Peshawar

Peshawar is a the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan and the largest city of the Province. near the Afghanistan border. The Federally Administered Tribal Area bordering Peshawar is the Khyber Agency, which, in turn, is adjacent to the West Mohammad Agency to its North and Northwest and the Semi-tribal regions of Kohat and Peshawar to its South. The Afghan border is 40 km to the west. It is strategically significant in the current Pakistani and cross-border insurgency.

It has a Pakistani population of 2.4 million, and 400,000 Afghans, spread over 1.257 square kilometers.

The city is in a sesmically active area and has suffered major earthquakes.

History
It is over two centuries old, having been founded by the Kushan kings of Gandhara. Emperor Babar, of the Moghul Empire came to Peshawar in 1530 AD.

The city name derives its name from a Sanskrit word 'Pushpapura' meaning the city of flowers, and its flowers were mentioned in Babar's memoirs.

During the Cold War, it was one of the airbases used by U.S. U-2 Dragon Lady aircraft for clandestine imagery and signals intelligence collection over the Soviet Union.

Security
It is in the heart of the current insurgency. There was a hotel bombing in June 2009, a suicide attack for which Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility. "Anyone who will oppose us to please the Americans will face the same fate. The people favouring America are our enemies. Our aim is to enforce the Islamic law in the country"

The Peshawar airport has been the target recently of Taliban rocket fire.