ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses inception of insurgency in the FATA. State Repression generally plays an important role in motivating an insurgency because it causes anger which facilitate insurgent recruitment. However, in some cases repression helps to control insurgency. This chapter brings nuances to the role of repression in triggering the FATA insurgency by arguing that the state repression against local people incited recruitment and repression on local leaders through ceasing their long-held co-optation provided leadership. This is when the FATA insurgency arose. With mounting pressure from the United States in 2004, the Pakistani military conducted military operations by using force indiscriminately that aggravated the grievances of the local population, but the region did not see insurgency. The state also used repression against the local elites by disrupting decades-old co-optation while withdrawing their political and economic benefits. Quashing co-optation of local leaders by the state provided leadership which resulted into insurgency.
