Violence across Pakistan receded somewhat during the week under review. Yet Karachi, the largest city in the south on the Arabian Sea, continues to seethe under the wave of ethno-political violence that has consumed some 97 lives since the last week of March. The data collected through different sources suggest that overall 83 people lost their lives in 56 incidents of violence across the country. The majority of the killings took place in different volatile districts of Karachi during the week (for details see data sheet). The violent clashes also left 111 people injured across the country, up from last week 70 .

During the course of the week, once again, the civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence, as 69 percent of the total causalities were of the civilians. Numerically, 58 civilians were killed and 88 others were wounded in different episodes of violence across the country. Meanwhile, clashes between military and militants in different areas of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KP) province and FATA regions resulted in the killing of 24 militants and injuries to eighteen others. Furthermore, for the third consecutive week, no US CIA-operated drone strike was reported in any part of the country. However, sabotage attacks by the militants continued unabated as four more schools, two gas pipelines, two electricity transformers and a power pylon were blown up by the militants in different areas of KP, Balochistan and FATA.

Contrary to the preceding week, the number of sectarian attacks registered a slight decreased, with the number going down from last week seven incidents to four in the current week. And the number of causalities also dropped significantly from 14 to three. Once again, the Shia Hazara community residing in Quetta turned out to be the main target, as all the slain persons belonged to this community.

Moreover, 60 percent of the total civilian deaths occurred due to the gory tool of violence i.e. target killings all over the country. Hence for the past four weeks, target killing emerged as the major means of violence being perpetrated by invisible miscreants, believed to be the death squads of the rabidly anti-Shia militant outfit Lashkare Jhangvi.. Meanwhile, 31 incidents of target killings ´ 74 percent of which took place in Karachi alone – left 36 people dead and 56 others wounded during the week. On the other hand, militant causalities as a result of ongoing military operation in KP and FATA continue to dwindle, as 16 militants were killed during various clashes with the military.

The pie chart underscores that the target killing was the most frequently employed tactic by the violent actors for eliminating rivals or inflicting damage on adversaries. During the week under, as many as 31 incidents of target killings were reported across the country. Military vs. militants– clashes were the second major cause of fatalities, whereby 24 militants lost became victims of the military operations, while eighteen others got injured – in about five military-militants– clashes in KP and FATA region. Ten dead bodies, all of them civilians, were also recovered from different areas of Karachi, Balochistan and FATA areas.

Overall, there was a relative lull in violence compared to the preceding weeks, as the death toll dropped from last week 101 to 83 this week. But the number of violent incidents remained unchanged ´ 56 for both the current and the previous week. The accumulative data suggests that 208 people were killed and 126 others were wounded in the last two weeks across Pakistan. Most of the dead were civilians belonging to Karachi, Balochistan, and FATA regions.

Sources

1. The News
2. Dawn
3. The Express Tribune
4. Pakistan Today
5. Daily Times
6. The Frontier Post
7. Jang (Urdu)
8. Daily Mashriq (Urdu)
9. Aaj (Urdu)