Afrah Jamal

Published Global Affairs / March 2017. Written in August 2016. They say that ‘the Taliban are coming to Islamabad’ was a common refrain among some diplomatic circles. They cannot be faulted for having such a stark worldview. From 2007 onwards the region registered a dramatic spike in terror and the world feared for the integrity of a nuclear armed nation in the face of a rapidly deteriorating law and order situation. Some might argue that now that Pakistan has finally taken the war to the enemy within, a modicum of peace seems to have descended. Zarb-e-Azb, classified as a full scale operation against terrorists of all shades and denominations enters its third year. And a prominent name linked to JuD is finally under arrest. Tracking battlefront gains can be tricky since the operations are still ongoing. There have been rough patches along the way. And the nation suffered tragic setbacks with devastating attacks on police academies, shrines and hospitals . Back home the mi...

Published in Global Affairs / July 2016 Edition Pakistan made a troubling discovery in its backyard recently. Notwithstanding his mild mannered appearance, Kulbhushan Jadhav (sometimes spelt as Yadav) has been positively identified as an Indian national, a Commander in the Indian Navy with a preference for aliases. He is currently using the name Hussein Mubarak Patel. Initial interrogation had also brought to light his role as the ring leader of a large network of spies and saboteurs operating indiscriminately in Pakistan’s Balochistan province and the city of Karachi at the behest of the premier Indian Intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). From the Pakistani vantage point Jadhav’s arrest qualified as an intelligence coup. The Indian reaction predictably was one of denial. Jadhav was immediately disavowed but in the face of compelling evidence, they grudgingly acknowledged him as one of their own even as they continued to maintain that he had retired from ...