Homeland of danger

The Taliban and the Pakistani government are engaged in a bloody conflict, leaving 2 million displaced people caught in the crossfire of a battle that could determine the future of Pakistan itself. Noel Baker witnessed the effect on the victims

MURAD is just two days old, but he’s already got a hell of a story to tell his friends when he grows up.

The tiny baby boy, wrapped in a blanket and bound with what looks to be blue baler twine, entered the world in a hospital near Haripur, hours away from where his parents live. That hospital was the fourth one his mother and father had tried, having been turned away from the previous three. Having been delivered by Caesarean section, he is living in a school with his parents in the countryside 90 minutes outside the Pakistani capital Islamabad, and he could shortly be returning to his home. How much of it is left standing is anyone’s guess.