Rahimullah Yusufzai

Rahimullah Yusufzai was a Pakistani journalist, political and security analyst, who was widely regarded as an authority on Afghan affairs and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. He was born in 1954 in Shamozai village of Mardan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He received his early education at his village primary school and then in public schools in Peshawar and Jhelum. He also studied at the D.J. Sindh College and the University of Karachi. He worked as a metallurgist at the Urenco Group, a uranium enrichment company, before joining journalism in his mid-thirties. He covered the Afghan conflict since the 1979 Soviet invasion and interviewed the most elusive leaders, including Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. He was the editor of The News International at the Peshawar Bureau and an op-ed writer for the monthly Newsline. He was also a correspondent for Time magazine and the BBC's Pashto and Urdu services. He was hailed as a national hero and received several awards and honors, including the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and the Sitara-i-Imtiaz. He died in 2021 at the age of 66 after being hospitalized with cancer.