Topic: Afghanistan

Converting a ruthless foe like the Taliban which understands only the language of the gun requires nothing less than divine intervention.

Steve Coll’s 'Directorate S' is about how ISI was allowed to succeed in blocking the United States’ efforts to impose a stable, democratic order in Afghanistan.

Irrespective of which group dominated Indian policy, India rarely appears to have got its way in Afghanistan.

A decade before Avani Chaturvedi became India's first solo woman fighter pilot, Pakistan had already done it, as had UAE, Somalia and Turkey.

In other news, China’s latest family-planning policies are a major violation of women’s rights.

Tribal people took out a ‘Pashtun Long March’ from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Islamabad to protest against the killing of a Pashtun shopkeeper in Karachi.

The United States had trapped itself in its alliance with Pakistan. It could not mount more pressure on the nuclear-armed Pakistan and was unable to find a strategy to persuade Pakistan's generals to change their strategic calculus toward India.

The storytellers of Islamabad hope that Americans, fearful of China, will return hat in hand and accept whatever Pakistan offers.

President Ashraf Ghani calls ‘Pashtun Long March’ historical, says its aim is to mobilise citizens against fundamentalism and terrorism in the region.

In this excerpt from his book, author and journalist Steve Coll writes about how Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has damaged Pakistan and Afghanistan.