Considered to be the icons of High Asia, the elusive snow leopards have evolved to live in some of the world’s highest and harshest habitats in 12 countries.

British colonial officer John Biddulph’s book is considered as one of the pioneering works in English that provided an insight to the secluded societies, lifestyles, languages,  customs, marriages, festivals, ruling families and general characteristics of the many tribes that inhabited the Hindu Kush region Reviewed by Basharat Wakhani Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh written by British colonial officer John Biddulph is considered as one of the …

The case of the Shughni language by Farman Ali The Pamirian languages are spoken by people in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral regions of Pakistan as well as Xinjiang province of China. The Pamirian Languages — a linguistic term — has been employed even before the advent of the Soviet Union, the first socialist state, by one of the pioneers …

News Desk Holiday spirits are back in Urumqi’s International Grand Bazaar. More than 60,000 visited the bazaar on Friday, as the bazaar, the biggest in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, enters its peak travel season, while far from its daily record accommodation of 300,000 from previous years. Liu Wanyue, the manager in charge of the bazaar area, told CGTN …

The home department writes a letter to interior ministry opposing the opening of the highest border pass   High Asia herald Report Islamabad: The Gilgit-Baltistan government has requested the federal government to allow airlifting of medical equipment from Khunjerav border pass, sources told The High Asia Herald. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Governor Shukrat Zakir has donated the medical equipment in …

By Ghulam Amin Beg On Tuesday, September 14, 2010, I had written this article and published on the Simurgh Institute blog, which received several comments and further elaborations. The article analyzed the opinion post by Selig S. Harrison published in the New York Times in August the same year under the title, ‘China’s Discreet Hold on Pakistan’s Northern Borderlands’. Today, …

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR Compared to the events two decades ago when the Afghan Taliban appeared in the Amu Darya region in northern Afghanistan and Central Asian states and Russia went into feverish tantrums, there is an eerie calm palpable in the steppes today.  The contrast couldn’t be sharper. In 1997 when Taliban first appeared in Mazar-i-Sharif on the Amu …

Mushahid Hussain showers praise on Chinese people, students for transformation Herald Report Islamabad: China and Pakistan have shared dreams of prosperity, peace, co-existence and development in the region and for the world. These views were shared by Chinese ambassador Yao Jing and Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain at a degree awarding ceremony held at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts …

By Gerry Shih NEAR SHAYMAK, Tajikistan — Two miles above sea level in the inhospitable highlands of Central Asia, there’s a new power watching over an old passage into Afghanistan: China. For at least three years, Chinese troops have quietly monitored this choke point in Tajikistan just beyond China’s western frontier, according to interviews, analysis of satellite images and photographs, …

Reuters BEIJING: A Chinese man attacked at least 20 young children at a Beijing primary school with a hammer on Tuesday, state television reported, in a rare act of violence in the capital. A 49-year-old man, a former maintenance worker at the school, was detained after venting his anger on the children after his work contract was not renewed, state …

AFP China said on Monday it would welcome UN officials to the restive western region of Xinjiang with the condition that they stay out of the country’s internal affairs. This comes after UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in December that her office was seeking access to the region to verify reports of re-education camps holding Muslim minorities. Reports …