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.
Afghan women have staged protests in major cities across the country in the largest demonstrations against Taliban rule in months. They have protested the Taliban's ban on girls' education and the inability of its government to protect religious minorities, despite mounting Taliban violence.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings insights into the worsening relations between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban, the effects of the floods in Pakistan's Swat valley, and the Taliban’s harassment of couples in restaurants.
The Afghan Taliban has accused Islamabad of allowing its air space to be used by U.S. drones to strike targets in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan has accused the Taliban of harboring the leaders of militant groups fighting Islamabad.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings insights into the Pakistani Taliban's aggressive extortion campaign, defiant Afghan parents protesting the Taliban ban on girls' education, and the fate of exiled Afghan journalists in Pakistan.
The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has engaged in a growing extortion campaign since hundreds of its fighters returned to the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Locals view the extortion campaign targeting businesses and wealthy families as a sign of a return to Taliban control.
This week's Gandhara Briefing highlights our reporting on the devastation caused by the floods in Afghanistan, an Afghan woman accusing a Taliban official of rape, and the militants holding their first film festival.
Flash floods have struck eastern and southern Afghanistan in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people and exacerbating the country's devastating economic and humanitarian crisis.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings insights into clerics turning into prime targets in the conflict between the Taliban and the rival Islamic State-Khorasan militant group; the uproar over a move to close the lone women-only park in Bannu; and Tajikistan's deportations of Afghan migrants.
Authorities in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Bannu have closed a female-only park following protests by Islamists. The decision has sparked uproar among women.
Senior religious clerics supporting the Taliban and the rival Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) have recently become the primary targets in the widening conflict between the two militant groups.
This special edition of the Gandhara Briefing recaps our extensive coverage of the Taliban's first year in power in Afghanistan and why locals oppose the return of the Pakistani Taliban.
For many Pakistanis, the return of hundreds of armed Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants is a terrible sign. They are worried about once again having to live under the oppressive rule of the TTP, whose violence killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.
Tens of thousands of foreigners and Afghans were flown out of the Afghan capital after the Taliban takeover nearly one year ago. Among those who lost their lives was a young dentist who fell from a moving plane at Kabul airport. RFE/RL's Radio Azadi spoke to his family.
The Taliban toppled the Western-backed Afghan government and seized power one year ago. Since then, the militant group has solidified its grip on power and crushed domestic opposition to its harsh rule. Experts say the biggest threat to the Taliban comes from within as internal divisions intensify.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings insight into the killing of top Pakistani Taliban commanders, the brain drain from Afghanistan, and why private schools are shutting down in the country.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you insights into the assassination of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri, the Taliban's ongoing media crackdown, and a spike in targeted killings in Pakistan’s North Waziristan district.
For years, experts believed that Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri lived in the mountainous border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In an ironic twist, Zawahri was killed on July 31 in a U.S. air strike in Shirpur, a wealthy neighborhood in central Kabul that was largely built with U.S. money.
The Taliban has turned to Afghanistan’s easy-to-extract coal reserves to generate much-needed revenue. Most of the coal has been exported on the cheap to neighboring Pakistan, a move that has triggered a public outcry in Afghanistan.
This week's Gandhara Briefing brings you insights about former Afghan soldiers living in hiding, how women are being stopped from taking foreign scholarships, and the Taliban’s new observation post on the Afghan-Tajik border.
Many members of the former Afghan armed forces and their families are living in hiding nearly a year after the Taliban takeover. They complain of persecution and harassment despite the Taliban's announcement of a general amnesty when it seized power in August 2021.
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