Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Paktia

Paktia

The Art of the Tracker: How to find a thief in Afghanistan

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon •

The art of tracking footprints to find thieves, and even murderers, is well-known in Afghanistan, and particularly in southern Afghanistan and in the areas where Pashtun and Baluch tribes live on the Afghan and Pakistani sides of the Durand Line, the de facto international border, it can be a paid profession. Although trackers are in […]

Context and Culture Read more

“Murder Is Always”: The Kulalgo night raid killings

Thomas Ruttig • AAN Team •

On the night of 11 and 12 August, what seems to have been a mixed US-Afghan commando raided several homes in Kulalgo, a large village in Zurmat district, Paktia. Eleven people were killed, civilians who had nothing to do with the insurgency, according to family members and local elders. They were ‘Taleban’ according to official […]

War and Peace Read more

The 2018 Election Observed (1) in Zurmat, Paktia: Real voting only in the district centre

Pakteen Khan • Thomas Ruttig •

Zurmat district in Paktia province is almost completely under Taleban control. The parliamentary elections were held there only on a tiny island of government control. Turnout was very low on the first election day and limited to the district centre – another example of Afghanistan’s emerging rural-urban voting divide. On day two, attempts of ballot stuffing […]

Political Landscape Read more

Hitting Gardez: A vicious attack on Paktia’s Shias

Fabrizio Foschini •

Afghan Shia Muslims are feeling increasingly beleaguered after two massacres targeting their community this month. Both were claimed by the Afghan ‘franchise’ of Daesh, the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP). On 3 August, gunmen killed at least 38 men and boys during Friday prayers at a village mosque in the outskirts of Gardez city. […]

War and Peace Read more

At the End of a Long Curve: The fall of Janikhel

Fazl Rahman Muzhary • Thomas Ruttig •

The temporary capture of Janikhel district centre by Taleban forces in late July 2017 stands out in the relatively static, mountainous and geographically and tribally fractured region of eastern Paktia and Khost. There, most district centres continue to be in government hands, while many areas outside of them are more or less under Taleban control. […]

War and Peace Read more
Provincial Governor's Office, Paktia Province. Photo: Pajhwok

The ANSF’s Zurmat Operation: Abuses against local civilians

Fazl Rahman Muzhary •

In early January 2016, an Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) operation in Zurmat, a southern district of Paktia province, resulted in civilian casualties. According to local residents, the Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers’ heavy shelling of villages they suspected to be Taleban hideouts caused the most harm. Abuses, such as beatings and the use of […]

War and Peace Read more

Despite Risks, Faith Endures in Traditional Afghan Cures

AAN •

IWPR, 19 May 2014 In remote villages of southeastern Afghanistan where people have no access to health centres, so-called village doctors, barbers and traditional bonesetters still perform services from circumcisions to tooth extractions or resetting dislocated limbs. According to modern doctors, hundreds of people die from such practices every year across Afghanistan.

Recommended Reads Read more

Elections 2014 (10): Paktia – where rain helped the ‘king making’ voters

Pakteen Ibrahimi •

A week after the election, AAN looks at how Paktia province, with the southeastern region’s centre Gardez, fared in the elections and after. Like Kandahar, Paktia returns a mixed picture: a large turnout in the city and some district centres, but far less participation already at the city borders and in other districts. A specific […]

Political Landscape Read more

Ambitious U.S. hospital project in Afghanistan faces failure

AAN •

Reuters, 5 March 2014 An ambitious US-funded, $60 million project to build hospitals has run into the ground, with the largest hospital ever planned in the country unlikely to open in full, U.S. and Afghan officials said. "The USAID project started in 2008 and aimed to meet the medical needs of over two million Afghans by […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Afghan [Zazi Maidan] District Makes Own Peace

AAN •

IWPR, 20 January 2014 Residents say a local arrangement governed by "nerkh", part of customary law, has kept the peace in the district "to an extent rare in other parts of the country", IWPR reports. Although Zazi Maidan "shares a border with the restive northwest of Pakistan, people here say they are able to work […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Votes sell for about $5 in Afghanistan as presidential race begins

AAN Team •

Reuters, 14 October 2013 In a report about illegal voter card selling and feared election fraud, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted with (the very shortened version of) how Afghan security forces played a role in ballot stuffing in the 2010 parliamentary election: “The threat of the insurgents, who oppose the election, was used at the […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Wikileaks and the Paktia governor

Kate Clark •

One of the US embassy cables published by Wikileaks relates to the Governor of Paktia, Juma Khan Hamdard. It contains detailed allegations that the governor is not only illegally amassing a personal fortune from US government-funded contracts, but is also fuelling money to active members of his tanzim, Hezb-e Islami, who are currently fighting the […]

Political Landscape Read more

Subscribe to receive updates from the Afghanistan Analysts Network

Sign up