Afghanistan

The Revival of Ethnic Engineering in Northern Afghanistan

The Revival of Ethnic Engineering in Northern Afghanistan

The reported TTP attack in Takhar is not an isolated security incident but part of a deeper historical pattern of ethnic engineering in northern Afghanistan. Tracing its roots to 19th-century state-building policies, the article examines how militant proxies, demographic displacement, and settler strategies are once again reshaping Tajik-majority regions under Taliban rule.

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A critical reading of Zalmay Khalilzad’s interview reveals strategic bias on ISKP, TTP safe havens, and Pakistan’s role in US–Taliban diplomacy.

Khalilzad on ISKP, TTP, and Pakistan

Zalmay Khalilzad’s Tolo News interview exposes ambiguities in US policy toward Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. His remarks on ISKP, the TTP, and Pakistan reflect an effort to normalize the Taliban while shifting responsibility for regional instability, drawing false equivalences between alleged ISKP cells in Pakistan and the openly operating TTP in Afghanistan.

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Taliban: Three Decades of Faith, Fear, and Erasure

Taliban:Three Decades of Faith, Fear, and Erasure

For nearly three decades, the Taliban have pursued a singular vision of faith enforced through violence and law. From massacres and forced identification under the first Emirate, to insurgent-era sectarian terror, and now a legal architecture of exclusion, their rule has steadily erased Afghanistan’s religious pluralism, pushing minorities toward extinction.

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The Taliban’s Purge of Former Afghan Officials

The Taliban’s Purge of Former Afghan Officials

The killing of General Akramuddin Saree in Tehran signals that the Taliban’s campaign against former Afghan officials has gone transnational. It reveals a dark convergence of Taliban intelligence operations and regional transactional politics that sacrifice political exiles for short-term stability.

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Weaponizing Civilian Infrastructure

Weaponizing Civilian Infrastructure

Emerging security reports allege that civilian aviation and major transport hubs may be quietly repurposed as logistical conduits for the TTP. While unverified, these claims reinforce Pakistan’s long-standing warnings about external facilitation, plausible deniability, and the use of civilian infrastructure in grey-zone conflict along the western border.

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How Taliban's Performative Governance Masks Gender Apartheid

How Taliban’s Performative Governance Masks Gender Apartheid

Behind Taliban social media showcases of female factory work lies a Potemkin model of governance. Selective visibility and performative economics obscure a system of gender apartheid, educational exclusion, and long-term economic decline. Drawing on UN and rights-group data, this analysis exposes how propaganda-driven inclusion narratives collapse under empirical scrutiny.

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The Enduring Consequences of America’s Exit from Afghanistan

The Enduring Consequences of America’s Exit from Afghanistan

The 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan was more than the end of a long war, it was a poorly executed exit that triggered the rapid collapse of the Afghan state. The fall of Kabul, the Abbey Gate attack, and the return of militant groups exposed serious gaps in planning and coordination.

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The Afghan Crucible

The Afghan Crucible

Recent reporting underscores Afghanistan’s transformation into a strategic hub for transnational jihadist networks. Far from being a localized security problem, the Afghan landscape now functions as an ideological, logistical, and digital anchor linking extremist affiliates across Africa, Southeast Asia, and beyond, signaling the collapse of regional containment and the rise of a globalized threat architecture.

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