The wave of violence relatively subsided during the current week but sectarian, criminal and ethno-political violence, which has gripped Karachi since the end of March, continued to inflict heavy human and economic cost. The total death toll during the last seven weeks reached 187, and during past 17 days, to 77. Almost 155 of the total deaths were direct consequence of ethno-political violence in the city. Unlike the past week, where Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) led the wave of violence, violence during the current week saw evenly spread across all the familiar violent terrains i.e FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Karachi and Balochistan. The data collected (through the ten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source) suggests that 100 persons perished in 63 incidents of violence across the country during the reported week (for details see data sheet).These incidents also left 113 people injured across the country. Number of injured decreased from last week 128 to 113.

As a common trend witnessed in the past few weeks, the civilians bore the major brunt of the violence across the country as 57 percent of the total casualties were of the civilians, whereby 57 civilians were killed and 88 others were wounded in different incidents of violence. Meanwhile military vs. militants– clashes in different areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA resulted in 24 deaths. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strike was reported in any part of the country. It also underlines the fact that during the current year, the American CIA has restrained its predator campaign, probably because of tensions with Pakistan over suspension of US-NATO supplies via Pakistan. So far, some 14 drone strikes are reported in tribal region during 2012, resulting in 101 deaths. Meanwhile the sabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability; a portion of railway track and a power pylon of 132KV were blown up in Balochistan and KP provinces respectively.

Three sectarian attacks were also reported during the week, killing six, including two Shia Muslims belonging to the ethnic Hazara community based in Quetta and injuring three others in different areas of Karachi and Balochistan. Eight Bomb blasts against security forces– convoys and check posts claimed at least eight lives and wounded 66. Almost 50 percent of these blasts were reported in and around Peshawar alone. Furthermore, fatalities due to target killings picked up once again during the current week. The death toll resulting from this form of violence constituted 38 percent of the total casualties, up from 16 percent in last week. As the pie chart illustrates, some 49 percent of the total violent attacks were target killings in nature. This indicates that target-killing remains the preferred weapon for fixing rivals. (see the pie chart below).

Of the total 35 incidents of target killings, a staggering 71 percent took place alone in Karachi, killing 26 people and injuring four. Militant casualties, due to the ongoing military operation in KP and FATA region, dropped by 63 percent as 35 militants were killed this week as against last week 55. Meanwhile, eight security forces– personnel were also shot dead during clashes with militants in the aforementioned regions during the course of the week.

Moreover, nine dead bodies were also recovered from different areas of Karachi. In sum, violence across the country slightly receded. Though the number of violent incidents witnessed a slight surge (63 against last week 45) yet the death toll dropped considerably from last week 136 to 100.

A close look into the trends and territory of violence suggests that Karachi has emerged as the familiar terrain for violence in recent months, where clashes between warring ethno-political factions are the ¿order of the day–. And surprisingly, there is not much political notice and intervention by the security administration into the ongoing violence in Karachi. It underscores that the government machinery is practically helpless in the face of raging violence that stems from rivalries between major entho-political groups who are trying hard to preserve their respective interests and territory in Karachi, the nerve centre of Pakistan.

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)
10. The Nation