Swat − a valley in the north west of Pakistan – has always been famous for its natural beauty and hospitality until it was tagged with the notion of popular demand for imposition of Shariah and allegedly resultant rise of non-state actors in the region in last two decades. Subsequent tallyhos by global war on terror aficionados and thunders of military operation by Pak Army left an important question unheeded: whether Shariah was the actual popular demand and reason for the support and rise of non-state actors like Sufi-Muhammad and Mullah Fazlullah? If yes, then what explains a periodical rise of non-state actors in 1999 and 2006 while PATA Regulation (Nifaz-e-Nizam-eShariah) had already been promulgated in 1994? It suggests that either Shariah was not the actual demand or the actual demand – whatever it was – was being misapprehended, or intentionally mislabeled, as Shariah. This study attempts to analyze ‘lived experiences’ of the people and the ‘essence’ these experiences have for them in order to answer the questions like what was the actual demand, if not Shariah; has it been fulfilled or not; and what are the actual causes, if not Shariah, for the rise and support of non-state actors in Swat? Therefore, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of semi-structured interviews conducted in Swat has been used in this paper