Pakistan: Protecting our IDPs

Virtually forgotten, over 1.15 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) continue to languish in districts bordering the tribal areas. The UN estimates that over 900,000 were displaced this summer by operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan while tens of thousands have been in camps for years following previous military operations or fighting with the Taliban. This does not include several thousand families that are not registered and live as ‘guests’ with host families or relatives. Many IDPs from Bajaur, Kurram and South Waziristan have yet to be repatriated because of continuing terrorist activity. On Sunday a despicable bomb attack at an IDP camp in Hangu District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) showed that while the rest of Pakistan has forgotten about them, the terrorists have not. Police say that eight people were killed and ten injured after a ten kilogram explosive device placed in a motorcycle was detonated via remote control at a camp for IDPs from Bajaur. Around 1,150 families have been at the camp for several years. The attack was later claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

There is little doubt about the importance of tribal groups in the ongoing insurgency. This is not a new phenomenon. During the 1980s, thousands of fighters from the Muslim world, from Chechens to Arabs, used the tribal areas as a staging ground for assaults in Afghanistan. After the anti-Soviet resistance ended, many of them, unable to return to their home countries, settled in the tribal areas, even marrying into the tribes. Tribal hospitality dictates that ‘guests’ be protected and throughout the period of the Afghan civil war and the Taliban regime, refugees from across the border and foreign fighters continued to intermingle with the tribes. This changed after the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan when Taliban fighters moved to the tribal areas in strength, usurping the traditional powers of the tribal maliks (chiefs) after killing them. Reports from both military and independent sources confirm that over time the Taliban built a parallel state structure premised on their perverse interpretation of Islamic law, which undermined the archaic political agent model instituted by the British. By eliminating the maliks the Taliban cut the crucial link between the state and the tribes. In some cases, such as the Mehsuds who are the backbone of today’s insurgency, the terrorists were welcome. But many tribes have been brutalised by the Taliban, particularly Shia tribes in Kurram and Bajaur. The attack in Hangu hence gives cause for both concern and optimism. It shows that many tribes have little love lost for the Taliban and will continue to resist them. Therefore providing them with all the help and facilities the state can manage is imperative, including protection from terrorist attacks. If the Taliban intend to coerce adversarial tribes into supporting them, the state must instead provide them with better lives and more protection.