Violent Conflict in North Waziristan, Pakistan: The Distortion and Re-emergence of Social Structure

This paper examines how and to what extent the violent conflict in the North Waziristan Tribal District of Pakistan distorted the traditional social structure, which embodies the informal social institutions of Jirga and Hujra. This violent conflict between 2004 and 2014 has appeared as one of the most urgent and crucial humanitarian and development concerns for Pakistan where the whole region was under the siege of Talibanization and government was completely absent until the launch of military operation Zarb-e-Azb in June 2014 against the Taliban. Several studies have been conducted so far on the causes and consequences of this violent conflict, but most of these studies focused on the political dimensions even though the significant volatility of the region in recent times should be investigated empirically. This study adopted qualitative methodological and interpretive approaches to collect primary data from the study area. The study finds that the informal institutions like Jirga (council of elders), and Hujra (common male guesthouse) were being the prime targets of both the Taliban and security forces during the violent conflict. Moreover, the jirgawas used as a source of fund-raising by the Taliban groups in North Waziristan. Resultantly, these institutions lost its centuries-old traditional structure and underwent significant transformations.(1)