Basheer was a young Taliban fighter barely out of his teens when the Islamic State group took over his village in eastern Afghanistan, nearly eight years ago. The militants rounded up villagers identified as Taliban and killed them, often beheading them, forcing their families to watch. Basheer escaped and lived in hiding during the following years when IS controlled several […]

But internal divisions and the Taliban get a vote, too. Armed resistance against the Taliban is picking up momentum across Afghanistan, with militias run by former political and military leaders of the collapsed republic recruiting and arming fighters, notably from the ranks of the former republic’s U.S.-trained security forces. Some are trying to drum up international support for forcible regime […]

Following 9/11, when jihadi groups in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region attracted global attention, the Pakistani military-backed jihadi organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) came under international scrutiny. However, the Pakistani government, unable to act against the military-aided jihadi organizations, continued to turn a blind eye to LeT. Lashkar-e-Taiba continued to operate under various names. Although LeT went underground in Pakistan, its leaders began functioning […]

Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as the country’s prime minister on Monday at the President House, officially taking over from ousted premier Imran Khan. The oath was administered by the chairman of Pakistan’s Senate, Sadiq Sanjrani, in the absence of President Arif Alvi, a member of Khan’s party, who said he was unwell.

The country’s Central Bank – Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) – said on Tuesday that another shipment of $32 million in cash has arrived in Kabul. “This is the 22nd package of cash aid that arrived in Kabul and was delivered to the International Bank of Afghanistan (AIB) since the start of humanitarian aid [campaign] to Afghanistan,” tweeted DAB. DAB welcomes […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Economic Commission, headed by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, acting first deputy prime minister, instructed security agencies on Monday to work with the country’s power utility company, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), to recover money owed to them by government departments and powerful individuals. According to DABS officials, many government departments and powerful individuals have […]

Iran on Tuesday summoned Afghanistan’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran to protest attacks on Iranian diplomatic missions in Kabul and Herat. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said consular services at diplomatic missions in Afghanistan would cease their operations until full security is assured, Anadolu Agency reported. The ministry urged Afghan authorities to take action against those who attacked its diplomatic missions in […]

Despite close political relations and geographical proximity, sanctions by United States on the Islamic Republic have prevented Iran-Pakistan economic ties from realizing their full potential, solely because the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot access international banking. To resolve the mentioned problem, the two countries inked a barter trade agreement during the meeting of their Joint Economic Committee in Tehran in […]

Imran Khan on Sunday became the first Pakistani Prime Minister to lose a no-confidence vote, after failing in a last-ditch effort to block a vote that the country’s Supreme Court had said must be held on Saturday. Pakistan’s parliament began voting late on Saturday night on a no-confidence motion against Khan, after a 13-hour impasse in which parliament was adjourned […]

Every seminar on global peace and harmonious coexistence invariably has two things in common. One, all speakers wax eloquent in projecting their own countries as unconditional champions of peace, while portraying an unfriendly state as the fountainhead of evil, and responsible for the existing sorry state of affairs. Two, every speaker displays remarkable magnanimity, making reconciliatory offers to mend fences […]