Some people in Waziristan have requested that I write about a column published in the Urdu daily Mashriq on January 2, 2011. Following is the summary of the column, titled ‘Hakeemullah Mehsud’s lover’. A senior female French journalist contacted a tribal journalist form Waziristan via Facebook. The French lady requested him to help her with […]
Kurram, peace accords and state writ
A grand jirga of tribal elders and parliamentarians from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) announced on February 3, 2011, a new peace accord for the resolution of the violent crisis in Kurram Agency since 2007 that has displaced thousands of Shia and Sunni residents. The grand jirga announced the reopening of the Tal-Parachinar road. […]
The Kurram conundrum
Kurram Agency has been in turmoil since the violent sectarian clashes of 2007. Since then thousands of Sunni and Shia families have been displaced, hundreds killed and the Parachinar-Tal road is unsafe for Shia travel. Shia travellers on the road have come under several attacks, forcing them to travel via Afghanistan to reach Peshawar. Travelling […]
Goodbye Noor Malik
Noor Malik was one of the leaders of the anti-Taliban lashkar in Adeyzai, the last village in southern rural Peshawar on border with FATA. Villagers in Adeyzai say he committed suicide due to some domestic dispute. His family insists he died when a bullet accidentally came out from his own pistol that he was holding […]
The powerful and overpowered of the PPP
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has arguably been the most popular federalist party of Pakistan. The party has been binding Pakistanis across the ethnic and religious divide with the federation of Pakistan. It has secular credentials and has been backing minorities’ rights. In short, it has been an asset for the federation of Pakistan and the […]
Plight of FR Peshawar IDPs
Frontier Region Peshawar, commonly known as FR Peshawar, is located towards the south of Peshawar and is part of FATA. The military operations in Bora and Pastawana areas in FR Peshawar in 2010 displaced thousands of people. On May 30, 2010, Daily Times reported that the displaced people have been waiting to get internally displaced […]
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
A recent book, Combating Terrorism, Saudi Arabia’s Role in the War on Terror, has been authored by Ali S Awadh Asseri, a former Saudi ambassador in Pakistan. The idea of writing this book occurred to him when he saw the rising wave of terrorism in Pakistan during his long ambassadorial stay from 2001 to 2009 […]
A report from Kurram
Kurram is a mixed Shia and Sunni agency in FATA. Since 2007, both the Shias and Sunnis of Kurram have been facing violence, road blockades and large-scale human displacement. Sectarian clashes in 2007 displaced Sunni tribesmen, women and children from the Shia-dominated parts of upper and lower Kurram and Shia men, women and children from […]
Drone attacks: challenging some fabrications
There is a deep abyss between the perceptions of the people of Waziristan, the most drone-hit area and the wider Pakistani society on the other side of the River Indus. For the latter, the US drone attacks on Waziristan are a violation of Pakistani’s sovereignty. Politicians, religious leaders, media analysts and anchorpersons express sensational clamour […]