Times have changed in North Waziristan. This could be illustrated by a number of examples.

There are no guns in sight nowadays in North Waziristan, where the tribesmen not long ago were heavily armed. This is something unfamiliar because it was a common sight in the past to see tribesmen carrying the prized AK-47 (Kalashkikov) rifles and other arms. What to speak of light arms, many tribesmen and particularly the militants possessed heavy weapons that would normally be used by armies.

Carrying guns has been officially banned and many tribesmen said they were happy with the ban. The tribesmen are voluntarily abiding by the decision, but the military authorities keep reminding the tribal elders that carrying or keeping arms at home is a punishable offence. Those caught keeping arms could suffer the demolition of the property from where these were recovered. This punitive measure hasn’t been applied yet and it means the fear factor is working.

At two recent jirgas in Miranshah and Razmak, General Officer Commanding, Major General Hassan Azhar Hayat told the elders of the Utmanzai tribes inhabiting North Waziristan that the tribesmen could still voluntarily surrender arms by a deadline of their choosing because beyond that time action would be taken against the violators.

The army high command and the political administration in North Waziristan seem to be concerned about the recent terrorist attack in which two soldiers lost their lives as well as the assassination of eight tribal elders in the last one year in Dossali, Spinwam and also Bannu. There is constant concern about the use of improvised explosives devices (IEDs) by the militants, including those who may come from their bases in Afghanistan and sneak through the border into North Waziristan or the ones linked to the ‘sleeper cells’ operating in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

That things are looking different in North Waziristan could be illustrated by the use of two well-known madrassas for different purposes. Both closed down when the military launched the Zarb-e-Azb operation against the militants in North Waziristan in June 2014. The one located in Norak village on the main Mir Ali-Miranshah road has been turned into a technical institute run by a non-government organisation (NGO). Its classrooms and hostel rooms are used by students being imparted technical skills to enable them to earn decent livelihoods.

The seminary had gained prominence when the ‘dastarbandi’ of the local Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur was done in it by tying a turban on his head after acquiring religious education and learning the holy Quran by heart. This madrassa was also used by the local Taliban to train suicide bombers. The elaborate sceneries of the ‘heavens’ painted on its walls was said to be an effective method to impress upon the would-be bombers that they would go straight to the paradise after dying in suicide missions. North Waziristan’s then Political Agent Zaheerul Islam had survived an explosion caused by an IED planted near this Taliban-run madrassa at Norak.

The other known madrassa also located by the roadside in Eidak village is being used to accommodate Army soldiers and Levies personnel manning the checkpost on the Mir Ali-Miranshah road. While the two madrassas at Eidak and Norak have been put to other uses, the adjoining mosques at both the places are fully functional.

The other change is the building of better roads, modern schools and hospitals, sports stadium and markets. The new roads have made it faster and easier to reach destinations. The journey from Bannu, sited in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to Miranshah, the headquarters and biggest town in North Waziristan, took about five hours. The travel time on the rebuilt and metalled road has been reduced to about one and a half hour.  A number of other roads have been completed or are under construction to link different areas in North Waziristan and also with South Waziristan and other tribal areas and districts.

For the first time, the NGOs are being allowed to work in North Waziristan. This wasn’t possible during the Taliban times as they were violently opposed to the NGOs. As it was a sensitive issue, the military authorities took their time in allowing the NGOs to work in North Waziristan in view of the need to supplement the government’s efforts to rehabilitate the displaced persons being repatriated to their homes and assist in the reconstruction activities. The UN agencies and INGOs too would be able to work under overall army supervision.

Earlier there were training centres for militants and suicide bombers in North Waziristan. Now one deradicalisation centre in Miranshah is operational and the other one in Mir Ali is fast coming up. Six-month courses are designed to deradicalise the tribesmen and bring them back into normal life.

The Cadet College Razmak, the first institution of its kind in Fata, has been shifted back to its original home after getting displaced due to militancy and military operations. It had been moved to Peshawar and then Nowshera, but this was a temporary arrangement. The tribespeople didn’t want to lose the cadet college and their elders had been constantly reminding the government that it ought to be shifted back to the serene and pleasant surroundings of the mountainous Razmak town once normalcy returned to North Waziristan. The Cadet College Razmak presently has 441 students, but the demand for quality education is so high that there are plans to commission another cadet college in Miranshah and build Army Public Schools as well.

There are also ambitious plans to promote tourism in Razmak and other places of natural beauty and historical importance, build the Marsikhel industrial zone near Mir Ali, set up a dates processing plant at Khajuri, expedite exploration of oil and gas in the promising Spinwam area, increase the yield and ensure better returns to the owners of the Chilghoza (pine nut) forests in Shawal and Dattakhel, make full use of the copper mines at Degan and those of chromite and phosphate in a number of places in North Waziristan and complete the Ghulam Khan terminal on the border with Afghanistan. If even some of these projects are completed, the North Waziristan tribes would benefit from the generation of business activities and creation of jobs. This would help promote peace in a place that has experienced violence and suffering for more than a decade.