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Daud Khattak is a senior international correspondent covering the Near East in RFE/RL’s Central Newsroom. He was previously the managing editor of RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal.
Pakistan has nearly fenced off the entire length of its disputed 2,670-kilometer border with Afghanistan, purportedly to stop militants from crossing the porous frontier. But observers say the greatest impact will be felt by Pashtun communities straddling the border.
Despite declaring victory in flattening the curve of coronavirus infections in early September, Pakistan is now bracing for a second wave of the pandemic as numbers are starting to rise since lockdown measures were lifted in August.
The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan is now back in parts of Malakand Division, an administrative region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, where thousands were killed and millions displaced during years of Taliban control and military operations.
A diplomatic spat between close allies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia has exposed serious fissures in their relationship.
Pakistan is cracking down on social-media platforms, with critics accusing authorities of trying to control the free flow of information.
Pakistan has capitulated to pressure from hard-line Islamic clerics and politicians to halt construction on Islamabad's first Hindu temple.
Pakistan's leaders have championed a Turkish television drama that has triggered debate in the Muslim-majority country.
The Pakistani government, backed by the powerful military, is seeking to roll back a decade-old constitutional amendment that made it harder for the military to seize power.
The coronavirus pandemic is the latest obstacle in efforts to eradicate the crippling polio disease in Pakistan.
With half of Pakistan under a very unpopular lockdown, many are reluctant to obey the official orders that limit physical and social contacts and restrict mobility. There are concerns that the continued closure of businesses and places of worship could result in a sharp backlash in the religiously conservative and economically weak country.
With Pakistan under an unpopular lockdown aimed at fighting the coronavirus pandemic raging around the world, a large portion of the country's devout and poverty-stricken people are resisting limits on physical and social contacts and their mobility.
A spate of recent attacks and harassment appear to target high-profile Pakistani journalists and bloggers living in self-imposed exile in Europe.
Journalist Marvi Sirmed, a leading Pakistani rights campaigner, says extremists, fanatics, and mobsters cannot stop their peaceful protests.
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