‘Afghan Factor’ and the Challenge of Religious Militancy and Extremism in Pakistan: A Discursive Analysis

Abstract

The study on ‘Afghan factor’ and Talibanization of Pakistani society has been an ever burning milieu since the days of Afghan Jihad and are still effectual due to the complexity of Pak-Afghan relations. In later years, the after-shocks of this issue resulted in the form of local militant organizations like Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its offshoots. The study is both argumentative and reflexive one in the praxis of qualitative research. The Afghan episode which was started during Zia Regime (1977-1988) witnessed its pinnacles in Musharraf administration (1999-2008). Zia tackled it successfully due to the mastery over the situation it while Musharraf faced a number of problems due to direct US involvement into the battleground. The study in hand has been a serene effort to analyze this factor keeping in view a number of discourses in relation to extra terrestrial elements and leads to a sound scholarship of the issue.