Gandhara, the ancient name of the upper Indus Valley – which makes up most of present- day Pakistan and Afghanistan – is the historic gateway to the subcontinent where cultures, creeds, communities and languages mingle, although not often without violence. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed here numerous trajectories of violence, owing to external and internal forces, which have claimed countless lives and resources of the Af-Pak region and beyond. The violence has often been nihilistic, and continues to be perpetrated and retribution carried out mainly by Pashtuns across the Durand Line in addition to its larger remit in these two countries. Without singling out Pashtuns as perpetually violence-prone tribes and as resistant to modern nation building, more recent and enduring developments such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) struggle against the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan military operations in Swat and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) certainly necessitate a broad understanding of questions about Pashtun identity, highlighted in the later portion of this study.

In the Eye of the Storm

Following the torching of more than 400 girls’ schools, the closing down of numerous video and music shops and the public executions of men and women incriminated under all kinds of charges without any recourse to public review or accountability, Swat had by 2009 turned into a Taliban-controlled state within Pakistan.