ACCESSING FATA While FATA has been termed “the most dangerous place,”130 few outside the region have a thorough understanding of life in the area. Citing security concerns, the Pakistani military has barred not only the media and virtually all international organizations from entering the region, but also most Pakistani nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and non-FATA-resident Pakistani citizens.131 While outsiders cannot get in, neither can residents easily get out. Residents are regularly subjected to extended and unplanned curfews that limit their mobility,132 in some cases even preventing them from getting appropriate medical care,133 or holding funerals for loved ones who have been killed.134 When the curfews are lifted, travel within and outside of the region is hampered by armed non-state actor activity, and a network of military and civilian checkpoints that subject residents to intense interrogation and harassment.135 Trips that would normally take only a few hours can take days, or travelers may be turned back before they reach their destination.136 The barriers to information are more than just physical. Journalists trying to report on the situation in FATA are subject to threats and pressure from the local administration, security forces, and militants, all of whom have an interest in controlling the
[T]here was [a child] in the hujra as well.”); Interview with Rashid Salman (anonymized name) in Islamabad, Pakistan (Feb. 26, 2012) (“The attack was on a hujra . . . there were women and children nearby. . . . Women, children, and men [died] . . .”). 130 This characterization forms the title of a book on FATA by Imtiaz Gul. GUL, supra note 119. 131 In rare instances, the Pakistani military does take prominent international journalists on one-day visits to the region. During such visits, access is restricted to pre-determined areas and journalists are under constant supervision, ostensibly for their own safety. See Interview with G.Z., journalist with major western news source (anonymized initials), in Islamabad, Pakistan (Mar. 7, 2012); Interview with K.N., journalist with major western news source (anonymized initials), in Islamabad, Pakistan (Mar. 5, 2012). 132 See INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP, PAKISTAN: COUNTERING MILITANCY IN FATA 9 (2009), available at http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/southasia/pakistan/178_pakistan___countering_militancy_in_fata.pdf. Our team had firsthand experience with the effects of curfews on mobility in FATA, as more than a dozen interviewees for this report were delayed by three days due to an unexpected curfew and reported fighting between the Taliban and Pakistani forces. 133 Zulfiqar Ali & Muhammad Irfan, Measles Surge: North Waziristan Tribesmen Face Double Whammy, EXPRESS TRIBUNE (May 13, 2012), http://tribune.com.pk/story/377965/measles-surge-north-waziristantribesmen-face-double-whammy/ (quoting Azmat Khan Dawar, a resident of Shahzad Kot in Datta Khel sub-district of North Waziristan, as saying: “despite the deteriorating condition of my [two-year old] daughter [who had measles], I was unable to take her to the hospital due to a curfew.”). 134 See INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP, supra note 132, at 9. 135 Id. 136 For a discussion of how these challenges affected our research, see infra Methodology section.
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