History of Peshawar

adulteration and use of ill-maintained vehicles enhances emissions from motor vehicle exhaust. A large amount of suspended dust is generated due to vehicles driving on unpaved road shoulders, poorly maintained and overcrowded roads. In Peshawar, being a boarder city of Afghanistan, the large influx of Afghan transporters has greatly increased the problem of air pollution.

During the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, Peshawar served as a political centre for the CIA and the Inter-Services Intelligence-trained mujahideen groups based in the camps of Afghan refugees, such as at the refugee camp of Jalozai. Soviet agents often infiltrated these organizations and violence often erupted on Peshawar's streets, as it was the scene of a proxy conflict between Soviet agents and US-backed insurgents.

There was a total of approximately 100,000 Afghan refugees registered in Peshawar during the 1988 election, when Benazir Bhutto was running for Prime Minister of Pakistan; although, in addition to this estimate, hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees were in the city illegally. Many of the ethnic Pashtun Afghans assimilated into Peshawar with relative ease and many still remain in Pakistan illegally.

As of 2012, Peshawar continues to link Pakistan with Afghanistan and Central Asia. Peshawar has emerged as an important regional city of Pakistan and the city remains a focal point for Pashtun culture. Like the surrounding region, Peshawar is at the crossroads of the struggle between the extremist Taliban and moderates, liberals and Pashtun nationalists. As a demonstration of their determination to destroy Pashtun icons, the Taliban bombed the shrine of the Pashtun poet, Rahman Baba, in 2009