News stories by Ashfaq Yusufzai, page 5

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 12 (IPS) - At 46, Naseema Nashad is starting her life over, not out of choice but out of necessity. The Afghan woman was just 25 years old when Taliban militants stormed Kabul and her family was forced to flee to neighbouring Pakistan to escape what they knew would be a brutal regime.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 01 (IPS) - They number between two and three million; some have lived in makeshift shelters for just a few months, while others have roots that stretch much further back into history. Most fled to escape war, others simply ran away from joblessness.

PESHAWAR, Dic 24 (IPS) - Pakistan's announcement that it has lifted the moratorium on the death penalty in response to the Dec. 16 attack on the Army Public School and College in Peshawar continues to draw severe criticism from human rights groups, which say that this contravenes international treaties signed by Pakistan.

PESHAWAR, Dic 22 (IPS) - "Our children quitting school is the greatest pain we have suffered during our troublesome lives here," says Multan Shah, a vegetable-seller in a shantytown of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of Pakistan's four provinces.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dic 21 (IPS) - As Pakistan lifts its moratorium on executions in response to this week's attack on a school in  Peshawar, human rights groups say that resuming the death penalty will not combat terrorism in Pakistan.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 24 (IPS) - When a stray bullet fired by Taliban militants became lodged in her spine last August, 22-year-old Shakira Bibi gave up all hopes of ever leading a normal life.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 20 (IPS) - Balwan Singh, an 84-year-old shopkeeper living in Pakistan's northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, is well past retirement age, but any illusions he may have had about living out his golden years in peace and security have long since been dashed.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 06 (IPS) - Residents of the Khyber Agency, one of seven administrative districts that comprise northern Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), are in the worst possible predicament: either course of action they choose now, they say, could result in death.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 12 (IPS) - For girls living in northern Pakistan's sprawling tribal regions, the struggle for education began long before that fateful day when members of the Taliban shot a 15-year-old schoolgirl in the head, and will undoubtedly continue for many years to come.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 08 (IPS) - Imagine traveling for almost an entire day in the blistering sun, carrying all your possessions with you. Imagine fleeing in the middle of the night as airstrikes reduce your village to rubble. Imagine arriving in a makeshift refugee camp where there is no running water, no bathrooms and hardly any food. Now imagine making that journey as a pregnant woman.