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.
The death of bin Laden, political assassinations, drone and helicopter strikes in restive border areas -- 2011 stacks up as the year the focus in the war on terror turned to Pakistan.
Pakistan has taken steps to counter the troubling rise of "honor killings," but recently enacted laws were not enough to save 675 women.
Islamabad is preparing to turn a new page in its relationship with NATO, meaning the days of verbal agreements and secret arrangements appear to be over.
A Sunni militant group with a long history of attacks against Shi'a in Pakistan has taken responsibility for the unprecedented attack on Shi'a marking the Day of Ashura in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan says its security forces killed an attempted suicide bomber near the venue of this week's Loya Jirga, a major gathering called by the Afghan president to discuss relations with the United States and peace efforts.
If all goes well, a long-exiled community of Hindus and Sikhs will soon return to live in their village in Afghanistan known as a "House of Love."
Two of Afghanistan's most feared former militia commanders have joined political forces with a former vice president in launching the National Front of Afghanistan. This new political party aims to change the country's presidential system into a parliamentary democracy.
A meeting between the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan on November 1 has been characterized as a step forward in patching up relations between the two countries. But at the grass-roots level, Afghans are increasingly voicing their distrust of Pakistani intentions in their country.
It took the threat of military action by the governor of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar Province to get two tribes to stop their bloody land dispute. But the truce between the two lineages of the Pashtun Shinwari tribe is a shaky one.
Opposition is growing among Afghans to a draft agreement between Kabul and Washington that would allow a small, long-term U.S. military presence on Afghan soil after 2014. The issue sparked protests and parliamentary debate this week, and is set to be the topic of a national assembly of political and tribal leaders next month.
The Hazaras, a small Shi'ite minority in southwestern Pakistan, say they are trying to survive against heavy odds.
The villain responsible for the raft of violence against U.S. targets in Kabul has been identified -- and the finger points directly to a shadowy insurgent group and, by extension, to Pakistan's intelligence agency.
Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former Afghan president who was assassinated on September 20, was one of a generation of Afghan leaders to define and reflect his country's violent history over the last 40 years.
Afghan civilians associated with Western-funded aid projects are under increasing threat from Taliban insurgents as Western forces transfer security responsibilities to Afghans. The life of one blind aid worker in eastern Afghanistan has been disrupted by a letter threatening death "anytime, any place."
The Pakistani government is touting recently announced reforms in the country's western tribal region as a major breakthrough. But many say the changes to allow political parties to operate in the tribal areas and to update the region's century-old judicial system are too little, too late.
The Pakistani military has moved quickly to refute allegations that Chinese military experts were allowed to examine and take samples from a top-secret U.S. helicopter destroyed in the early May raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Residents of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan's Pashtun capital, are filled with uncertainty following the recent assassinations of key political figures. Many Kandaharis are looking to Kabul to quickly fill the regional leadership vacuum before tribal competition and strongman rivalry invites a Taliban victory.
Established in the mold of British imperial army, Pakistan's military transformed itself to accommodate Islamic influences. Can this change in culture weaken the military's ability to counter the threat of Islamic extremism?
Public bickering between U.S. and Afghan officials ahead of a key strategy announcement hints at a rocky road ahead for NATO's withdrawal plans.
'We won't surrender to the rule of the guns and batons,' a group of pressmen chanted under a scorching sun in Islamabad on June 15, seeking to pressure the government into launching a special investigation into the murder of their colleague, Sayed Saleem Shahzad, last month.
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