A Profile of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

The organizational strength, military strategy and leadership quality of the Taliban in Pakistans tribal territories has qualitatively improved during the last few years. At the time of the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan in late 2001, allies and sympathizers of the Taliban in Pakistan were not identified as Taliban themselves. That reality is now a distant memory. Today, Pakistans indigenous Taliban are an effective fighting force and are engaging the Pakistani military on one side and NATO forces on the other. The transition from being Taliban supporters and sympathizers to becoming a mainstream Taliban force in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas FATA initiated when many small militant groups operating independently in the area started networking with one another. This sequence of developments occurred while Pakistani forces were spending the majority of their resources finding foreigners in the area linked to al-Qaida roughly in the 2002-04 period. Soon, many other local extremist groups, which were banned in Pakistan, started joining the Taliban ranks in FATA - some as followers while others as partners.