Mutilating Women in the Tribal Areas for Venturing Out

In Bajaur Agency, one of seven tribal areas in northwestern Pakistan, very few girls go to school due to threats by the Taliban. “When I hired a tutor so my two older daughters could keep up their learning at home, I began receiving threats,” explained Salim Jan from Khar, the agency’s main town. He is [...]

Plight of the Parachinar People

Open letter and press release to National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights & Chief Justice Supreme Court We (the Turi Bangash tribes) of Parachinar, appreciate the step taken by National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights by calling Governor, Corps Commander Peshawar and other officials of Secrete Agencies to Parliament House on third week [...]

North Waziristan & the Haqqani Network

Located between the Khost province of eastern Afghanistan and KP of northwest Pakistan, North Waziristanis the second largest tribal region of FATA. According to security experts, the area is considered today to be the epicentre not only of violence inAfghanistanandPakistanbut also a major source of International terrorism. Along with its geographic isolation, difficult terrain and [...]

Destruction of Ali Khel Tribe in Orakzai

October 10, 2011 was the third anniversary of the devastating suicide attack on a grand tribal jirga in Orakzai that killed the entire Sunni-Shia tribal leadership of the Ali Khel tribe, the biggest tribe in Orakzai. The jirga was leading an anti-Taliban lashkar (militia) against the Taliban in the Ali Khel area — Tirah in [...]

Khyber Agency in the Tribal Areas

The Khyber Agency in Pakistan has emerged in recent times as a centre of sectarian conflict – partially as a result of the spillover of deep-rooted differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the nearby Kurram Agency and partially as a reaction to efforts by hardline Sunni groups to establish their writ in the area. [...]

The State of Tribal Areas of Pakistan

An ignorant friend —by Farhat Taj The tribal people fear the Pakistan Army’s aerial bombardment in FATA. The IDPs from all over FATA accuse the Pakistan Army of deliberately bombing innocent civilians while avoiding Taliban centres Some time back, a piece in Foreign Policy suggested a referendum in FATA and the nearby areas of Afghanistan [...]

Stoned to Death for Being Seen Together

A local jirga of Kala Dhaka, a tribal area that has recently been declared a settled district, has decided to stone to death a couple for having illicit relations. One wonders if this is the only couple in that area, and in the country, having illicit relations. Who knows that they may be totally ignorant [...]

When Will Things Change for the People of the Tribal Areas?

Amnesty International (AI) has criticized the Pakistani government and the militants it is fighting in parts of Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa Province and the FATA on the border with Afghanistan for violating international humanitarian law and human rights, even though conditions in other areas, such as Swat, are improving.    Nearly four million people are effectively living under the [...]

Army Refusing to Get into North Waziristan

It took just a few months for the Pakistani military to clear the Swat Valley’s lush, mountainous tribal terrain of its Taliban usurpers last summer, using some 30,000 troops to dislodge the guerrillas from the once-bustling tourist haven, 80 miles northwest of Islamabad. Now, however, almost a year after winning the war, the same number [...]

Tribal Areas: Pop 3.6 million

Development or Destructions in FATA FATA total covered area 27,220 sq km Beside aurakzai agency attached border with Afghanistan = 2873 km Population = approx- 3,600,000 (mostly population in villages/rural areas) Total tehsils in FATA = 40 Total Villages in FATA = 2605 EDUCATION DATA Total Schools in FATA(primary to higher secondary and colleges) = [...]