Three years ago Vice co-founder Suroosh Alvi, as part of our Vice Guide to Travel series, went to what has been called “the most dangerous place on the planet”, a Pakistan gun market where deaf people with no tongues make guns and little kids package bullets. He was one of only a handful of journalists who was able to get into the area which has been a home base for the Taliban since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

This month, he returned to Pakistan to visit family, and gave us an update on the state of the country and talked us through his last trip. A “country full of contradictions”, Pakistan is now bristling with liberal media institutions and a progressive set of the population, but on the other hand the threat of the Taliban has increased, and the gun markets have been closed to all media and journalists.

Hop on over to VBS to check it out now.