A few kilometres from Torkham, Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, you can already see trucks parked one after the other on the side of the road, forming an endless queue that disappears into the horizon. They are huge trailers, decorated with beautiful colours, as is the tradition in Pakistan. Almost all of them also have big black scarves hanging from the back of the trailer. The drivers say they help ward off misfortune and bad luck. All the trucks are waiting to cross the border into Afghanistan.

Mirwais Heidari Haqdoost is reluctant to talk on the phone. He feels more comfortable writing messages on WhatsApp. He does not want to expose himself even more. This weekend his image went around the world: he appeared in a programme of an Afghan television channel with seven men armed with Kalashnikovs behind him. They were watching him while he was doing an interview with a Taliban commander. Or rather, while he was pretending to do an interview. "Before I started, they dictated all the questions I had to ask", he explains via WhatsApp. They also told him how he should present the programme. Naturally Haqdoost didn't resist. On the contrary, he tried to act as professionally as possible. His life was at stake.