Manish Rai

The Taliban have firm control over Afghanistan. At this point in time, there are no opponents capable of undermining their positions in terms of military, political, or even economic resources. Also, there have been no meaningful changes in the radical ideology of the Taliban. It is still a militant group ruling over a UN member […]

In 2018, Pakistan witnessed the rise of a new celebrity Prime Minister, Imran Khan who vowed to halt dynastic politics, end corruption and boost the economy. Common Pakistanis, especially the youth, saw Khan as their only ray of hope. As before coming to power, Khan, in his speeches, pledged to root out corruption and lift […]

Balochistan Pakistan’s largest province in terms of area in the last few weeks has witnessed a drastic increase in attacks against the Pakistani security forces, with Baloch rebels having caused heavy casualties to the state forces in different operations. Baloch insurgents are usually involved in scattered target killings, small ambush, and roadside bombings. Now we’re […]

Last month, Turkey made it into the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog headquartered in Paris. Turkey now joins its close ally Pakistan in FATF’s crosshairs. Surprisingly, Turkey becomes the largest economy to be included in this list. The FATF listing for Ankara comes […]

Attacks carried out by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) aka Pakistani Taliban have increased to the highest level in over four years after the US left Afghanistan and the Afghan Taliban took power. The TTP has been emboldened by the developments in next-door Afghanistan. This has complicated the internal security scenario for Pakistan as the country is […]

The Taliban’s announced 33-member interim cabinet is exclusively Taliban, and almost all ministers are of Pashtun ethnicity. Women have no positions in this new setup. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs has been dissolved. And the sinister Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has been re-established. This clearly illustrates that the […]

The Taliban now control almost the whole of Afghanistan including the capital city, Kabul, almost two decades after they were driven out by US troops. It was widely expected that after the United States’ complete withdrawal the Taliban will make significant territorial gains. But no one expected that it will happen at that fast pace […]

Kurdistan is back in the news. Military clashes broke out at the beginning of this month between the Kurdistan Development Party (KDP) – the region’s biggest political party – and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). This has sparked debate as to whether these two Kurdish giants are heading towards fully-fledged confrontation. The Kurdistan Regional […]

The latest round of escalations between Israel and armed groups from Gaza has recently concluded. This saw thousands of rockets fired towards Israeli cities and Israel Defence Forces (IDF) responded with overwhelming airstrikes. The biggest group and de-facto ruler of the Gaza Strip — Hamas — received much attention during this flare-up. But it was […]

The US military is rapidly working on its complete withdrawal from Afghanistan and has already closed an important base in volatile Helmand province. Its air force is busy transporting military hardware out of the country. It is estimated that some 1,300 pieces of equipment that can’t be removed will either destroyed or given to the […]