The killing of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud not only presents the Waziristan-based militant group with a serious leadership crisis, but also casts a pall on much-anticipated peace talks with the Pakistani government. That a suspected U.S. drone strike caused Mehsud's death only complicates the picture, as do stop-and-start peace initiatives with Afghanistan. Join our RFE/RL journalists and special guests in a live Google+ discussion to make sense of Pakistan's figurative and literal battlefield:
Google+ Hangout: Pakistan in the Crosshairs
Friday, November 8, 2013
11 am (Washington, DC) / 5 pm (Prague)
Watch the Hangout here:
Daud Khattak (Moderator) - Senior Editor with RFE/RL's Pakistan Service where he is an expert on the militancy in Pakistan's tribal areas, the Pakistani Taliban, and Pashtun politics and society . Prior to joining RFE/RL, Khattak worked in Kabul for Afghanistan's Pajhwok Afghan News and in Peshawar for the London "Sunday Times" and the Pakistani English dailies "The News International" and "Daily Times." He has also written for "Foreign Policy," "CTC Sentinel," and "The Express Tribune."
Sen. Haji Muhammad Adeel - A senior member of the Awami National Party representing his native Khyber Pakhtunkwa province in the Pakistani Senate since 2008, Adeel is the Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Affairs committee and serves on several other Senate committees including Defense and Finance.
Shaheen Buneri - RFE/RL correspondent with more than 12 years of experience covering Pakistan's Swat Valley, Peshawar, and tribal regions on the Af-Pak border. In addition to RFE/RL, Buneri has also worked as a correspondent for BBC World, is a Newsvine blogger, and was a fellow at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for 2011 where he focused on conflict in the Swat Valley.
Jehangir Khattak - Senior Editor of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism's "Voices of NY" project. A journalist since 1986, Khattak has written for several English daily newspapers in Pakistan before becoming news editor of "The Frontier Post." During the 1990s, he covered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent civil war, the rise of the Taliban, and upheavals in Pakistan, and now serves as an analyst on Pakistani and American radio and television programs.
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