With the exception of the Mohmand agency, the overall security situation in FATA in 2016 witnessed a drastic improvement according to a report recently published by FATA Analysis and Strategy Team, (FAST) titled, FATA 2016- FAST Annual Situation Analysis. While the state of affairs in Mohmand agency remain volatile as the area is moving towards becoming a ‘militancy density zone’, the year 2016 saw an overall reduction in militancy in FATA, as militant related acts dropped from 691 in 2015 to 479 in 2016.
As a result of the success of military operations, the repatriation of Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs) had a success rate of 80%. The success in curbing terrorist activities has primarily been due to the military operations conducted by the Pakistani Army against terrorist outfits; namely the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JUA), and associated groups. In particular, the launch of operation Zarb-e- Azb in 2014 and ongoing operation Radd-ul -Fasad has played an instrumental role in pushing the TTP into Afghanistan and seeking sanctuary there.[i] However, despite the military successes, the threat of terrorism is still at large as is being witnessed in the Mohmand agency. Therefore, stringent security measures need to be adopted in order to completely curb the threat.
