Pakistan and Afghanistan

In Pakistan in the 1990s governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif replaced each other; in 1998 the country tested nuclear weapons, and in 1999 General Pervez Musharraf took power in a military coup and stayed until 2008. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007; in 2011 Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by US special forces. In Afghanistan the Taliban took Kabul in 1996 and in 2001 destroyed the Buddhist statues of Bamiyan; after the attacks of 11 September that year a US-led coalition removed them from power. Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani served as presidents and a new constitution was adopted in 2004. In 2020 the US and the Taliban signed the Doha agreement, and on 15 August 2021 the Taliban took Kabul again. They introduced restrictions on girls’ education and women’s work, which international organizations widely criticize. Very few states have formally recognized the Taliban government, but many keep practical contacts with it. As a neighbour of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan keeps channels of dialogue and trade open.