Frontier of Fear

Confronting the Taliban on Pakistan's Border

David L. Gosling

• Publisher: Radcliffe Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781784534684
• eBook ISBN: 9780857727961
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Terrorism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The troubled borderland of Pakistan and Afghanistan the so-called AfPak region is one of the most dangerous areas of the world. Between 2006 and 2010 David L. Gosling lived in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where he was principal of Edwardes College, a prestigious higher education college, affiliated with the University of Peshawar. In this book, Gosling describes his time at Edwardes College and the challenges and changes of his tenure. Already the first co-educational college in the province, Gosling significantly increased the proportion of female students and staff. The book also describes the early stages of Taliban growth in Afghanistan, its spill-over into the tribal borderlands of Pakistan and how a combination of Pakistan army activity and US drone strikes provoked a furious backlash by Taliban groups against civilian targets in and around Peshawar, including death threats against the author. Providing a personal account of the education and politics of this frontier region, this book offers a unique viewpoint on a part of the world which is often misunderstood."

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction
• Maps of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Peshawar
• The Prince Who Never Came
• Brave New World
• The Daily Round
• Enter the Taliban
• In the Eye of the Storm
• Islam in Context
• Educational Renaissance
• The Dominant Minority
• Trials and Tribulations
• Finally – A New Beginning?
• Afterword
• Appendix 1
• The investigation of the embezzlement
• Appendix 2
• Annual report to the Board of Governors, May 2010
• Appendix 3
• Pakistan’s role in securing a permanent Afghan peace
• Glossary of terms
• Notes
• Recommended reading
• Index
• List of Illustrations and Tables
• Figure 1. The oldest Edwardes College buildings display Mughal architectural features
• Figure 2 Khayam Hassan with his gunman’s weapon in the principal’s garden
• Figure 3 The gateway from Peshawar to the Khyber Pass
• Figure 4 A student reads from the Holy Qur’ān
• Figure 5 College members arrive at Bara Gali in the Murree Hills in the newly acquired bus
• Figure 6 Looking after the plants at the newly opened women’s centre
• Figure 7 Students hard at work in the chemistry laboratory under the watchful eye of Javed Hyatt
• Figure 8 Students play basketball in front of the first-year hostel
• Figure 9 The principal with Governor Owais A.Ghani
• Figure 10 Recital of the Holy Qur’ān during Ramazan
• Figure 11 The prison visiting team with the deputy superintendent
• Figure 12 Inside the prison on World Aids Day
• Figure 13 Sufi Muhammad: The elder statesman of Pakistan’s Taliban
• Figure 14 Visiting the home of a student, Waliullah, near Bannu
• Figure 15 The result of a bomb blast close to the college
• Figure 16 An Urdu death threat to the principal
• Figure 17 Peshawar’s first suicide bomber
• Figure 18 The Chowk Yadgar bomb on 28 October 2009, which killed 120 people
• Figure 19 Clearing up the bomb debris in Chowk Yadgar
• Figure 20. The Pashto poet Abasin Yousafzai recites poems at the annual college mushaira
• Figure 21 Bacha Khan and M. K. Gandhi visiting the college in 1933
• Figure 22 Two outstanding vice-principals: Donald Joseph with Nasim Haider
• Figure 23 St John’s Cathedral, Peshawar
• Figure 24 Palm Sunday at St John’s Cathedral
• Figure 25 Meeting General Pervez Musharraf in London in November 2011
• Figure 26 FATA student recipients of UK scholarships meet with High Commission staff person, Amna Jatoi
• Figure 27 Rafiq Hussain, who came first in the province in the Pre-Medical exams and is now a doctor
• Figure 28 Letting their hair down; Edwardians on a visit to Lahore University of Management Sciences
• Table 1 Events leading to the emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan
• Table 2 Drone use inside Pakistan’s borders 2004–11
• Table 3 Security incidents relating to Peshawar: 2006–10
• Table 1 Student enrolment in all courses: Session 2009–10
• Table 2 Admissions for the session 2009–10
• Table 3 Position holders in BSc/BA annual examination for 2009