The anti drone campaigner Karim Khan Mehsud had the audacity to deny militants Bhatta. Let us note that most elders that resisted the militants are mostly dead including Imran Khan's Burki uncle. Its a sad state of affairs and though people in Karachi have hope against militancy due to some solid performance by CID and a hostile local population the FATA-ians are in deep trouble. Even the lashkars that are raised are left to fend for themselves though lashkars are more common in bajaur, kurram and parachinar. And Swat.
I think we need to concentrate on a number of things to eliminate terrorism:
1) Terror funding: This includes bhatta khori (extortion), business projects (there was this report that taliban had taken over mines in Swat and were using them to make money), raiding banks in Karachi... etc etc
2) Injustices. My book talks about this in detail. When a person is killed by government funded henchmen or his property/ families life taken and the Taliban offer him support then the said person will quickly become a supporter of militancy.
3) Unemployment in FATA: At 60% yes 60% of FATA-ian youth are unemployed. In my book I state this too. When the Taliban are paying their fighters:
you can see how unemplyment plays into the hands of militants.
4) Illiteracy: with a literacy rate of only 22% (with much less than that for Waziristan) people have not been witness to the anti militant narrative nor have they had any formal education.
In my research paper on terrorism I may have more points... and this is off topic. Lets get back to MQM.
I partly agree with you here. But I believe the state has failed to curb militancy of the Taliban. In an old report on the operation rah e nijat it was said of the 6 tehsils (In waziristan south) where the operation was conducted on sararogha was cleared. Ladha and Makeen were not even though some of the worst terrorists were from here. Hakimullah was of Ladha too I think. They continue to take bhatta in Waziristan too. At least thats what my source tells me. An Orakzai woman had the same story.
If I were to rate which was the biggest threat I would find it hard to choose between the Taliban or the MQM. You are right about kidnap for ransom cases. Doctors in Peshawar have often been kidnapped in order to secure healthcare for wounded militants. However FATA's being off limits means that we don't hear much about FATA. So often we don't know about the cases of extortion. Personally every FATIAN I have talked to has told me about cases of extortion, mostly from richer households though.
@Hyperion what do you think? How does the Taliban fund its insurgency?