ARTICLE

POLITICAL FACTORS AND SECTARIAN IDENTITIES IN TRIBAL AREAS OF PAKISTAN

24 Pages : 367-379

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2018(III-IV).24      10.31703/gssr.2018(III-IV).24      Published : Dec 4

Political Factors and Sectarian Identities in Tribal Areas of Pakistan

    The study titled “political factors and sectarian identities in tribal areas of Pakistan” was carried out in tribal district Kurram under positivistic tools of the data collection. A sample size of 300 respondents was randomly selected with equal proportion of Shia and Sunni from the study universe and questionnaire was used as a tool of data collection. The data was portrayed at uni-variate level with the help of frequency and percentage distribution. The association between dependent (sectarianism) and independent (political factors) variables was ascertained through Chi-Square test statistics at bivaraite level of analysis. The study concluded that alongside the local people, state agencies are either involved in sectarianism or they are unable to handle the situations. Soviet-US proxy war and United States invasion in Afghanistan accelerate the occurrences of sectarian violence in the area that became most horrible after Pakistan entrance into US coalition in war against terrorism. The local militants are enjoying external patronage for carrying anti-state operations in the area. Previously, political activities were banned in tribal areas that not only affect the conventional politics but also restrict the intervention of nationalist political forces in the region. Further, mainstream political parties are taking less interest to resolve the issue, while some political parties also ideologically supporting sect-based politics. Strict ban on militant groups, formation of strict laws for preventing militancy, and keeping open eyes on external transitions in the area were forwarded some of the recommendations.

    Sectarianism, State Writ, External Patronage, Militants, Nationalist Political Forces.
    (1) Arshad Khan Bangash
    Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Gender Studies, Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, KP, Pakistan.
    (2) Muhammad Farid
    M.Phil Sociology, Department of Sociology and Gender Studies, Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, KP, Pakistan.
    (3) Fariha Bibi
    PhD Scholar, Department of Rural Sociology, Agriculture University, Peshawar, KP, Pakistan.
  • Ahmad, M. (1998). Islamization and Sectarian Violence in Pakistan. Intellectual Discourse, Vol (06) 1-25, pp. 11-37.
  • Ahmad, S.H., and Junaid, F.A. (2010). Higher education in Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan after 9/11: Problems and prospects. US-China Education Review, Vol (7) 5, pp. 55-65.
  • Ali, A. (2013). Economic cost of terrorism: A case study of Pakistan. Retrieved on December 21, 2015, From. http://www.issi.org.pk/searchresult.php?query=economic cost terrorism.
  • Blanchard, C.M. (2009). Islam Sunnis and Shittes. Congress Research Service.
  • Dressler, J., and Jan, R. (2011). The Haqqani Network in Kurram: The Regional Implications of a Growing Insurgency. USA: Institute for the Study of War and AEI's Critical Threats Project.
  • Ejaz, M. (2016). Shia-Sunni Sectarian Violence as Challenge to peace Maintenance in Pakistan. Gandhara Journal of Research in Social Science. Vol (1)1, pp. 127-162.
  • Fair, C. C. (2011). Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Pakistani State. Survival, Vol(53), pp. 29-52.
  • Fair, C. C. (2014). Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Fair, C.C. (2015). Explaining Support for Sectarian Terrorism in Pakistan: Piety, Maslak and Sharia. Religions Vol (6),pp. 1137-1167.
  • Farook, S.K. (2015). Shia-Sunni Sectarianism: Iran's Role in the Tribal Regions of Pakistan. A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of The School of Continuing Studies and of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Liberal Studies. Georgetown University. Washington, D.C.
  • Gillani, W. (2011). Held, Charged, Released. The News, 24 July 2011.
  • Gunaratna, R., and Anders, N.(2008). Al Qaeda in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Beyond. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 9 (31), pp. 775-807.
  • Haqqani, H. (2005). Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military. Washington: CEIP.
  • Hunzai, I. (2013). Conflict Dynamics in Gilgit-Baltistan. Special Report No.321. United States Institute of Peace. Washington, DC. Retrieved on July 23, 2018, From. www.usip.org
  • Hussain, Z. (2014).The Construction and Deconstruction of Pakistan: The Institutional Writ of The State. (CIDOB Policy Research Project). Barcelona: Centre for International Affairs.
  • Irfani, S. (2004). Pakistan's Sectarian Violence: Between the ‘Arabist Shift'and Indo-Persian Culture. Religious Radicalism and Security in South Asia, pp. 147-152.
  • Jalazai, M. K. (1993). Sectarianism and Politico-Religious Terrorism in Pakistan. Lahore: Tarteeb Publishers.
  • Jan, R. (2009). The King is Dead, Long Live the King: Hakimullah Mehsud Takes Power in the TTP. Retrieved on January 11, 2012, From. http://www.criticalthreats.org/pakistan/king-dead-long-live-kinghakimullah-mehsud-takes-power-ttp
  • Lamb, R. and Hameed, S. (2012). Sub-National Governance, Service Delivery and Militancy in Pakistan. Washington DC: Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
  • Majeed, G., and Hashmi, R.S. (2014).Sectarian Conflicts: A dominant threat to Pakistan's Internal Security. Journal of Political Studies, Vol. 21(1), pp. 103:118
  • Markey, D. (2008). Securing Pakistan's tribal belt. (Special Report CSR No. 36). Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved on August 29, 2008, From. http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Pakistan_CSR36.pdf.
  • Murphy, E., & Malik, A. R. (2009). Pakistan Jihad: The making of religious terrorism. IPRI Journal, Vol(1)2- 23.
  • Peters, J.P. (2002). A rough set approach to knowledge discovery: International journal of intelligent system.
  • Shah, M.N. (2014). Evaluation of Sectarian Violence in Pakistan: A Threat to State and Society. Research Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol (29) 2, pp.441- 459
  • South and Central Asia Overview. (2011). United States Department of State Country Report on Terrorism. Retrieved on September 4, 2015, From. http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2010/170260.htm.
  • Swami, P. (2007). India, Pakistan and the Secret Jihad: The Covert War in Kashmir, 1947-2004. London: Routledge.
  • Vantaka, A. (2012). The guardian of Pakistani Shia. Current trends in Islamist ideology. pp. 13.
  • Waseem, M. (2010). Origins and growth patterns of Islamic organizations in Pakistan. Religious Radicalism and Security in South Asia. Honolulu: Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Vol (11) 33.
  • Yusuf, H. (2012). Sectarian Violence: Pakistan's Greatest Security Threat? Oslo: Norwegian Peace building Resource Centre. Retrieved on April 17, 2017, From. www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/949e 7f9b2db9f947c956 56e5b54e389e.pdf.
  • Zahab, M.A. (2009). Sectarianism in Pakistan's Kurram Tribal Agency. Terrorism Monitor, Vol (VII) 6.
  • Zarif, M. (2011). Al Qaeda's Safe Haven in Iran. American Institute Enterprise Iran Tracker. Retrieved on September 21, 2015, From. http://www.irantracker.org/analysis/al-qaeda’s-safe-haveniran

Cite this article

    CHICAGO : Bangash, Arshad Khan, Muhammad Farid, and Fariha Bibi. 2018. "Political Factors and Sectarian Identities in Tribal Areas of Pakistan." Global Social Sciences Review, III (IV): 367-379 doi: 10.31703/gssr.2018(III-IV).24
    HARVARD : BANGASH, A. K., FARID, M. & BIBI, F. 2018. Political Factors and Sectarian Identities in Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Global Social Sciences Review, III, 367-379.
    MHRA : Bangash, Arshad Khan, Muhammad Farid, and Fariha Bibi. 2018. "Political Factors and Sectarian Identities in Tribal Areas of Pakistan." Global Social Sciences Review, III: 367-379
    MLA : Bangash, Arshad Khan, Muhammad Farid, and Fariha Bibi. "Political Factors and Sectarian Identities in Tribal Areas of Pakistan." Global Social Sciences Review, III.IV (2018): 367-379 Print.
    OXFORD : Bangash, Arshad Khan, Farid, Muhammad, and Bibi, Fariha (2018), "Political Factors and Sectarian Identities in Tribal Areas of Pakistan", Global Social Sciences Review, III (IV), 367-379
    TURABIAN : Bangash, Arshad Khan, Muhammad Farid, and Fariha Bibi. "Political Factors and Sectarian Identities in Tribal Areas of Pakistan." Global Social Sciences Review III, no. IV (2018): 367-379. https://doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2018(III-IV).24