The FATA Peace Agreements and Roles of the TTP and the Pakistani Army (Part one)

Chronology of Peace Agreements

The Pakistani military involvement in FATA began in 2004, after Musharraf reluctantly deployed the Pakistani army in FATA  on the United States’ constant demands. However, the FATA wars are dotted with periods of war that are only stopped by stages of mysterious peace deals that only seem to offer relief and breathing-space to the TTP. The following is a list of all the peace deals that the Pakistanis have struck with non-state terrorist actors in FATA:


• Shakai Agreement with Nek Mohammad in April, 2004.

• Sararogha Agreement with Baitullah Mehsud in February, 2005.

• The Waziristan Accords with Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in September, 2006.

• The promulgation of The Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (Order of Justice) in accordance with the demands of the TTP’s Fazlullah and the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM: Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law) in April, 2009.

Of all of these agreements, only the accords with Maulvi Nazir and Hafiq Gul Bahadur still stand, mostly because of the sake of mutual benefit – both Maulvi Nazir and Gul Bahadur have agreed to restrain from attacking Pakistan as long as Pakistan does not interfere with their current campaigns in Afghanistan. Additionally, Islamabad has also agreed to turn a blind eye towards the presence of the Haqqani Network and the Hekmatyar Group in North Waziristan as long as they don’t side with the TTP and attack Pakistan. This agreement is mutually beneficial for both parties involved as the militants will find a safe haven that is only threatened by the occasional US Predator drone while the Pakistanis will, as they hope, find an ally in Kabul when NATO withdraws from Afghanistan after 2014 and the militants currently seeking sanctuary in Pakistan return to Afghanistan.


The Shakai and Sararogha agreements

The Shakai and Sararogha agreements only ended up hurting Pakistan in the end. The Shakai agreement, short-lived as it was, created a feeling amongst the militant population that Nek Mohammad had somehow defeated the Pakistani army . It also gave legitimacy to his rule . What all of that translated into was more recruitment and fund-raising for the militants. Similarly, the Sararogha agreement only helped elevate the status of Baitullah Mehsud to some sort of a local hero, who had defied both Washington and Islamabad and lived to tell about it. In both cases, the TTP proved that they would always break their agreements.

The Shakai peace agreement’s main clauses :

• The government shall evacuate the area immediately after the announcement of the agreement.
• The government shall pay compensation for deaths and properties of the tribes destroyed during operation.
• The government shall do its best to minimize its interference in tribal areas.

• The government shall release all the innocent people arrested during the operation.

• The government shall give one-month deadline to foreign elements to voluntarily hand over themselves to the government or announce to start a peaceful social life. The tribal society shall give the guarantee of their peaceful conduct.

• The Peshawar Corps Commander shall visit Wana along with FATA secretary and ISI director as a goodwill gesture to local tribes.

• The tribesmen shall never conduct any violent activity in Pakistan.

• The tribes shall never allow use of their land against any other country.

(Note: “tribes” can be read as “militant groups” and “government” can be interpreted as “army”).

Not only does this agreement appear to be a capitulation from the government side but the conditions that were imposed on the militants and tribes were never followed .

The Sararogha peace deal had much of the same clauses. The JUI-F’s chief himself helped broker this accord . The Sararogha came under much scrutiny from various quarters, mostly because no clause forbade the militants from handing over men wanted by the US, including the ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee, Abdullah Mehsud. Within the span of a year, the TTP broke the Sararogha agreement after the Red Mosque operation in July, 2007 and began carrying out attacks on the Pakistani security forces . The peace deal was used by Baitullah Mehsud to increase his strength by almost 20 times .