Award-winning conflict journalist, analyst and broadcaster specialising in Pakistan and Afghanistan. With experience in other hostile environments—Iraq and South Africa. Worked in the mountains, deserts, on the seas and the streets.

Adnan spent two years embedded in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan (2021-2023) producing Emmy award-winning documentary work for HBO, the BBC, and BAFTA-nominated work for Channel 4 while writing essays for the Financial Times after the fall of Kabul. His reporting combines rare field access—gained through fluency in Punjabi and conversational Urdu/Hindi—with frontline military experience from two Iraq War deployments, the 2003 invasion alongside the United States Marine Corps in a liaison role between western forces and local population and in 2006-7 under heavy mortar bombardment, upgrading Basra Air Station to hand over to Iraqi troops. Winner of The Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Prize and Premio Luchetta Award for Reportage, his work examines the Taliban, extremism, conflict migration, and the complex identities of British Muslim communities navigating questions of loyalty.

Currently completing a Certificate covering Political Philosophy, Politics, History and Economics at the University of Oxford (2024-26), he is systematically building academic frameworks around his two decades of military and journalism experience. His research focuses on relations between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, with ongoing language study to deepen his field capability, in particular Dari (lessons from late 2026). A former editor at The Economist, he has reported from the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and Africa for the Financial Times, BBC, ITV, Vice, Channel 4 and Sky. He produces rigorous, accessible analysis from ground-level observation and strategic understanding—combining the credibility of lived experience with the frameworks of formal scholarship to illuminate one of the world's most complex regions—South Asia.

Available for think tank research positions, expert commentary, policy consultation, and speaking engagements.

All photography by Adnan Sarwar.