Pakistan's Great Game

A knowledgeable Afghan (with a degree of inevitable bias) recommends this article from the NY Times Sunday Magazine:

Right at the Edge

Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

DÉJÀ VU: The Vice and Virtue brigade has taken control of a large swath of Khyber agency near the Afghanistan border. At the commander’s compound in Takya, the author and photographer encountered a group of armed men and boys sitting in a Toyota pickup truck, reminding them of Kabul in the 1990s.

The piece asks a key question: "Whose side is Pakistan really on?"

More on Pakistan:

Pakistan gets even trickier

Now this is a politic move by the Afghan president given the strained relations with his neighbour (and to balance his recent visit to India):

Karzai attends Pakistan swearing in

On the other hand this will upset the Pakistanis:

Anti-rebel attacks needed in Pakistan: Afghan foreign minister
...
"The ideological and military training camps (for extremists active in Afghanistan) are in the mountains of Pakistan," he told reporters, calling the region a "breeding ground for terrorists".

"We need to stop that. We must not give them the chance to use terror as an instrument of foreign policy."..

His remarks came after at least 21 people including women and children were killed Monday in a missile strike by suspected US drones near a madrassa or Islamic seminary in a Pakistan tribal town near the Afghan border.

It was the fourth such strike in the rugged tribal region in almost a week...

Here's an Indian view:

The new Great Game explained