The matter of granting provisional provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan involves a contested political process with multifarious implications to the interests of stakeholders

The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, marked on August 15, has prompted a sequence of pushbacks on the rights and regular movements of citizens, especially women who, as they anticipated, are facing multiple threats to political representation, education and public work.

The euphemism of “collateral damage” encompassed bombing raids and cruise missile assassination strikes that killed civilians, meaning women and girls as well as men and boys. Berry quotes one critic of the war who argued that the alleged concern for women put a “feminist glow on some of the most brutal bombings.

DUSHANBE, Aug 18:  The Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan on Wednesday rejected Taliban rule of his country and said Panjshir province, north of Kabul, would serve as a stronghold for resistance led by self-proclaimed acting president Amrullah Saleh. Afghan First Vice-President Saleh said on Tuesday he was the “legitimate caretaker president” of Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as …

In places where the Afghan defence forces and the local uprising forces stood against the Taliban, not only did the Taliban fail to gain any territory, but its forces were also thoroughly defeated.

The only solutions to the Palestinian issue, is to establish a secular democratic state where Muslims, Jews and Christians co-exist with harmony as equal citizens. Only this single state narrative can serve as a guarantee to shun any move to divide the society on a religious, ethnic, or racial basis.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan may be inching closer than ever to hashing out a border delimitation deal that will end decades of territorial ambiguity.

Diplomats, writers and journalists at a Webinar on Friday described the fresh Israeli attack on Gaza yet another genocide of Palestinians and part of its colonial expansionism. They called on the international community to intervene and rush humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza who have been traumatized, bruised and displaced.

The mining sector of the Kyrgyz Republic has been attracting a lot of diverse investments even despite frequent conflicts and violence. Investors are advised to consider volatile politics when entering the market. But for communities living in the mining areas, these investments are “life-changing, if not life-destroying”, says researcher Beril Ocaklı, published on the Voices on Central Asia.org online magazine. …

Anthropologist Tobias Marschall spent 11 months living among nomadic Pamir Kyrgyz herders in the isolated mountain valleys of northeastern Afghanistan between 2015 and 2019. Below is a feature based on his research and field reports. Resettling an entire ethnic group in another country is a monumental task fraught with legal, political, and logistical complications. But that’s what Kyrgyz President Sadyr …

At least 43 people were killed and thousands evacuated amid border clashes between Kyrgyz and Tajik forces on April 28-29. There have been a series of similar clashes in recent years. Fighting again broke out along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. This time, the intensity of the battles was far worse and more widespread than anything seen before. Photo: RFE/RL Also see: …

Sporadic shooting continued throughout the day on April 30 on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as a clearer picture emerged of the destruction wrought by the worst battle the two Central Asian states have fought since gaining independence.

Political parties and lawyers have expressed their resolve to fight for the freedom of the press, expression guaranteed in the Constitution. They called for an end to muffling of the freedom of media and expression, repressive censorship, press advice, retrenchments of journalists and media workers, payment of salaries, the abolition of the unjust and discriminatory advertisement policy of the federal government and implementation of the 8th Wage Board Award.

A research paper published recently by Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI), University of Central Asia, highlights social, economic, and environmental impacts of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which follows ancient Silk Road corridors. Even short-term economic benefits promised by China carry huge risks of debt dependency, forfeiture of mining and land rights, natural resource exploitation, disruption of traditional …

 by Naveed Toshi The handsome and smart woke up late in the evening to meet the producer of Diriliş: Ertuğrul, the popular Turkish television series on the glory of the Ottoman Empire. IK was reportedly full of praise for the drama because it has depicted how Turkish Muslims made history by creating an empire fighting Mongols, Christian Byzantines and the …