Ebook: "As if hell fell on me": The Human Rights Crisis in Northwest Pakistan

Some four million Pakistanis have been caught in a human rights and humanitarian crisis that has gripped northwest Pakistan since 2004, when the Pakistani Taleban asserted themselves in the seven 'agencies' that comprise the federally administered Tribal areas (FATA). FATA straddles the mountainous terrain between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and adjoining areas in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). More than 8,500 people died in the violence in Northwest Pakistan in 2009. The conflict and associated insecurity have displaced hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis. Many of them suffer from serious food and water shortages, and have insufficient access to other basic needs such as health care and education. Although some of the displaced are returning to their homes, for many there is no end in sight. This report, based on hundreds of interviews with people inside FATA and conflict-affected areas of the NWFP, documents how this crisis was precipitated by violations of international humanitarian law, as well as human rights law, by both the Pakistani government and insurgent groups. �Read more...