On the drone trail.

• Author: Shah, Mudassar
• Position: Travel narrative

It was one of the toughest decisions in my life to go ahead and visit the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. Family and close friends asked me not to go because no good news is ever heard from that area of the country.

I decided to go by bus from Peshawar to Bannu, the main city near North Waziristan. I had few other options, since the taxi drivers refused to take me there because they were afraid of being kidnapped. Often in North Waziristan, people kidnap taxi drivers for ransom and sell their taxis.

My fear came to the fore when a person who was sitting beside me on the bus told me about an incident that he had witnessed in Bannu the night before. "Five of my relatives were brutally attacked for no reason," he said.

He was sitting very close to me and introduced himself as a doctor at a local hospital. He had come with the injured to Peshawar because there was no adequate facility in Bannu. All five died before reaching the hospital in Peshawar. I tried to get the courage to ask for details, but I couldn't when I saw blood on his clothes.

I avoided looking at him and kept myself busy by staring out of the window. Security checkpoints and army vehicles patrolling the streets were the only scenes on the main road leading to Bannu.

Ahead, the road was blocked and the policeman said there was a search operation against the militants. The police checked everybody from head to toe.

I arrived in Bannu at midday. It was hard to decide whether or not to continue on to North Waziristan. There would be a curfew the next day, as there is every Saturday.

I decided to go by a local van to North Waziristan. I asked a driver about the fare, but I noticed he didn't want to take me. I waited for another van to come in, and asked if I could go in it. Again, I could not get a seat.

I waited for more than three hours until a man told me to hire a taxi if I really wanted to go to North Waziristan. The driver I hired was from Miranshah, the administrative center of North Waziristan. He avoided talking about any topic related to the Taliban or the Pakistani intelligence agencies, except to say: "We know very well what is going on in our area. It is only to kill the innocent."

"You know why the drivers refused to take you to North Waziristan?" he asked. "Because you are not from the area and people from outside of North Waziristan are considered either a spy or a member of the Pakistani army, and both would have the same fate if Taliban militants would find...