War in North-West Pakistan (2004-)

Victims of the Peshawar School Massacre - Memorial Photo, Pakistan, Jan 2015

The War in North-West Pakistan is an armed conflict involving Pakistan and armed militant groups such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI), Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), al-Qaeda, Baloch liberation armed movements, and elements of organized crime.

The armed conflict began in 2004 when tensions, rooted in the Pakistan Army's search for al-Qaeda fighters in Pakistan's mountainous Waziristan area (in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas), escalated into armed resistance. Pakistan's actions were presented as its contribution to the international War on Terror. Clashes further erupted between unified Pakistan Armed Forces and the Central Asian militant groups, allied with the Arab fighters, in 2008–10. The foreign militants were joined by Pakistani non-military veterans of the Afghan war in West which subsequently established the TTP and other militant umbrella organizations such as LeI. The TNSM established in 1992 allied with the TTP and LeI.

The war depleted the country's manpower resources and the outcomes outlined a deep effect on its national economy since Pakistan had joined the U.S-led War on Terror. According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) statistics and mathematical data survey collections, the economy has suffered direct and indirect losses of up to ~$67.93 billion since 2001 due to its role as a "frontline state." According to the MoF-issued Pakistan Economic Survey 2010–11, "Pakistan has never witnessed such a devastating social and economic upheaval in its industry, even after dismemberment of the country by a direct war with India in 1971."