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.
This week’s Gandhara Briefing gives you the inside stories on the killing of an intrepid RFE/RL journalist in Helmand, the likely stance Biden will take on Pakistan and Afghanistan, and how millions will continue to suffer under a Saudi visa regime sometimes equated with modern slavery.
Radio Free Afghanistan journalist Mohammad Ilyas Dayee, who was killed today in a car bomb attack in Helmand, was an intrepid field reporter who tirelessly wrote news of the frontlines in his Afghan province and the human cost of the ongoing conflict.
Mohammad Ilyas Dayee, an Afghan journalist working for RFE/RL, was killed in a targeted bomb attack in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand Province, on November 12.
As Washington seeks to end the longest war in its history, Biden’s presidency is poised to tweak but not completely change the U.S. course in Afghanistan while also adjusting relations with neighboring Pakistan.
This week’s Gandhara Briefing looks at the victims of a terrorist attack on Afghanistan’s premier seat of learning, a multipronged Taliban offensive to overrun the second Afghan city, and how violence is pushing Afghan peace talks to a point of collapse.
Muhammad Rahed, 21, was known as a brilliant student and motivational speaker. He taught English and was at the top of his class at Kabul University’s Policy and Public Administration School. Helived by the motto “Smile in the face of hardship.”
This week’s Gandhara Briefing gives you the inside stories on how the Taliban mines data off smartphones, their return to a former stronghold in Pakistan, and how a team of young Afghans -- including women -- scaled their country’s highest peak to showcase their country’s wild natural beauty.
The Taliban now controls stretches of major highways across Afghanistan, and thousands of people are stopped each week at makeshift checkpoints where the hard-line militants comb through their smartphones for content, contacts, and social media accounts.
Though not involved in the current war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, Kabul supports Baku. For Afghans, the current war has revived memories of their participation in the last major war in that territory nearly 30 years ago.
Pakistan's powerful generals have long cited political corruption as justification for toppling governments, but an exposé about the family business empire of a former army general who is now a senior government adviser has spurred debate about corruption.
Amid major controversy over allegations that Russia offered incentives to Taliban fighters to kill American soldiers, we take a look at Russian-Taliban relations through the years and the Kremlin's motives in Afghanistan.
A new movement demanding security for Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun minority is calling for the country’s leaders to roll back destructive policies that have fomented domestic volatility, ruined neighboring Afghanistan and fueled the longest war in U.S. history.
With General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani leaving after six successful years as Pakistan's Army chief, Islamabad must name his successor. The choice appears to be down to four candidates.
He was one of America's most-wanted terrorists. So his assassination in Pakistan's capital city, where he apparently lived openly and lavishly, instantly raised questions about Islamabad's commitment to the war on terrorism.
As if a stinging election defeat was not enough, the reputation of the Awami National Party (ANP), one of Pakistan's top secular parties, is now being dragged through the mud. The source of the embarrassment is a very public feud involving the party's leading families.
Amid the outcry over the killing of a high-ranking Pakistani Taliban leader, a major NATO supply line running through Pakistan is under threat. A blockade could have a potentially serious impact.
The Pakistani Taliban has reportedly named Maulana Fazlullah as its new leader. The man is dubbed "Radio Mullah" for his fiery radio broadcasts.
A new report by rights watchdog Amnesty International says that some U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan could amount to war crimes.
Thousands of quake survivors are still waiting for international aid three weeks after earthquakes killed hundreds in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan.
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