The Structure of Governance, Rise of Taliban Militancy and Human Displacement. A Study of Patterns of Conflict induced Human Migration in District Swat (2008-09)

Abstract

This paper explores the nexus between governance crisis,militancy and how people resort to different migration patterns in order to cope with the unwanted situation. It suggests that the transition from one system of governance to another was not only incomplete but full of confusion and lacunas. This resulted in people's reduced trust in the state institutions. As the vacuum was created,non-state forces in the shape of the Taliban emerged who smoothly established control over the entire region, and people welcomed such a change in the hope of a better governance alternative. However, as the situation worsened and law and order deteriorated, the Pakistan army launched a full scale military operation. People were forced to migrate to safer places, preferably to the nearby districts where they took refuge temporarily. Once normalcy returned and miscreants were eliminated, people immediately returned to their places of origin.It is found that very few families opted to settle in the camps while the majority of the people stayed with their relatives and friends and those financially well off took houses for rent to live.