Pakistan, Politics

Flirting with the Taliban

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by Aamer Khan, The writer is head of the BBC Urdu Service

There is a lot of talk about the Afghan government talking to the Taliban these days. The idea is to find a way of co-opting the Pashtuns in the Afghan power structure and thereby putting an end to an insurgency that is costing western governments billions of dollars every year.

The more I read about it, the more I am reminded of a running argument I have with a friend of mine, Ilyas Khan — a brilliant Pashtun journalist who did me proud month after month in my days as the editor of Herald in Karachi. Among many other brilliant pieces, Ilyas Khan did a series of articles focused on the Taliban-ISI nexus in the wake of 9/11, that were accurate enough to force the ISI into summoning me to their Islamabad headquarters for a caution. …

Read more : The Express Tribune

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