FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) is FATA because the people of these lands chose it to be FATA. For those of you who find this comment laughable, well you can’t really fathom it till you have been there, or you belong to this place. I belong to a place which is very near FATA. So in a way I understand the local psyche.
FATA has six frontier regions and seven agencies. Since the start of global war on terror this region has experienced the worst kind of destruction. While the frontier regions are somewhat developed and civilization prone the opposite is true for agencies which since the time of British have remained somewhat no go areas and impoverished.
Pakistan is at odds with the Taliban since last few years. Whatever the causes maybe of this war, but the fact is that its costing Pakistan a lot in terms of lives, damage destruction to property and Government infrastructure. Pakistan Army, Pakistanis and anyone living in Pakistan have paid a heavy price in this war. One could write a book about the causes of this conflict but this post is about the ground realities of the areas terrorized by the Taliban. Wherever they go these so called Taliban commit acts of brutality that were perhaps previously unheard of.