As part of its expanded coverage of the situation in Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent, Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan service has sent one of its broadcasters to Pakistan. Mr. Karma Gyatsho Zurkhang arrived in Pakistan on January 12, 2002 and has been sending daily despatches, according to RFA Tibetan service chief Jigme Ngapo.

Jigme said the plan is for Zurkhang to go to Afghanistan as well as areas of Kashmir under Pakistan’s control.

This is the first time a Tibetan broadcaster has started filing stories from Pakistan, which has a sizable ethnic Tibetan population in the region of Baltistan.

RFA’s stringer in Dharamsala, Ugyen Norbu, has also been sent to Srinagar the capital of Jammu and Kashmir state in India to cover the India-Pakistan tension.

The Tibetan language broadcast of Voice of America, Voice of Tibet, Radio Free Asia as well as Tibetan newspapers Tibet Times and Tibetan Freedom have been giving wide coverage of the tension on the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan and their implication on Tibet and China.