Weather permitting, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is set to land in Kabul on Friday. Both Abbasi and Afghan president Ashraf Ghani will meet in the context of immense grief and raging public sentiment over the killing of nearly 100 people, many among whom were students in their teens or even younger, in a seminary in Kunduz. Afghan government officials said the raids had targeted a Taliban gathering, but witnesses and local officials maintained that at the time of the attack, a Dastaar Bandi ceremony – an event celebrating young men completing the memorisation of the Quran – was taking place at the seminary. The near daily dance of death and destruction – mostly by Afghan Daesh and Taliban militants and to a lesser extent by Afghan security forces – inevitably and invariably casts ominous shadows on Pak-Afghan parleys on bilateral issues, making a meaningful conversation in an already complex geo-political environment very difficult. Such a toxic and loaded environment throws up several challenges for both countries. Thus, as both leaders meet today, enormous challenges rooted in history and geopolitics stare them in the face. The monstrous challenge for Pakistan is to convince the Afghan leadership that it is walking the talk on Afghanistan and is carefully sequencing its steps to avoid an internal militant eruption. Another challenge, for both Pakistan and Afghanistan, is to determine how to balance the US – the main financial lifeline for Kabul – against Moscow’s newfound love for Pakistan. Both are pushing and banking on an intense geopolitical and geo-economic engagement with Pakistan. One of the biggest roadblocks to a constructive Pak-Afghan engagement is the Pakistani military establishment’s unease with the Indo-Afghan geopolitical proximity as both feed into the USA narrative on Pakistan.   India, supported by the US, is developing interests in UAE, Saudia and Qatar, worry top military officials. The daunting task for them, they insist, is to...

Three parallel encounters in South Kashmir on Sunday have left behind a trail of blood: 13 local militants, four civilians and three soldiers were killed in the span of a few hours. Government forces celebrated the operation, the largest in a decade, as a major success against militants whose presence has seen a rapid increase in Kashmir in general and South Kashmir in particular. But first, the term “encounter” needs to be interrogated. Online dictionaries have started listing a separate meaning for the word in the South Asian context: “A violent incident in which a suspected criminal is killed by a member of the police, especially under controversial circumstances.” In Kashmir, the word has come to signify, more often than not, a carefully planned operation with coordination between various security forces, the police, the Army and the Central Reserve Police Force. According to the police, the standard operating procedure demands that forces closing in on a target ask the militants to surrender. In most cases, however, these operations end with death. After Sunday’s gunfights, police officials also spoke of a change in strategy – operations launched late at night and finished by first light in order to minimise civilian casualties. Reportedly, security agency records speak of “search and destroy” operations conducted in the last few months. Even when used in the South Asian sense, the term “encounter” seems inadequate to describe the violence in Kashmir. Almost every operation seems to follow a pattern that has become a ritual, from the search operations and the laying of the security cordons, to the opening of fire and the protests by civilians, to burnt houses and bodies and vast public funerals. Do these encounters help in bringing peace, or have they pushed Kashmir into a situation where violence has become a norm? Up in arms The phenomenal increase in militancy, especially local militancy, has brought the situation back to square one. From a few dozen...

Malala Yousafzai says she wants the world to know that there is peace in Pakistan and that its people have stood up to extremists. That is the message the Nobel Peace Prize laureate wanted to deliver during a previously unannounced four-day visit to her homeland that ended Monday, she told VOA in an interview. The visit was her first to Pakistan since 2012, when she was shot in the head at age 14 by Taliban militants opposed to her efforts to promote girls' right to an education. Yousafzai is now a 20-year-old student at Britain's Oxford University and the co-founder of the Malala Fund, which has invested more than $6 million in projects supporting the education of girls. In the interview, Yousafzai said it was important for her to come back to Pakistan. "In the outside world, internationally, there are concerns that Pakistan is a terrorist country or there is no peace in Pakistan," she said. "So, my trip was important to give the message that there is peace in Pakistan and the people of Pakistan have stood against extremists." Shortly after her arrival in the capital on Thursday, Yousafzai met with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and delivered a highly emotional televised speech in which she became tearful while describing her happiness at being home again. "I usually don't cry,' she said in the interview. "It is very rare for me to cry ... I wanted to share my happiness . . . I was happy to be home . . . I wanted to be home . . . I was so desperate to see my land again . . .I think it was something that i just could not control and I cried." That joy was shared by many young Pakistanis. "We're very happy that Malala has come to Pakistan," third grader Arfa Akhtar told Reuters news agency. "I am also Malala. I'm with Malala in this mission." However some Pakistanis feel her campaign has damaged the nation's reputation. Students from a group of private schools in eastern Lahore protested her visit with chants of "I am not Malala," though several other schools...

Malala Yousafzai says she wants the world to know that there is peace in Pakistan and that its people have stood up to extremists. That is the message the Nobel Peace Prize laureate wanted to deliver during a previously unannounced four-day visit to her homeland that ended Monday, she told VOA in an interview. The visit was her first to Pakistan since 2012, when she was shot in the head at age 14 by Taliban militants opposed to her efforts to promote girls' right to an education. Yousafzai is now a 20-year-old student at Britain's Oxford University and the co-founder of the Malala Fund, which has invested more than $6 million in projects supporting the education of girls. In the interview, Yousafzai said it was important for her to come back to Pakistan. "In the outside world, internationally, there are concerns that Pakistan is a terrorist country or there is no peace in Pakistan," she said. "So, my trip was important to give the message that there is peace in Pakistan and the people of Pakistan have stood against extremists." Shortly after her arrival in the capital on Thursday, Yousafzai met with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and delivered a highly emotional televised speech in which she became tearful while describing her happiness at being home again. "I usually don't cry,' she said in the interview. "It is very rare for me to cry ... I wanted to share my happiness . . . I was happy to be home . . . I wanted to be home . . . I was so desperate to see my land again . . .I think it was something that i just could not control and I cried." That joy was shared by many young Pakistanis. "We're very happy that Malala has come to Pakistan," third grader Arfa Akhtar told Reuters news agency. "I am also Malala. I'm with Malala in this mission." However some Pakistanis feel her campaign has damaged the nation's reputation. Students from a group of private schools in eastern Lahore protested her visit with chants of "I am not Malala," though several other schools...

Women are also joining the force that specialises in countering terrorism. The Counter-Terrorism Force (CTF) in Islamabad was made operational in January with about 386 personnel, including 23 women. The CTF was established under the National Action Plan (NAP) with the strength of 970 officials. Out of these posts, 76 are reserved for women. In the first batch, 23 women officials, including an assistant sub-inspector, were imparted training while another batch of 25 women is undergoing training and will join the force soon. Women got the same training which was imparted to their male colleagues except for sniper training. They were trained on how to deal with violent extremism, sectarianism, militancy and terrorism. Besides, they also got specialised training from the Elite Training School Bedian and the Special Services Group (SSG) as well as from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) Academy on intelligence gathering. Like their male counterparts, they are equipped with weapons such as a sub-machinegun and a pistol, a dagger along with body armour when deployed either on security duty or action/raid. The women officials participated in security duties on last Ashura and on Pakistan Day this year. Besides, they are also deputed to guard diplomats and foreign dignitaries. They also took part in search operations conducted by the police along with Rangers and other security agencies. Some of the officials told Dawn that they joined the force of their free will. Most of them came from families which had a police service background. “There is nothing uncomfortable in wearing the uniform. The scarf has been made a part of the uniform and we are comfortable with it,” one of the trainee said. Trainees listen to their instructor at the Police Lines Headquarters _______________________________________________________________________ The women officials said they got training with their male colleagues and gave them a tough time during competitions, including race and physical...