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.
Top U.S. generals and military planners are considering reaching out to Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of a strategy to defeat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Such an approach worked well in Iraq. But tribal leaders and analysts warn that it is fraught with risks in Afghanistan.
Indian Muslim leaders recently endorsed a religious decree by the Deobandi movement, the Taliban’s spiritual fathers, denouncing terrorism as un-Islamic. Now, the Deobandi political leader has told RFE/RL that he will convene Muslim clerics across South Asia to endorse the fatwa. Is this a turning point for the Taliban?
A wave of attacks and kidnappings in and around the Pakistani city of Peshawar, the Khyber Pass linking the country's restive Northwest Frontier Province to eastern Afghanistan, and further into Afghanistan itself are threatening to destabilize the strategically important region.
The fight against militant extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan is one of the major challenges facing U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. But the often conflicting views of U.S. and Afghan officials, regional analysts, and Obama advisers on the issue reveal the difficult decisions ahead.
For the first time in years, stories about suicide bombings, Taliban raids, and the prospects of a long, cold winter in which many Afghans may face starvation are not dominating the headlines in the Afghan media.
With 25 percent inflation, a worsening energy crisis, and rising poverty, Pakistan is facing an economic meltdown. The dire situation has led some to suggest that the country might suffer an economic collapse within weeks. But others consider the crisis a watershed moment that could help the country revamp its ailing economy.
Pakistan's government under new President Asif Ali Zardari has made it a priority to resolve its conflict with its domestic Baluchi population. But members of the minority, centered in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan Province and spanning into Iran and Afghanistan, say a recently unveiled road map to peace is not enough -- and seek autonomy and a living standard that reflects their homeland's wealth of natural resources.
A Taliban spokesman has taken responsibility for a suicide bombing inside Afghanistan's Information and Culture Ministry building in central Kabul that has left at least six dead.
A powerful earthquake in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan Province has killed up to 200 people, according to aid workers in the region. The earthquake also injured hundreds and made thousands homeless. Rescuers have reportedly pulled 160 bodies so far from the rubble in remote villages.
Politicians and tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan have concluded two-day talks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, offering an olive branch to militants willing to lay down their arms, and warning that action will be taken against those challenging state authority.
Afghan and Pakistani politicians and tribal leaders have launched talks in Islamabad to find ways to end surging militant violence, in a follow-up to a meeting last year in Kabul. As the conflicts in the two countries increasingly become one, envoys say it is now a question of political will on both sides.
Two weeks of intense and secret debate within Pakistan's two houses of parliament have resulted in a resolution condemning terrorism and calling for dialogue and consensus-building to restore peace and security in the country.
A key road that once symbolized renewal and progress in Afghanistan has become a hunting ground for a resurgent Taliban. A lot has changed since Highway One's much-heralded reconstruction in 2003.
The two houses of Pakistan's central parliament are meeting behind closed doors this week as they seek consensus on an antiterrorism policy. The sessions, begun last week on the initiative of new President Asif Ali Zardari, are not open to the public or press, and legislators have taken an oath not to reveal details. Nevertheless, signs of discord have emerged.
Critics say a failure to bring Taliban into Afghanistan's political mainstream is a major obstacle to stabilization efforts. Now, word of possible peace talks between government and Taliban representatives comes as Western commanders conclude that military action alone cannot bring an end to the violence.
An exchange of fire between U.S. and Pakistani forces along the Afghan border has highlighted growing tensions between the two allies over how to fight extremists now reported to be entrenched in Pakistan’s western border regions along Afghanistan.
As security deteriorates in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan and with two diplomats targeted by kidnappers, Kabul and Islamabad are discussing an Afghan proposal to set up a joint force to combat militants on both sides of the border.
The devastating attack in Islamabad, which killed 53 people, presents both an opportunity and a challenge for President Asif Ali Zardari, who soon heads to Washington to try to convince the United States of Pakistan's seriousness of purpose in fighting extremists.
In the wake of a devastating bomb blast in Pakistan, the attention once again is on the Afghan-Pakistani border region, where the bombers are thought to have come from. With fighting expected to intensify, many local Pashtuns say they have paid a heavy price in the war on terror.
Pakistan's Interior Ministry has linked Al-Qaeda-connected Taliban militants to the Islamabad hotel bombing that has killed at least 53 people and injured as many as 270 others.
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