Taliban Regime Deploys Fresh Forces Toward Nasi as Badakhshan Tensions Escalate
The Taliban regime has sent additional forces from Shaki toward Nasi district in Badakhshan, according to reports circulating on social media, deepening a confrontation with fighters loyal to commander Juma Khan Fatah that has been building for weeks. The deployment, reportedly including twenty heavily armed Rangers from southern Afghanistan, arrives even as local Taliban figures […]
Takhar Gold Conflict Exposes Taliban Regime’s Dangerous Resource Politics
A rocket attack on a Chinese mining company in Chenarak Valley, Chah Ab district of Takhar, killing one Chinese national and injuring two others, has exposed a deeper problem than the immediate security threat. The incident highlights how Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is becoming increasingly entangled with armed competition, contested land and opaque power structures under […]
Five Years After Kabul: What Would a Sustainable Political Transition in Afghanistan Require?
Since the Taliban government has been established in Afghanistan, the country presents a paradox as it has achieved a degree of political and territorial stability, yet remains far from a sustainable political settlement. The Taliban have consolidated control over the state and largely displaced the nationwide warfare that characterised the previous period, but control alone […]
Pakistan’s Agricultural Exports Beyond Textiles
For decades, Pakistan’s export story has been dominated by textiles, leaving agriculture largely viewed as a domestic sector rather than a source of high-value foreign exchange. Yet the country’s agricultural and food exports demonstrate that the export basket can extend well beyond garments and yarn. Rice, meat, fruits, seafood, vegetables, oilseeds, nuts and spices already […]
Can CMEC Help Advance a Resolution to the Rohingya Crisis?
When China launched the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), it envisioned more than a network of roads, railways, ports and commercial projects. Stretching from Yunnan Province to the deep-sea port of Kyaukphyu on Myanmar’s western coast, the corridor represents a strategic artery within the Belt and Road Initiative. It gives China access to the Bay of […]
Indian Vlogger’s Kunar Encounter Adds to the Record on Taliban-TTP Nexus
An account attributed to an Indian YouTuber’s visit to Kunar has added a fresh, granular data point to a case Islamabad has been building for years: that Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan operates inside Afghan territory with a degree of freedom that is difficult to reconcile with the Taliban’s claims of sovereign control. The vlogger reported encountering individuals […]
China’s Green Energy is Promoting its Energy SecurityÂ
Energy is a crucial element for economic growth for any country. Energy security ensures national security; without it, a state can not survive because it is the backbone of economic stability. When it comes to renewable energy, the world often looks to China, not just as a participant, but as the engine driving the global […]
Zabihullah Mujahid’s BBC Interview: The Taliban’s Own Indictment
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid’s recent BBC interview offers one of the clearer public statements yet of how Kabul’s leadership understands its own governance model five years into power, and by extension, how far that model diverges from the benchmarks international observers have used to assess it. Mujahid’s central claim, that Afghanistan’s “conflict and political crisis […]
The Contradiction at the Core of Muttaqi’s Pakistan Narrative
Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s recent remarks on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations follow a pattern now familiar in several of his public statements over the past year, namely a categorical denial of TTP presence on Afghan soil, paired with rhetorical redirection toward Pakistan’s governance failures and its relations with other neighbors. When compared with Muttaqi’s prior […]