'Pakistan: Countering Militancy in FATA', International Crisis Group, 21 October 2009
EXCERPT: "The military operation in South Waziristan is unlikely to succeed in curbing the spread of religious militancy in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), unless the Pakistan government implements political reforms in that part of the country. Pakistani Taliban groups have gained significant power in the tribal agencies, seven administrative districts bordering on Afghanistan. While state institutions in FATA are increasingly dysfunctional, the militants have dismantled or assumed control of an already fragile tribal structure. This encroaching Talibanisation is not the product of tribal traditions or resistance. It is the result of short-sighted military policies and a colonial-era body of law that isolates the region from the rest of the country, giving it an ambiguous constitutional status and denying political freedoms and economic opportunity to the population. While the militants’ hold over FATA can be broken, the longer the state delays implementing political, administrative, judicial and economic reforms, the more difficult it will be to stabilise the region."
Read the full report.
Related articles:
Pakistan's government, not military, must fight Taliban, Atlantic Council, 20 October 2009
FATA reforms: Govt follows in footsteps of predecessors, DAWN, 30 August 2009
Related reports:
FATA: A most dangerous place [pdf], Centre for Strategic and International Studies, January 2009
