former official’s account of what led to the fall of the republic.
In this week’s Gandhara Briefing, we bring you insights on the accusations of forced evictions by the Taliban, Afghan women’s latest protests from home, and the toll of the Taliban takeover on women’s careers.
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![“The aim of establishing this school is to help girls catch up on their studies after their education was stopped after [the Taliban] grabbed power,” Mursal told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.](https://gdb.rferl.org/08ef0000-0a00-0242-3d81-08d9c53c2ecc_cx0_cy0_cw80_w100_r1.jpeg)
![“The aim of establishing this school is to help girls catch up on their studies after their education was stopped after [the Taliban] grabbed power,” Mursal told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.](https://gdb.rferl.org/08ef0000-0a00-0242-3d81-08d9c53c2ecc_cx0_cy0_cw80_w66_r1.jpeg)
