War in North-West Pakistan
Encyclopedia
The War in North-West Pakistan is an armed conflict between the Pakistan Armed Forces and armed religious groups such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan , alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. Most, but not all, Pakistani Taliban groups coalesce under the TTP...

 (TTP), Lashkar-e-Islam
Lashkar-e-Islam
Lashkar-e-Islam , literally Army of Islam also transliterated as Lashkar-e-Islami, Lashkar-i-Islam) is a militant organization active in and around Khyber Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan. LeI was founded in 2004 by Mufti Munir Shakir...

, TSNM
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi is a Pakistani militant group whose objective is to enforce Sharia law in the country. The rebel group took over much of Swat in 2007...

, Arab and Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

n militants including Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

, regional armed movements and elements of organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

.

The armed conflict began in 2004 when tensions, rooted in the Pakistan Army's search for
Battle of Wana
The Battle of Wana was a military engagement between Pakistan Army and the Taliban forces, supported by the foreign fighters of Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda. The battle was among one of the bloodiest battle fought by the Pakistan Army, and it ended violently with 49 infantry troop soldiers dead...

 Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

 fighters in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

's mountainous Waziristan
Waziristan
Waziristan is a mountainous region near the Northwest of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . The area is entirely populated by ethnic Pashtuns . The language spoken in the valley is Pashto/Pakhto...

 area (in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...

), escalated into armed resistance. Pakistan's actions were presented as its contribution to the international War on Terror
Pakistan's role in the War on Terror
Pakistan's role in the War on Terror was initiated by the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. These acts were a new manifestation of terrorism, which altogether changed the political psyche of the world...

. Clashes erupted between Pakistani army troops and Arab and Central Asian militia forces. The foreign militants were joined by Pakistani non-military veterans of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...

 which subsequently established the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and other militia organizations such as Lashkar-e-Islam. The Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi is a Pakistani militant group whose objective is to enforce Sharia law in the country. The rebel group took over much of Swat in 2007...

 (TSNM) established in 1992 allied with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Islam.

Background

As aftermath of Battle of Tora Bora
Battle of Tora Bora
The Battle of Tora Bora was a military engagement that took place in Afghanistan in December 2001, during the opening stages of the war in that country launched following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The U.S...

, the formal deployment was begun by the Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...

, at the request of the Pakistan Government
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system, with an indirectly-elected President as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and an indirectly-elected Prime Minister as the Head of Government. The President’s appointment and term are...

, in 2002. The XI Corps
XI Corps (Pakistan)
The XI Corps is an active administrative corp of Pakistan Army. The XI Corps is the only one corps that is assigned in the North-West Frontier Province . It is currently stationed in Peshawar, Khyber-Pakhtaunkhuwa. The Corps was established and quickly raised in 1975 to support administrative...

, under its core-commander Lieutenant-General Ali Jan Aurakzai. The XI Corps entered the Tirah Valley in the Khyber Agency for the first time since Pakistan independence in 1947. The troops were later proceeded to move into the Shawal Valley of North Waziristan, and later South Waziristan. The Naval Special Service Group
Special Service Group Navy
The Special Service Group Navy, codename SSG, are the Pakistan Navy's elite principal special operations naval force component. Together with the PAF 312th SS Wing, Special Service Group, Pakistan Marines, and Rangers, they form Pakistan Special Operations Command under the joint administrative...

 established the reconnaissance base and began to monitored the suspicious activities emerged in the area. The troubles mounted as the Tribes began to see Army's deployment and repeated Air Force
Pakistan Air Force
The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...

's flights in the region as an act of subjugation.

In December 2003, two assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...

 were traced to Waziristan. The government responded by intensifying military pressure on the area, however the fighting was costly and government forces would sustain heavy casualties throughout 2004 and into early 2005 when the government switched to a tactic of negotiation instead of direct conflict.

Fighting breaks out



On March 16, 2004, a bloody mountainous battle between Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...

 and the combined Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters ensued. Both International
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 and National media
Media of Pakistan
Media in Pakistan provides information on television, radio, cinema, newspapers, and magazines in Pakistan.-Regulation:The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority was formed in 2002 to "facilitate and promote a free, fair and independent electronic media", including opening the broadcasting...

 speculated that Pakistan Armed Forces had surrounded a "High Value Target" in the mountainous region, possibly Al-Qaeda's Second-in-Command
Second-in-command
The Second-in-Command is the deputy commander of any British Army or Royal Marines unit, from battalion or regiment downwards. He or she is thus the equivalent of an Executive Officer in the United States Army...

 Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...

. The battle was concluded after the Army had conquered(?) the entire mountainous region, and captured hundreds of Al-Qaeda fighters. However, the Army failed to capture Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...

 as he had either escaped or never been among the fighters.

Peace deals

In April 2004, the Government of Pakistan
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system, with an indirectly-elected President as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and an indirectly-elected Prime Minister as the Head of Government. The President’s appointment and term are...

 signed the first of three peace agreements with militants in South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...

. It was signed with militia commander Nek Muhammad Wazir
Nek Muhammad Wazir
Nek Muhammad Wazir was a charismatic Pashtun military leader.He was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan, FATA, Pakistan in June, 2004...

, but was immediately abrogated once Nek Muhammad was killed by American Hellfire missile in June 2004. The second was signed in February 2005 with Nek's successor Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud was a leading militant in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan . He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S...

, which brought relative calm in the South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...

 region. This deal would later, in September 2006, be mimicked in the neighboring North Waziristan
North Waziristan
North Waziristan is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering . Waziristan comprises the area west and south-west of Peshawar between the Tochi river to the north and the Gomal river to the south, forming part of Pakistan's...

 territory as the third and final truce between the government and the militants. However, all of these truces would not have a substantial effect in reducing bloodshed. The latter two deals were officially broken in August 2007 with the Lal Masjid siege, which raised the suicide attacks on Pakistani forces tenfold throughout the country.

2005-2006

On May 4, 2005, Pakistani commandos captured Abu Faraj al-Libbi
Abu Faraj al-Libbi
Abu Faraj al-Libi is an assumed name or nom de guerre of a Libyan alleged to be a senior member of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. His real name is thought to be Mustafa al-'Uzayti. He was arrested by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence on May 2, 2005, in Mardan...

 after a raid outside the town of Mardan
Mardan
Mardan , known as The city of hospitality, is a city and headquarters of Mardan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It is the de facto headquarters of the Yousafzai tribe and the second most populous city in the province, located at 34°12'0N 72°1'60E and an altitude of in the south...

, 30 miles northeast of Peshawar. Abu Farraj al-Libbi was a high ranking al-Qaeda official, rumored to be third after Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

 and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Libbi replaced Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a Kuwait-born militant in U.S. custody in Guantánamo Bay for alleged acts of terrorism, including mass murder of civilians....

 after his arrest in March 2003 in connection with the September 11th attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

. The Pakistani government arrested al-Libbi and held him on charges in relation to being a chief planner in two assassination attempts on the life of President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003.

On January 13, 2006, the U.S. launched an airstrike on the village of Damadola
Damadola airstrike
On 13 January 2006 the Central Intelligence Agency fired missiles into the Pakistani village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal area, about seven kilometres from the Afghan border, killing at least 18 people. Originally the Bajaur tribal area government claimed that at least four foreign members...

. The attack occurred in the Bajaur
Bajaur
Bajaur or Bajur or Bajour is an Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Smallest of the agencies in FATA, it has a hilly terrain. According to the 1998 census, the population was 595,227 but other more recent estimates it has grown to 757,000...

 tribal area, about 7 km (4.3 mi) from the Afghan border, and killed at least 18 people. The attack again targeted Ayman al-Zawahiri, but later evidence suggests he was not there.

Ceasefire

On June 21, 2006, pro-Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants in the Bannu
Bannu
Bannu is the principal city of the Bannu District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. It is an important road junction and market city. Bannu is a very old city, founded in ancient times; however, the present location of the downtown Bannu was founded by Sir Herbert Edwardes in 1848,...

 region of North Waziristan stated they shot down a Bell military helicopter that was reported to have crashed. The government denied missile fire as the cause, stating it was due to technical faults. The helicopter had taken off from a base camp in Bannu at around 7am for Miramshah and crashed 15 minutes later into the Baran Dam in the Mohmandkhel area on Wednesday morning. Four soldiers were killed while three others were rescued. On the same day militants killed an inspector and two constables on a road connecting Bannu and the main town of Miranshah
Miranshah
Miranshah is the capital or headquarters of North Waziristan in Pakistan. It is the site of a town, which has s small airfield that was built by the British for World War II. The area in which Miranshah sits is extremely dangerous mainly due to Taliban activities and U.S. Drone...

.

On June 21, 2006, Afghan Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani
Sirajuddin Haqqani
Sirajuddin "Siraj" Haqqani is a Pashtun warlord and military leader who fights against American and coalition forces from his base within North Waziristan in Pakistan, where it is claimed he provides shelter to Al Qaeda operatives...

 issued a decree that it was not (Afghan) Taliban policy to fight the Pakistan Army. However, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan intentionally did not circulate the decree in North Waziristan thereby keeping pressure on the government.

Waziristan peace accord signed

On September 5, 2006, the Waziristan Accord
Waziristan accord
The Waziristan Accord was an agreement between the government of Pakistan and tribals, resident in the Waziristan area to mutually cease hostilities in North Waziristan . The agreement was signed on 5 September 2006 in the North Waziristan town of Miranshah...

, an agreement between tribal leaders and the Pakistani government was signed in Miranshah, North Waziristan. to end all fighting. The agreement includes the following provisions:
  • The Pakistani Army will help reconstruct infrastructure in tribal areas of North and South Waziristan.
  • The Pakistani Military will not tolerate any assistance to intruders in North Waziristan, and will monitor actions in the region.
  • The Pakistan government is to compensate tribal leaders for the loss of life and property of innocent tribesmen.
  • “Foreigners” (informally understood to be foreign jihad
    Jihad
    Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

    ists) are not allowed to use Pakistani territory for any terrorist activity anywhere in the world.
  • 2,500 foreigners who were originally held on suspicion of having links to the Taliban were to be detained for necessary action against them.

The agreement, dubbed the Waziristan accord, has been viewed by some political commentators as a success for Pakistan. Others were far more critical, seeing it as allowing militants to regroup and reorganize after military operations. Further details of the agreement, as well as comments on the agreement made by US, Pakistani, and Taliban spokesmen is available in the Waziristan accord article.

Madrassa air strike

On October 30, 2006, the Pakistani army conducted an air strike
Chenagai airstrike
The Chenagai airstrike took place on October 30, 2006, around 5:00 am. local time. Missiles were fired at a madrassa in Chenagai village in Bajaur region of Pakistan. An eyewitness has stated that the madrassa was filled with local students who had resumed studies after the Eid ul-Fitr holiday. 82...

 against a madrassa in the Bajaur
Bajaur
Bajaur or Bajur or Bajour is an Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Smallest of the agencies in FATA, it has a hilly terrain. According to the 1998 census, the population was 595,227 but other more recent estimates it has grown to 757,000...

 region bordering Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. The madrassa was destroyed killing 70 to 80 people.

In retaliation for the attack the militants conducted a suicide bombing on an army camp on November 8, 2006, killing 42 Pakistani soldiers and wounding 20.

2007

In March, Pakistan signed a peace treaty with Faqir Mohammed
Faqir Mohammed
Faqir Mohammed is a member of the Mohmand tribe and a deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban umbrella group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. He was born in Chopatra, in Bajaur Agency, Pakistan. He was reported as killed on March 5, 2010 during a helicopter gunship attack on militants by the Pakistani...

, the main militant leader in Bajaur. Militant groups now held three districts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...

: South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...

, North Waziristan
North Waziristan
North Waziristan is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering . Waziristan comprises the area west and south-west of Peshawar between the Tochi river to the north and the Gomal river to the south, forming part of Pakistan's...

 and Bajaur Agency.

Waziri-Uzbek tensions

Reportedly, the fighting sparked by the killing of Saiful Adil, an al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

-linked Arab, blamed on the Uzbeks
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...

 by Maulvi Nazir
Maulvi Nazir
Maulvi Nazir is a leading militant of the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan.Nazir's operations are based around Wana.He is opposed to foreign influence, particularly Uzbek and American, in Waziristan...

, described as a top pro-Taliban militant commander in the region. According to the other version, fighting started after Mullah Nazir, whom the government says has come over to its side, ordered the Uzbek followers of Tohir Yo‘ldosh
Tohir Yo‘ldosh
Tohir Yo‘ldosh, born Tohir Abduhalilovich Yo‘ldoshev , cofounded the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan , an Islamist organization active in Central Asia, with Juma Namangani in December 1991...

, formerly a close confidant of Osama bin Laden, to disarm. It was also preceded by the clashes between the IMU
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani—both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley...

 and a pro-government tribal leader in Azam Warsak, in which 17 to 19 people died before a ceasefire
Ceasefire
A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...

 was announced.

Defeat of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

Local militants allied to the tribesmen were reported attacking and seizing the IMU's private jail in Azam Warsak. The Pakistan Army said it did not intend to step in, but witnesses say government artillery fired on the Uzbek bunkers they set up to fight the tribesmen.

Heavy fighting resumed on March 29, ending a week-long ceasefire between tribal fighters and foreign militants. According to initial reports, tribesmen attacked a checkpoint manned by Uzbek militants and captured two of them. The clashes also left one tribal fighter dead and three wounded. The following day, a senior Pakistani official announced that 52 people were killed during the past two days, 45 of them Uzbeks and the rest tribesmen. One of Maulvi Nazir's aides put the death toll at 35 Uzbeks and 10 tribal fighters. However, residents in the area said that the death toll on both sides was inflated.

The conflict further escalated on April 2 when a council of elders declared jihad against foreign militants and started to raise an army of tribesmen. According to Pakistani security officials, heavy fighting concentrated in the village of Doza Ghundai left more than 60 people dead, including 50 foreigners, 10 tribal fighters and one Pakistani soldier. He also said that "dozens" of Uzbeks had surrendered to tribal forces and that many bunkers used by militants were seized or destroyed.

On April 12, 2007 the army general in charge of South Waziristan said that tribal fighters had cleared the Uzbeks out of the valleys surrounding Wana and the foreign militants had been pushed back into the mountains on the Afghan border. Four days later, the local tribesmen has urged Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...

 to resume control of law and order in the area.

Lal Masjid siege

On July 3, 2007, the militant supporters of Lal Masjid and Pakistani security forces clashed in Islamabad after the students from the mosque attacked a nearby government ministry building with stones. Their resultant faceoff with the military escalated, despite the intervention of then-ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q)
Pakistan Muslim League (Q)
The Pakistan Muslim League or officially Pakistan Muslim League is a centrist, modern political party in Pakistan. The present form of PML-Q was formed prior to 2002 general elections....

 leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is a politician from Pakistan who was the Prime Minister of that country from June 30, 2004 until August 28 2004...

 and Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq
Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq
Ch Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq is a prominent Pakistani politician and a businessman who served as a Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Minorities under the Government of Prime minister Shaukat Aziz. A former Pakistan Army officer, Haq joined the Pakistan Army in 1971, as second lieutnenat, but...

. The Pakistani security forces immediately put up a siege around the mosque complex which lasted until July 11 and resulted in 108 deaths. This represented the main catalyst for the conflict and eventual breakdown of the truce that existed between Pakistan and the Pakistani Taliban groups. Already during the siege there were several attacks in Waziristan in retaliation for the siege.

Truce in Waziristan broken

As the siege in Islamabad ensued, several attacks on Pakistani troops in Waziristan were reported. On July 14, 2007, a suicide bomber attacked a Pakistani Army convoy killing 25 soldiers and wounding 54. On July 15, 2007, two suicide bombers attacked another Pakistani Army convoy killing 16 soldiers and 5 civilians and wounding another 47 people. And in a separate incident a fourth suicide bomber attacked a police headquarters killing 28 police officers and recruits and wounding 35 people. The assault on the Red Mosque prompted rebels along the border with Afghanistan to scrap the controversial Waziristan Accord
Waziristan accord
The Waziristan Accord was an agreement between the government of Pakistan and tribals, resident in the Waziristan area to mutually cease hostilities in North Waziristan . The agreement was signed on 5 September 2006 in the North Waziristan town of Miranshah...

 with the government.

New war in Waziristan

The Army moved large concentration of troops into Waziristan and engaged in fierce clashes with militants in which at least 100 militants were killed including wanted terrorist and former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Abdullah Mehsud
Abdullah Mehsud
Abdullah Mehsud was a member of the Mahsud tribe in South Waziristan, and a Pashtun militant commander who killed himself with a hand grenade after security forces raided his dwelling in Zhob, Balochistan, Pakistan....

. The militants also struck back by attacking Army convoys, security check points and sending suicide bombers killing dozens of soldiers and police and over 100 civilians. In one month of fighting during the period from July 24 to August 24, 2007, 250 militants and 60 soldiers were killed. On September 2, 2007, just a few dozen militants led by Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud was a leading militant in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan . He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S...

 managed to ambush a 17-vehicle army convoy and captured an estimated 247 soldiers without a shot being fired, an event that shocked the nation. Several officers were among the captured.

After the army returned to Waziristan, they garrisoned the areas and set up check-points, but the militants hit hard. In mid-September the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and other forces attacked a number of Pakistani army outposts all across North and South Waziristan. This resulted in some of the heaviest fighting of the war. Following the Lal Masjid Siege, On September 12, 2007, the first outpost was attacked and overrun by the militants resulting in the capture of 12 Pakistani soldiers. The next day on September 13, 2007, a suicide bomber in Tarbela Ghazi attacked a Pakistani army base, destroying the main mess hall and killing 20 members of the Karrar commando group; Pakistan's most elite army unit. A series of attacks ensued and by September 20, 2007 a total of five Pakistani Army military outposts had been overrun and more than 25 soldiers captured. More than 65 soldiers were either killed or captured and almost 100 wounded. A little over two weeks later, the Army responded with helicopter gunships, jet fighters and ground troops. They hit militant positions near the town of Mir Ali. In heavy fighting
Battle of Mir Ali
The Battle of Mir Ali was a bloody military engagement occurred between 7 October and 10 October 2007 and involved Taliban militants and Pakistani soldiers around the town of Mir Ali, Pakistan , the second biggest town in the semi-autonomous region on the border with Afghanistan.- Timeline of the...

 over four days, 257 people were killed, including 175 militants, 47 soldiers and 35 civilians.

Battle of Swat Valley

By the end of October fighting erupted in the Swat district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, with a large Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi is a Pakistani militant group whose objective is to enforce Sharia law in the country. The rebel group took over much of Swat in 2007...

 force, under the command of Maulana Fazlullah
Maulana Fazlullah
Maulana Fazlullah, nicknamed the "Radio Mullah" or "Mullah Radio", is the leader of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi , a banned Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist militant group allied to the Pakistani Taliban, that aims to enforce Sharia in the country...

, trying to impose Sharia law. Around 3,000 paramilitary soldiers were sent to confront them. After almost a week of heavy fighting the battle came to a standstill with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Then on November 1 and November 3, 220 paramilitary soldiers and policemen surrendered or deserted after a military position on a hill-top and two police stations were overrun. This left the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi is a Pakistani militant group whose objective is to enforce Sharia law in the country. The rebel group took over much of Swat in 2007...

 (TNSM) in control of most of the Swat district.

The fighting in Swat is the first serious insurgent threat from militia forces in what is known as a settled area of Pakistan. Forces loyal to Maulana Fazlullah, including some foreign fighters, after taking control of a series of small towns and villages, tried to implement strict Islamic law in November 2007. In mid-November the regular army was deployed with the help of helicopter gunships to crush the uprising. The Pakistan Army deployed over 2,500 men. By the beginning of December the fighting had ended and the Army recaptured Swat. Almost 400 of Maulana Fazlullah's fighters were dead along with 15 Pakistani soldiers and 20 civilians in the military offensive. Despite the victory by the Pakistani army, TNSM militants slowly re-entered Swat over the coming months and started engaging security forces in battles that lasted throughout 2008. By early February 2009, the whole district was in Pakistan Army Control.

Rawalpindi attacks

On September 3, two suicide bombers targeted a military intelligence (ISI) bus and a line of cars carrying ISI officers. The bus attack
September 2007 bombings in Rawalpindi
The 4 September 2007 Rawalpindi bombings refer to the incident on September 4, 2007 in which suicide bombers attacked a bus carrying Government workers exploded in a commercial district of Rawalpindi. It is estimated to have killed 25 people and injured 68. Police have increased security within...

 killed a large number of Defence Ministry workers and the other attack killed an Army colonel. In all 31 people, 19 soldiers and 12 civilians, were killed. Over two months later on November 24, one of the targets was a military intelligence bus. Almost everyone on the bus was killed. The other bomber blew up at a military checkpoint. 35 people were killed, almost all military.

State of emergency

The 2007 Pakistani state of emergency
2007 Pakistani state of emergency
A state of emergency was declared by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on November 3, 2007, and lasted until December 15, 2007,during which time the constitution of Pakistan was suspended....

 was declared by Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...

 on 2007-11-03 and lasted until 2007-12-15. During this time the constitution of the country was suspended. This action and its responses are generally related to the controversies surrounding the re-election of Musharraf during the presidential election
Pakistani presidential election, 2007
An indirect presidential election was held in Pakistan on 6 October 2007. This was before dissolution of parliament for the following general election to be held in 2008. The Pakistani legislature elected incumbent Pervez Musharraf by an overwhelming majority...

 that had occurred on 2007-10-06, and also was claimed by the government to be the reaction to the actions by militants in Waziristan.

Benazir Bhutto's assassination

On December 27, 2007, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and twice elected former Prime Minister, was killed upon leaving a political rally for the Pakistan Peoples Party
Pakistan Peoples Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...

 (PPP) in Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad...

, Pakistan. A suicidal assassin reportedly fired shots in Bhutto's direction just prior to detonating an explosive pellet-laden vest, killing approximately 24 people and wounding many more.
Musharraf and the army blamed the attack on Al-Qaida, but the following day a statement by Baitullah Mehsud was sent to the media saying that he and Al-Qaida had no involvement in the murder of the former Prime Minister, he briefed that these were the crimes of Musharraf and the army. The killing was followed by a wave of violence across the country that left 58 people dead, including four police officers. Most of the violence was directed at Musharraf and the pro-Musharraf political party,PML-Q Pakistan Muslim League (Q)
Pakistan Muslim League (Q)
The Pakistan Muslim League or officially Pakistan Muslim League is a centrist, modern political party in Pakistan. The present form of PML-Q was formed prior to 2002 general elections....

. PML-Q was branded as Qatil League or killer league.
Bhutto had previously survived an assassination attempt
2007 Karachi bombing
The 2007 Karachi bombing of October 18, 2007 in Karachi, Pakistan, was an attack on a motorcade carrying former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The bombing occurred two months before she was assassinated...

 made on her life during her homecoming which left 139 people dead and hundreds wounded.

More fighting in South Waziristan

In January 2008, militants overran Sararogha Fort, and may have overrun a fort in Ladah as well. Both forts are in South Waziristan, and were held by the Pakistani army. On February 25, 2008, a suicide bomber struck in the garrison-town of Rawalpindi killing Pakistani Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Baig along with two more soldiers and five civilians. Baig was the highest-level military official to be assassinated since Pakistan joined the War on Terror.

Operation Zalzala

A full-fledged security operation called 'Zalzala' (earthquake) by Pakistan Army’s 14th Infantry Division in January to flush out Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud was a leading militant in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan . He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S...

's Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan , alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. Most, but not all, Pakistani Taliban groups coalesce under the TTP...

 militants from the area. Until then the area was infested with militants, with some villagers providing them support and shelter. Many militants were killed during the operation, and within three days the security forces were in full control of the area. The army later captured a few other villages and small towns to put the squeeze on Baitullah Mehsud.

However, the operation led to a huge displacement of local population. According to 14 Division GOC Maj Gen Tariq Khan, about 200,000 people, including men, women and children, were displaced. Khalid Aziz, former NWFP chief secretary and expert on tribal affairs, said the displacement was "one of the biggest in tribal history" adding that human cost of the conflict in Waziristan "has gone unrecorded."

Peace agreement

On February 7, 2008, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan , alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. Most, but not all, Pakistani Taliban groups coalesce under the TTP...

 (TTP) led by Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud was a leading militant in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan . He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S...

 offered a truce and peace negotiations resulting in a suspension of violence. On May 21, 2008 Pakistan signed a peace agreement with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Despite the agreement sporadic fighting continued until late June and escalated with the takeover of the town of Jandola on June 24, by the militants. 22 pro-government tribal fighters were captured and executed by the TTP at that time.

On June 28, 2008, Pakistan's Army started an offensive against militia fighters in Kyhber
Khyber agency
Khyber is a tribal area in the FATA region of Pakistan. It is one of the eight tribal areas, better known as agencies in Pakistan. It ranges from the Tirah valley down to Peshawar...

, codenamed Operation Sirat-e-Mustaqeem
Operation Sirat-e-Mustaqeem
The Operation Sirat-e-Mustaqeem , was a Pakistan Army operation in Bara Tehsil of Khyber Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas...

. The military took control of a key town and demolished an insurgent group's building. 1 militant was reportedly killed while 2 soldiers died in Swat valley. The operation was halted in early July.

On July 19, 2008, clashes erupted between the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and a faction of pro-government Taliban militants. 10-15 of the pro-government fighters were killed and another 120 were captured. Among the captured were two commanders who were tried under "Islamic" law by the Taliban and then executed.

On July 21, 2008, heavy fighting in Baluchistan killed 32 militants, 9 soldiers and 2 civilians. More than two dozen militants were captured and a large weapons cache was found. Between July 28 and August 4, 2008, heavy fighting flared up in the northwestern Swat valley leaving 94 militants and 22 soldiers and policemen dead. Another 28 civilians were also killed.

Bajaur offensive starts

Heavy fighting erupted on August 6, 2008, in the Loisam area of Bajaur district. Loisam lies on the strategically important road leading towards the main northwestern city of Peshawar. The fighting started when hundreds of militants poured into the area attacking government forces. After four days of fighting on August 10 the military withdrew from the area. 100 militants and 9 soldiers were confirmed killed and another 55 soldiers were missing, at least three dozen of them captured by the militants. While the fighting was going on in Bajaur, in the Buner area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa militants killed at least nine policemen in an attack on a check post. The checkpoint was then abandoned, and the local Pakistani forces withdrew to Khar, the main town of Bajaur Agency. There were reports that the town of Khar was then besieged by tribal militants.

On August 21, 2008, in response to the military offensive in Bajaur, two suicide bombers attacked the Pakistan Ordnance Factories
2008 Wah bombing
The 2008 Wah bombing was a double suicide attack on the Pakistan Ordnance Factories in Wah, Pakistan, on 21 August 2008. The attack, which killed at least 70 and wounded over 100, is the deadliest on a military site in Pakistan's history...

 in Wah
Wah
Wah is a city in the Rawalpindi District in Punjab, Pakistan. It contains a garden which is said to have been built by the Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century. Wah Cantonment is nearby....

 while workers were changing shifts. The attack killed at least 70 people.

Tribesmen declare war against the militants

By the beginning of September 2008, Pakistani tribal elders began organising a private army of approximately 30,000 tribesmen to fight the militias. A lashkar, or private army, composed of Pakistani tribesmen, began torching the houses of militia commanders in Bajaur, near the Afghan border, vowing to fight them until they are expelled. This included the house of a local militant commander named Naimatullah, who had occupied several government schools and converted them into seminaries. A tribal elder named Malik Munsib Khan, who heads the lashkar, said that tribesmen would continue their struggle until the militants were expelled from the area, adding that anyone found sheltering militants would be fined one million rupees and their houses will be torched. The tribesmen also torched two important centres of the militants in the area and gained control of most of the tehsil.

The main reasons for this was that the operations that were taking place in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...

 had displaced some 300,000 people while dozens of citizens have been killed in clashes between the militants and military. Since the start of Pakistan's war against the militants some 150,000 tribesmen have sided with them.

US support and aid for Pakistani tribesmen

Recent American military proposals outlines an intensified effort to enlist tribal leaders in the frontier areas of Pakistan in the fight against Al-Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban and Pakistani militia groups, as part of a broader effort to bolster Pakistani forces against militancy in the region.

The proposal is modeled in part on a similar effort by American forces in Iraq that has been hailed as a great success in fighting foreign insurgents there. But it raises the question of whether such partnerships can be forged without a significant American military presence in Pakistan. And it is unclear whether enough support can be found among the tribes. Small numbers of United States military personnel have served as advisers to the Pakistani Army in the tribal areas, giving planning advice and helping to integrate American intelligence. Under this new approach, the number of advisers would increase.

American officials said these security improvements complemented a package of assistance from the Agency for International Development and the State Department for the seven districts of the tribal areas that amounted to $750 million over five years, and would involve work in education, health and other sectors. The State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is also assisting the Frontier Corps with financing for counternarcotics work.

Islamabad Marriott Hotel Bombing

On September 23, 2008, the Pakistani Army, backed by helicopter gunships and artillery killed more than 60 insurgents in northwest Pakistan in offensives as the response to the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing
Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing
The Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing occurred during the night of 20 September 2008, when a dump truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing at least 54 people, injuring at least 266 and leaving a 60 ft wide, 20 ft ...

 over the weekend at the Marriott hotel in the capital Islamabad that killed 53 people. In the nearby Bajur tribal region, the Army killed at least 10 militants, according to government officials. The Bajur operations, which the army says has left more than 700 suspected militants dead, has won praise from U.S. officials.

Renewed Bajaur offensive

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....

 publicly vowed revenge in response to the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing
Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing
The Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing occurred during the night of 20 September 2008, when a dump truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing at least 54 people, injuring at least 266 and leaving a 60 ft wide, 20 ft ...

. By September 26, 2008, Pakistani troops had successfully conducted and completed a major offensive in the Bajaur and the Tang Khata regions of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, codenamed Operation Sherdil
Battle of Bajaur
The Battle of Bajaur or Operation Sherdil was a military offensive in the Bajaur region of Pakistan launched by the Frontier Corps supported by a Combat Brigade of the Pakistan Army. The Bajaur area had been under Taliban control since early 2007, and was said to be Al-Qaeda's main command and...

. Pakistani troops had killed over 1,000 militants in a huge offensive, a day after President Asif Ali Zardari lashed out at US forces over a clash on the Afghan border.

Tariq Khan, Inspector General of the Paramilitary Frontier Corps, mentioned to journalists that since the beginning of the Bajaur operations, there were up to 2,000 militant fighters including hundreds of foreigners who were fighting with the soldiers and the security forces. The overall death toll was over 1,000 militants and also adding that 27 Pakistani soldiers had also been killed with 111 soldiers seriously wounded.

Five top Al-Qaeda and militia commanders were among those killed in a month-long operation in Bajaur. Of the five militant commanders killed, four appeared to be foreigners: Egyptian Abu Saeed Al-Masri; Abu Suleiman, an Arab; an Uzbek commander named Mullah Mansoor; and an Afghan commander called Manaras. The fifth was a Pakistani commander named only Abdullah, a son of ageing hardline leader Maulvi Faqir Mohammad who is based in Bajaur and has close ties to Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Between October 22 and October 24, security forces engaged in another push against militants in the restive Bajaur and Khyber tribal regions. Air strikes were carried out in the Nawagai and Mamond sub-districts of Bajaur Agency. The troops destroyed several centres of militants at Charmang, Chinar and Zorbandar and had inflicted heavy losses on them. Gunship helicopters shelled in Charming, Cheenar, Kohiand Babarha areas of Nawagai and Mamund Tehsil of Bajaur agency, destroying various underground hideouts and bunkers of militants. The security forces had also taken control of different areas of Loisam, a militant headquarters, and advanced towards other areas for complete control.

Intensified U.S. strikes

Since the end of August 2008, the United States had stepped up its attacks in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. On September 3 a commando attack
Angoor Ada raid
The Angoor Ada raid was a covert raid conducted by U.S. Army Special Forces against Taliban fighters on September 3, 2008, within the border town of Angoor Ada in South Waziristan. It was the first time U.S. troops fought a ground-based battle against the Taliban within Pakistani borders...

 took place in a village near the Afghan border in South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...

, and there have been 3 strikes from unmanned drones in North Waziristan
North Waziristan
North Waziristan is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering . Waziristan comprises the area west and south-west of Peshawar between the Tochi river to the north and the Gomal river to the south, forming part of Pakistan's...

, culminating on the morning of September 8, 2008, when a United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 drone aircraft
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...

 fired a number of missiles at a "guest house for militants arriving in North Waziristan", which unsuccessfully targeted Jalaluddin Haqqani
Jalaluddin Haqqani
Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani is the leader of the Haqqani network, an insurgent group fighting against US-led NATO forces and the government of Afghanistan. He also fought in the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan, including in the Operation Magistral...

, killed 23 people.

On September 25, 2008, following exchanges of gunfire between US and Pakistani forces on the frontier, President Zardari told the United Nations that Pakistan would not tolerate violations of its sovereignty, even by its allies. The incident happened after two US military helicopters came under fire from the Pakistani side, a US military spokesman said, insisting that they had been about a mile and a half inside Afghanistan.

President Zardari told the United Nations, "Just as we will not let Pakistani's territory to be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbours, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends," he said, without citing the United States or the border flareup.

Militants targeting of tribesmen

On October 10, 2008, Islamic militants beheaded four kidnapped pro-government tribal elders in the Charmang area of Bajaur on Friday. The militants had killed them because the elders had been pro-government.

On October 11, 2008, a suicide bomber struck an anti-Militant gathering of tribal elders, just as they had decided to form a lashkar (tribal militia), killing at least 110 anti-Taliban tribesmen and wounding 125 others. The suicide bomber drove his car into the gathering itself and blew himself up. The attack on the tribal council took place in Orakzai, normally a relatively quiet corner of the nation's restive tribal areas.

Fighting for the NATO supply lines

On October 19, 2008, the Pakistan Army was locked in a fierce battle with militants to keep open the fuel and arms supply routes to British and American forces in Afghanistan. For months, militants had been trying to either attack or seal off the supply routes. The army claimed that Mohammad Tariq Alfridi, the militant commander, had seized terrain around the mile-long Kohat tunnel, south of Peshawar, three times since January. He had coordinated suicide bomb attacks and rocket strikes against convoys emerging from it. Maulvi Omar
Maulvi Omar
Maulvi Said Muhammad, better known as Maulvi Omar or Maulvi Umar, is a senior Taliban commander who was captured by the Pakistani security forces in August 2009. Omar, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan , was a close associate of Baitullah Mehsud...

, a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan , alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. Most, but not all, Pakistani Taliban groups coalesce under the TTP...

 spokesman, said that his fighters would lay down their arms if the Pakistan Army ceased fighting. The Pakistan Army ignored his offer. The battle for the tunnel began at the start of the year when Tehrik-i-Taliban fighters seized five trucks carrying weapons and ammunition. They held the tunnel for a week before they were driven out in fierce fighting with the Army. Since then, Tariq and his men have returned several times to attack convoys. The army launched its latest onslaught after a suicide bomb attack at one of its bases near the tunnel six weeks ago. Five people were killed and 45 were injured, including 35 soldiers, when a pickup truck packed with explosives was driven into a checkpoint.

On November 11, 2008, militants attacked two convoys at the Khyber Pass capturing 13 trucks which were headed for Afghanistan. One convoy was from the United Nations World Food Programme and was carrying wheat. The second was intended for NATO troops and one of the captured trucks was carrying with it two U.S. military Humvees, which were also seized.

On December 8, 2008, militants torched more than 160 vehicles destined for US-led troops in Afghanistan. The militants attacked the Portward Logistic Terminal in the northern city of Peshawar at around 02:30 AM, destroying its gate with a rocket-propelled grenade and shooting dead a guard. They then set fire to about 100 vehicles, including 70 Humvees, which shipping documents showed were being shipped to the US-led coalition forces and the Afghan National Army. At the same time, militants torched about 60 more vehicles at the nearby Faisal depot, which like Portward is on the ring road around Peshawar, where convoys typically stop before heading for the Khyber Pass.

2009

On February 3, 2009, militants blew up a bridge at the Khyber Pass, temporarily cutting a major supply line for Western troops in Afghanistan. After the attack supplies along the route had been halted "for the time being", according to NATO.

Swat ceasefire

Pakistan agreed to impose Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

 law and suspend military operations in the scenic Swat Valley. The decision is troubling for the United States, which believes that it will embolden militants who are fighting US-led troops in Afghanistan and want to impose Islamic law across nuclear-armed Pakistan. US officials believe that it will now provide another safe haven for the militants within 80 miles of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, as well as a corridor between the Afghan border and the disputed region of Kashmir.

Pakistani officials said that it was the only way to pacify a fierce Islamist insurgency and avoid more civilian casualties in Swat – whose ski resort and mountain scenery once made it a popular tourist destination. Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the chief minister for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, announced the government’s decision after a meeting with militant leaders in the provincial capital, Peshawar. He said that local authorities would impose Islamic law across Malakand region, which includes Swat. Officials said that Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani President, would sign off on the deal once peace had been restored. The agreement came the day after the militants in Swat said that it would observe a ten-day ceasefire in support of the peace process. Pakistani officials say that the laws allow Muslim clerics to advise judges, but do not outlaw female education, music or other activities once banned by the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan.

Defeat of the militants in Bajaur

On March 1, 2009, the Pakistan Army finally defeated Bajaur militants and foreign militants in Bajaur, which is a strategically important region on the Afghan border. Major-General Tariq Khan, who was commanding the military operations in five of the seven agencies, said his Army and the Frontier Corps
Frontier Corps
The Frontier Corps is a federally-controlled paramilitary force of Pakistan, recruited mostly from the tribal areas along the western borders and led by officers from the Pakistan Army...

 had killed most militants in Bajaur, the smallest of the agencies but a major infiltration route into Afghanistan, after a six-month offensive. By the time the six-month long battle in Bajaur was over, the Pakistan Army killed over 1,500 militants while losing 97 of their own soldiers and another 404 soldiers seriously injured.

Militant counter-attack

On March 30, militia commandos struck in Lahore. They attacked the Munawan Police Academy killing and taking hostage police cadets. A siege was under way for about eight hours after the militants had barricaded themselves in the academy. Eventually police forces managed to retake the compound. 18 people were killed in the attack: eight policemen, eight militants and two civilians. At least 95 policemen were wounded and 10 were taken hostage before being rescued. Four gunmen were captured by the police.

On April 4, a suicide bomber attacked a military camp in Islamabad killing eight soldiers. Less than 24 hours later on April 5, two more suicide attacks occurred. One bomber targeted a market on the border with Afghanistan killing 17 people and the other attacked a mosque in Chakwal, in the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...

, killing 26 more civilians. The next day, the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan , alternatively referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. Most, but not all, Pakistani Taliban groups coalesce under the TTP...

, Baitullah Mehsud, promised that there were to be two suicide attacks per week in the country until the Pakistani army withdraws from the border region and the United States stops its missile attacks by unmaned drones on militant bases.

Militants violate Swat deal

In March 2009, many Pakistanis were horrified when a videotape surfaced that showed miliant enforcers publicly whipping a 17-year-old girl in Swat accused of having an affair. The girl had not committed fornication
Fornication
Fornication typically refers to consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. For many people, the term carries a moral or religious association, but the significance of sexual acts to which the term is applied varies between religions, societies and cultures. The...

 or adultery but was flogged simply because she refused her brother's demand to marry someone of his choosing. Protests broke out all over Pakistan to demonstrate against the flogging. Raja Zafar ul-Haq, a well-respected Pakistani Islamic scholar and political activist said this summary punishment of flogging simply for refusing a marriage proposal was totally un-Islamic and had nothing to do with Sharia. He went on to say that Prophet Muhammad had strictly forbidden the practice of forced marriages and in this case, the girl had not done anything wrong by refusing a marriage proposal.

A five-member team appointed by the Supreme Court investigated the video's origins, and concluded that it had been faked, raising questions at Pakistani intelligence agencies.

In Buner, the Taliban continued their criminal activities when residents said Taliban fighters had been stealing cattle for meat, stealing other livestock, berating men without beards and recruiting teenagers into their ranks. The Taliban also began to steal vehicles belonging to government officials and ransacked the offices of some local non-government organisations for no apparent reason. 12 schoolchildren were killed by a bomb contained in a football.

Second Battle of Swat

On April 26, 2009, the Pakistani Army started Operation Black Thunderstorm
Operation Black Thunderstorm
Operation Black Thunderstorm was an aggressive military operation that commenced on April 26, 2009 conducted by the Pakistan Army, with the aim of retaking Buner, Lower Dir, Swat and Shangla districts from the Taliban after the militants took control of them since the start of the year.- Background...

, with the aim of retaking Buner, Lower Dir, Swat and Shangla districts from the Pakistani Taliban after the militants took control of the area since the start of the year.

The operation largely cleared the Lower Dir district of militia forces by April 28 and Buner by May 5. On May 5, operations started to retake Swat and later on Shangla. Fighting in Swat was particularly fierce since the Taliban threw away their insurgent tactics and the army their counter-insurgency tactics. Both sides favored more conventional frontline warfare as a means of fighting each other. By May 14, the military was only six kilometers south of Mingora, the milita-held capital city of Swat, and preparations for all-out street fighting was under way.

On May 23, the battle for Mingora started and by May 27, 70 percent of the city was cleared of militants.

On May 30, the Pakistani military had taken back the city of Mingora from the Pakistani Taliban, calling it a significant victory in its offensive against the militants. However, some sporadic fighting was still continuing on the city's outskirts.

In all, according to the military, 128 soldiers and more than 1,475 militants were killed and 317 soldiers were wounded during operation Black Thunderstorm. 95 soldiers and policemen were captured by the militants, 18 of them were rescued while the fate of the others remained undetermined. 114 militants were captured, including some local commanders. At least 23 of the militants killed were foreigners.

Sporadic fighting throughout Swat continued up until mid-June. On June 14, the operation was declared over and the military had regained control of the region. Only small pockets of Taliban resistance remained and the military started mopping up operations.

This led to a refugee crisis
2009 refugee crisis in Pakistan
The 2009 refugee crisis in Pakistan is the massive displacement of civilians in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan that is occurring due to Operation Black Thunderstorm....

, and by August 22, 1.6 million of 2.3 million have returned home according to UN estimates.

Blockade of South Waziristan

On June 16, 2009, in the aftermath of the successful victory and recapture of the entire Swat valley, the Pakistan Army began a massive troop build-up along the southern and eastern borders of South Waziristan
Waziristan
Waziristan is a mountainous region near the Northwest of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . The area is entirely populated by ethnic Pashtuns . The language spoken in the valley is Pashto/Pakhto...

. Pakistan was now taking the fight to Mehsud's mountainous stronghold, ordering an expansion of its current offensive against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan fighters in the Swat valley. On Sunday night, denouncing Mehsud as "the root cause of all evils," Owais Ghani, the governor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the government has called on the army to launch a "full-fledged" military operation to eliminate Mehsud and his estimated 20,000 men. The crucial battle may prove to be the most difficult that Pakistan's military has faced on its soil in recent years.

Islamabad's decision to launch the offensive against Mehsud signals a deepening of Pakistani resolve against the militants. The army has targeted the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan leader on three separate occasions — in 2004, 2005 and 2008 — but walked away each time after signing ruinous "peace deals" that have only served to embolden Mehsud. But the military appears more determined this time. It also enjoys the backing of a government that has gained public support as the recent wave of terrorist attacks has heightened revulsion against the Taliban.

Killing of Baitullah Mehsud

The leader of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud
Baitullah Mehsud was a leading militant in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan . He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S...

, was killed in a drone attack
Drone attacks in Pakistan
The United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones . These attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism campaign, seeking to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants...

 in early August 2009. This was later confirmed by captured chief spokesman Maulvi Umar. He was replaced by Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud , born c. 1979 as Jamshed Mehsud and also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud , is the amir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan...

.

Militant October–November 2009 counter-offensive

In early October 2009, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan started a string of attacks in cities across Pakistan. The goal of the attacks was to show that the militants were still a united fighting force following the death of their leader and to disrupt a planned military offensive into South Waziristan.
Places targeted include the U.N. World Food Program offices in Islamabad, Khyber bazaar in Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

, Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad...

, a market in Shangla, security establishments in Lahore, police stations in Kohat and Peshawar, the International Islamic University, Islamabad, and Pakistan Air Force Complex in Kamra. The month ended with a car bombing of Meena Bazaar, Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

 killing 118 civilians. The army then began a ground offensive in South Waziristan.

November saw suicide bombings of the Army's National Bank of Pakistan
National Bank of Pakistan
National Bank of Pakistan is one of the largest commercial bank operating in Pakistan. It has redefined its role and has moved from a public sector organisation into a modern commercial bank...

 in Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad...

, a market in Charsadda and six bombings of Peshawar including the regional headquarters of the ISI
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...

 and the Judicial Complex.

South Waziristan offensive

On October 17, the Pakistani Army launched a large-scale offensive in South Waziristan involving 28,000 troops advancing across South Waziristan from three directions.

On October 19, the first town to fall to the Army was Kotkai, the birthplace of the Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud
Hakimullah Mehsud , born c. 1979 as Jamshed Mehsud and also known as Zulfiqar Mehsud , is the amir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan...

. However, the next day, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan re-took the town from the military. Troops had thrust into Kotkai only to be hit by a determined counteroffensive that killed seven soldiers, including an army major, and wounded seven more. Still, the Army managed to take the town once again on October 24, after days of bombardments.

On October 29, the town of Kaniguram
Kaniguram
Kaniguram is a town in South Waziristan, Pakistan. It is the principal place associated with the Burki tribe and was the home of the sixteenth century scholar Pir Roshan.-Demographics:...

, which was under the control of Uzbek
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...

 fighters from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani—both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley...

, was surrounded. And on November 2, Kaniguram was taken.

On November 1, the towns of Sararogha and Makin were surrounded, and fighting for Sararogha started on November 3. The fighting there lasted until November 17, when the town finally fell to the military. The same day, the town of Laddah was also captured by the Army and street fighting commenced in Makin. Both Sararogha and Laddah were devastated in the fighting.

By November 21, more than 570 militants and 76 soldiers were killed in the offensive.

On December 12, 2009, the Pakistan army declared victory in South Waziristan.

Orakzai and Kurram offensive

In an offensive in Bajaur
Bajaur
Bajaur or Bajur or Bajour is an Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Smallest of the agencies in FATA, it has a hilly terrain. According to the 1998 census, the population was 595,227 but other more recent estimates it has grown to 757,000...

 by Frontier Corps
Frontier Corps
The Frontier Corps is a federally-controlled paramilitary force of Pakistan, recruited mostly from the tribal areas along the western borders and led by officers from the Pakistan Army...

, a militants' stronghold village Damadola
Damadola
Damadola is a village in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan, about from the Afghanistan border, it is located at 34° 48' 20N 71° 28' 0E at an altitude of 1082 metres . The village gained international attention in early 2006 after the U.S. launched an...

 was captured and cleared by February 6, 2010. Bajaur was declared conflict free zone by April 20.

On March 23, 2010, the Pakistan army launched an offensive to clear Orakzai. Officials also announced a future offensive in North Waziristan. The week prior the Pakistan military killed approximately 150 militants in fighting in the region. It was expected that all tribal areas would be cleared by June 2010.

June 3, Pakistani authorities announced a victory over the insurgents in Orakzai and Kurram.

2011 Taliban Counter Offense

By 2011 Pakistan's armed forces were stretched thin by natural disasters and deployments against extremist groups, with one third of the army deployed for the fight, another third along the Indian border and the rest engaged in preparing to deploy. On May 1, Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

 was killed by US Navy SEALS in Abbottabad
Abbottabad
Abbottabad is a city located in the Hazara region of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Pakistan. The city is situated in the Orash Valley, northeast of the capital Islamabad and east of Peshawar at an altitude of and is the capital of the Abbottabad District...

. The Pakistan Taliban vowed to revenge Osama's death to Pakistan Armed Forces. On 21st April and April 28th, Taliban began to attack the Pakistan Navy. On different attacks, Taliban targeted numbers of high naval officials of Pakistan Navy. And, on May 22nd, Taliban attacked the Mehran Naval Base, killing up to 10 naval officers, 30 others were wounded with 2 Naval aircraft were destroyed during their counter offense. On June 4th senior Al Qaeda operative Ilyas Kashmiri
Ilyas Kashmiri
Ilyas Kashmiri was a Pakistani film actor.Born in Muhalla Dara Shikoh, near Rewali Cinema, in Lahore, Punjab, British India, he started his film career from Bombay. In Bombay, the first film in which he appeared as a hero was Malika, directed and produced by Nazir...

 was killed by a US drone strike in South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...

.

Casualties

In a debriefing to parliamentarians on 19 October 2011, the military stated that a total of 3,097 security forces members were killed and 721 other were permanently disabled in the so-called war on terror. The Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...

 lost 63 of its personnel owing to targeted assaults on ISI installations. In the same report it confirmed that since 2001 a total of 40,309 Pakistanis, both military and civilian, have lost their lives related to terrorist incidents.

In addition, 17,742 militants had been killed or captured by February 2010. Among these, by November 2007, were 488 foreign extremists killed, 24 others arrested and 324 injured. An additional 220 policemen were killed in fighting in 2007 and 2008. Before all-out fighting broke out in 2003, independent news sources reported only four incidents of deaths of Pakistani security forces members in 2001 and 2002, in which a total of 20 soldiers and policemen were killed. The independent South Asia Terrorism Portal website has estimated that at least 1,865 soldiers and policemen were killed between 2003 and 2008. The Pak Institute For Peace Studies has estimated that 1,185 soldiers and policemen were killed in 2009.

Also, at least 857 soldiers and policemen have been reported captured by the militants since the start of the war, with at least 558 of them being released.

Mr. Naushad Ali Khan Superintendent of Research and Analysis, NWFP Police in his article Suicide and terrorist attacks and police actions in NWFP, Pakistan has provided details of different activities of the terrorists during 2008. Accordingly 483 cases were registered with 533 deaths and 1290 injured. Similarly 29 suicidal cases were registered that resulted in the death of 247 persons while 695 persons sustained injuries. During the same period 83 attempts of terrorism were foiled by the NWFP Police.The full article can be viewed on the official website of Pakistan Society of Criminology.

United States role

Until July 2009 the conflict, as well as terrorism in Pakistan
Terrorism in Pakistan
Terrorism in Pakistan has become a major and highly destructive phenomenon in recent years. The annual death toll from terrorist attacks has risen from 164 in 2003 to 3318 in 2009, with a total of 35,000 Pakistanis killed as of 2010. According to the government of Pakistan, the direct and indirect...

, had cost Pakistan $35 billion. According to US Congress and the Pakistani media, Pakistan has received about $18 billion from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 for the logistic
Military logistics
Military logistics is the discipline of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of military forces. In its most comprehensive sense, it is those aspects or military operations that deal with:...

al support it provided for the counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...

 operations from 2001 to 2010, and for its own military operation mainly in Waziristan and other tribal areas along the Durand Line
Durand Line
The Durand Line refers to the porous international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has divided the ethnic Pashtuns . This poorly marked line is approximately long...

. The Bush administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...

 also offered an additional $3 billion five-year aid package to Pakistan for becoming a frontline ally in its 'War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...

'. Annual installments of $600 million each split evenly between military and economic aid, began in 2005.

In 2009, President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 pledged to continue supporting Pakistan and has said Pakistan would be provided economic aid of $1.5 billion dollars each year for the next five years. Unfolding a new US strategy to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda, Obama said Pakistan must be a 'stronger partner' in destroying Al-Qaeda safe havens. In addition, President Obama has also planned to propose an extra $2.8 billion dollars in aid for the Pakistani military to intensify the US-led 'War on Terror' along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The military aid would be in addition to the civilian aid of $1.5 billion dollars a year for the next five years from 2009 onwards.

In his autobiography, President Musharraf wrote that the United States had paid millions of dollars to the Pakistan government as bounty
Bounty (reward)
A bounty is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money...

 money for capturing al-Qaeda operators from tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. About 359 of them were handed over to the US for prosecution.

Pakistan has bought 1,000 laser-guided bomb kits and 18 F-16 fighter jets from USA, to attack militants.

Amongst Pakistanis opinion about the role of the US is generally negative. Incidents of terrorism cause rage and anger against the terrorist organizations but they also cause frustration with the United States. According to Pew Global Polls only 17% of Pakistanis have a positive view of the US and only 11% see it as a useful partner in the 'War on Terror'.

See also

  • Pakistan and state terrorism
    Pakistan and state terrorism
    Pakistan has been accused by neighbours India, Afghanistan, Iran and western nations like the United States, and the United Kingdom of its involvement in terrorist activities in India as well as Afghanistan . Pakistan's tribal region is Branded as a "Haven for Terrorism", it is considered among...

  • Human rights in Pakistan
    Human rights in Pakistan
    Pakistan’s human rights record has dramatically improved since the reforms that took place after the tenure of President Zia-ul-Haq in 1988. The situation of human rights in Pakistan is a complex one, as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a...

  • List of wars 2003–2010
  • Sectarian violence in Pakistan
    Sectarian violence in Pakistan
    Sectarian violence in Pakistan spark up occasionally between the predominant Sunnis and minority Shias. According to Library of Congress, Pew Research Center, Oxford University, the CIA Factbook and other experts, Shi'a Islam in Pakistan make up 5-20% of the total Muslim population, while the...

  • Targeted killing
    Targeted killing
    Targeted killing is the deliberate, specific targeting and killing, by a government or its agents, of a supposed terrorist or of a supposed "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody...

  • Violence in Pakistan 2006-09
    Violence in Pakistan 2006-09
    This is a list of violent incidents in Pakistan since 2006. Violence increased in 2006, in part because the US/NATO strategy from 2005 of attacking the Taliban in their stronghold in South Afghanistan , lead to incidents on the Pakistani side of the border.-See also:*Waziristan War*Civilian...

    , table and map providing overview of all violence in Pakistan between 2006 and 2009.

External links

  • Pakistan Conflict Monitor Daily highlights of news, research and analysis on the conflict and security related issues, published by the Human Security Report Project
    Human Security Report Project
    The Human Security Report Project is a Peace and Conflict Studies research group. Based at Canada's Simon Fraser University's School for International Studies at Harbour Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia It was formerly based at the University of British Columbia's Liu Institute for Global...

  • Battling Taliban: Where Does It Stop? ongoing coverage from Dawn
    Dawn (newspaper)
    Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper. One of the country's two largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, the evening paper The Star and...

    in Pakistan
  • Waziristan War (2004-Present) from The History Guy
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