ISLAMABAD -- More than 20 years after Soviet troops marched into Afghanistan in support of the last communist coup, the central Asian country's turmoil is unending. Descriptions such as "extreme impoverishment," "a lost generation" and "the ultimate pariah state" are just some of the ways that Afghanistan gets referred to in diplomatic conversations, mainly the consequence of years of rule by the Taliban regime.
For much of the Western world, the Taliban are known to be the world's most fanatic Islamic regime, winning fame by forcing women to leave work and stay at home, closing down girls' schools, forcing men to sport beards and banning such means of entertainment as flying kites or playing chess.
Pakistan, next door, has lived with most of the fallout from the Afghan war. More than 3 million Afghans came to Pakistan as refugees after the war began. Many returned to Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal, but a large number chose to stay in Pakistan. While estimates vary on the size of the Afghan population in Pakistan, independent analysts say there could be perhaps as many as 2.5 million Afghans still in Pakistan.