Sometimes old postcards shock you with their relevancy. In this case, 100 year old images from the tribal areas of Pakistan bear a creepy similarity to today's imagery.

Two examples suffice.

The first postcard A Frontier Loosewala or Raider N.W.F.P.. "Loosewala" is a remarkable term that combines local and English dialects. It denotes a dangerous man with a gun. Who sent and collected postcards like this?

The second postcard is The Pathan Shot in West Ridge, Rawalpindi, 1st April 1921. Rawalpindi is the army cantonment beneath the Margalla Hills in northern Punjab and current headquarters of the Pakistan Army. The man is dripping in blood. Would the sender of such a postcard be saying: "We got him!"

These type of postcards, mainly from Peshawar studios like K.C. Mehra and Sons, go back to 1905. There are a handful of different ones, not common, but not exceptional either. Other examples of dead Pathan postcards can be even bloodier.