Pakistan’s Tribal Militants: A Militant Leadership Monitor Special Report

In this Special Report “Pakistan’s Tribal Militants: Profiles from the Pashtun and Baloch Insurgencies,” we examine some of Pakistan’s tribal militant leaders in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as well as the tribal insurgency in Pakistan’s south, the Balochistan insurgency, which has important strategic dimensions. Tribal militant groups covered in this report include Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Haqqani Network and the Balochistan Liberation Front. The Special Report does not include profiles of leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT); profiles of LeT leaders will appear in a separate, future Special Report that will deal with the LeT exclusively.

Pakistan has the world’s second largest Muslim population but is rife with sectarian divisions, which present challenges to Islamabad’s authority. In addition to internal and geo-political security challenges, Pakistan is burdened with issues such as an increased cost of living, a stagnant economy, a fuel crisis, deficient public infrastructure and widespread political corruption, while the country is debating the appropriate balance of power between federal and local government bodies and the authority of Shari’a.

This Special Report is broken into two parts, the first part covers tribal militant leaders in the FATA and the NWFP, and the second part focuses on the lesser known conflict in Balochistan. The Special Report concludes with an article that includes a few prognostications concerning the future directions of the FATA, NWFP and Baloch insurgencies.