SOUTHASIA Online

The ongoing insurgency in Pakistan's north-western frontier remains one of the most complex and least understood conflicts around the world. With an area of 27,270 sq. km, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas are roughly the size of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and are home to over forty Pakistani militant groups. The umbrella group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is active in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's 24 districts, seven tribal agencies and six provincial regions. The estimated strength of all militants within the region is at least 40,000. According to the Brooking Institutes' Pakistan Index, the total strength of the militants could be over 100,000. Whereas the insurgency is largely a Pakthun movement, the Al-Qaeda aligned rebels' ranks include Arab, Chechen, Uzbek and Sudanese fighters. Moreover, former ISI sponsored insurgent militias - such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizb-ul-Mujahidin, Jaish-e-Mohammad, et cetera - which fought against the Indian military in Jammu Kashmir have also joined the tribal militants, calling themselves the Punjabi Taliban. Uighur militants waging a low-level insurgency in China's Xinjiang province are also allegedly present within FATA.

The man who sailed through the crisis, with flying colors, happened to be the Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan.  He flashed his famous ‘Mukka' (tight fist) to make India relent and talk.

Ayub says little or nothing about his role in the military face-offs with India in Chad Bet (1965) in the Rann of Kutch and any number of major violations of the ceasefire line to bring the two countries into a sort of a war-like crisis. Not a word about the Sino-Indian war of October 1962 and the opportunity it supposedly offered Pakistan to intervene and for a resolution of the Kashmir issue by military means.