An Assessment of Counter Insurgency Strategy Against TTP in Tribal Belt
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jssr.v5i1.501Keywords:
Counter-Insurgency, Flawed Approach, Governance, Resurgence, Post-Military Operations, Local Grievances, Security FailureAbstract
Pakistan’s tribal belt is facing a renewed wave of insurgency with changes in tactics and approaches from TTP. The overall strategic and security environment in the tribal belt is becoming a no-go area again. The challenges are complex. Ranging from past security vacuums to the structural flaws in governance and denial of winning public trust in pre- and post-insurgency scenarios. The resurgence of TTP is a complex phenomenon as a result of complex variables, both internal and external. The leadership of Noor Wali Mehsud played an important role in re-organizing and restructuring TTP in the tribal belt and KP. This issue and counterinsurgency strategy were badly ignored in the tribal belt. The consequences are now in front of state and security forces in Pakistan. Therefore, this paper aims to critically analyze Pakistan's counter-insurgency strategies in the post-military actions in the tribal belt and will look at major policy errors and loopholes in this regard.
References
Baloch, K. (2024, September 12). BLA-TTP collaboration in Balochistan: alliance or anomaly? DAWN.COM. https://www.dawn.com/news/1856227
Beckett, I. F. (2001). Modern Insurgencies and Counter-insurgencies: Guerrillas and their Opponents since 1750. Routledge.
Bryman, A. (1996). ‘Leadership in organizations. In S. R. Clegg; C. Hardy, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (pp. 281–282). Sage Publications.
Bukhari, R. (2022, July 18). Merger and reform in ex-Fata. DAWN.COM. https://www.dawn.com/news/1700228
Clausewitz, C. (2003). On war. Penguin UK.
Collins, R. (2011). Patrimonial alliances and failures of state penetration: A historical dynamic of crime, corruption, gangs, and Mafias. The Annals Of The American Academy Of Political And Social Science, 636(1), 16–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716211398201
Dawn. (2018a, January 12). Bill extending PHC, SC jurisdiction to Fata passed by national Assembly. https://www.dawn.com/news/1382472.
Freeman, M. (2014). A theory of terrorist leadership (and its consequences for leadership targeting). Terrorism and Political Violence, 26(4), 666–687. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2012.751912
Galula, D. (2006). Counterinsurgency warfare: Theory and practice. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Jadoon, A., & Mahmood, S. (2018). Fixing the cracks in the Pakistani Taliban’s foundation: TTP’s leadership returns to the Mehsud Tribe. Combating Terrorism Sentinel, 11(11), 21-25.
Jadoon, A., & Sayed, A. 2021. The Pakistani Taliban is Reinventing itself. 9Dashline, 28 October. https://www.9dashline.com/article/the-pakistani-taliban-is-reinventing-itself
Joes, A. (2004). Resisting rebellion: the history and politics of counterinsurgency. University Press of Kentucky.
Khan, H. (2018, September 23). FCR by another name: Interim regulations for tribal areas are temporary. The Express Tribune, p. B2. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1809943/fcr-another-name-interim-regulations-tribal-areas-temporary
Khan, T. (2018, January 15). “Pakistan Taliban Book Claims Group was Behind Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination. Arab News. https://www.arabnews.com/node/1225801/world
Khan, T. (2022, September 28). TTP Ends Ceasefire with Govt, orders its Militants to ‘carry out attacks in entire country. Dawn. https://www.dawn.com/news/1723647
Mockaitis, T. (2003). Winning hearts and minds in the ‘war on terrorism’. Small wars and insurgencies, 14(1), 21-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592310412331300546
Nagl, J. (2006). Principles, Imperatives, and Paradoxes of Counterinsurgency,” Military Review, March-April pp. 49-53. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA486811.pdf
O’Neill, W. (2002). Responding to Terrorism: What Role for the United Nations? International Peace Academy. https://www.ipinst.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/conference_report_terr.pdf
Sayed, A., & Hamming, T. (2021). The Revival of the Pakistani Taliban. CTC Sentinel, 14(4), 28-38. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-revival-of-the-pakistani-taliban/
Sayed, A., & Hamming, T. (2023). The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan After the Taliban’s Afghanistan Takeover. CTC Sentinel, 16(5), 1–12. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-tehrik-i-taliban-pakistan-after-the-talibans-afghanistan-takeover/
Steinberg, J. B. (2002). Counterterrorism: A New Organizing Principle for American National Security?. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/counterterrorism-a-new-organizing-principle-for-american-national-security
Steinberg, J. B. (2004). An elective transatlantic partnership for the 21st century. Crossing the atlantic, 19.
Syed, B. S. (2025, February 15). TTP still gets financial, logistic support from Afghan Taliban. Dawn.com. https://www.dawn.com/news/1892006.
Tse-tung, M. (1961). On Guerrilla Warfare. Translated by Samuel B. Griffith. Champaign, IL.
Vego, M. (2007). The Development of Schwerpunkt. Military review.
Zahid, F. (2019). Profile of New TTP Chief Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud: Challenges and Implications. Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS). Published on April, 15, 2019
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Copyright in the Journal of Social Sciences Review is retained by the author(s). Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
SSR's Editorial Board shares the vision of providing free access to information, education, and science for everyone, thus promoting its content through an OPEN ACCESS POLICY, fulfilling the DOAJ definition of open access. The JSSR adheres to an Open Access and Copyright Licensing Policy based on the belief that making research freely accessible to the public promotes greater global knowledge sharing.
The JSSR uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. The authors who apply and publish in JSSR consent to abide by the copyright policy set out in the Creative Commons 4.0 license (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license).
- Copyright in the Journal of Social Sciences Review is retained by the author(s).
- Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified.
While "By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself."
