North Waziristan is the only tribal agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas that Pakistan has excluded from its ongoing offensive against Taliban rebels and their transnational allies. Pakistan has avoided attempts to bring North Waziristan under state control. Any such effort would be complicated by the intricate relationships among the area's tribes and militant groups, the region's difficult terrain, Islamabad's lack of resources and other domestic constraints. Control of North Waziristan is split between tribal warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur and the Afghan Taliban's Haqqani faction. Neither entity is hostile toward Pakistan. Bahadur is based in the southwestern stretches of North Waziristan, and his militiamen fight NATO and Afghan security forces across the border in Afghanistan. The Haqqanis use their base in the northeastern end of the agency to attack eastern Afghanistan and Kabul. Transnational jihadists such as al Qaeda and its Pakistani allies also sustain themselves in the region by working with Bahadur and the Haqqanis. Islamabad will have to manage the situation on its Afghan border long after NATO has withdrawn; Pakistan cannot afford belligerent relations with Bahadur or the Haqqanis. Because of this, Pakistan is reluctant to expand its counterinsurgency operations in North Waziristan, but does not consider the area to be permanently outside of state control.
