The wave of violence marginally subsided during the current week. The spree of bomb blasts across Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and the insistent wave of target killing in Karachi and Balochistan continued to wreck havoc on lives of defenseless people. The data collected (through ten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source) suggests that as many as 138 persons got killed as a result of 60 incidents of violence across the country during the reported week (for details see data sheet).These incidents also left 60 people injured whereas number of wounded decreased slightly from last week 66 to 60 this week.

Yet again civilians paid the major cost of the ongoing spate of violence across the country as 71 percent of the total fatalities were of civilians this week. Numerically speaking, 98 civilians lost their lives and 37 others got injured during the course of week. Militants suffered the second highest number of causalities, where 28 militants got killed, mostly due to the military vs. militants– clashes in different areas of the KP and FATA regions. Furthermore, a fragile lull was observed in drone strikes as noCIA operated drone strike was reported in any part of FATA this week. The sabotage campaign by the militants continued unabated, as militants blew up two more government schools in KP province.

Like the previous week, two sectarian attacks were reported across the country killing fifteen people, all of them Shia Muslims, in Kohat and Quetta areas of KP and Balochistan provinces. Moreover, casualties due to the ferocious wave of target killings increased by eight percent (38 percent during current week against last week 41). Overall 67 percent of the total violent attacks wereof target killing in nature. The trend also underlines that the target killing persistently remains the weapon of choice in the hands of miscreants to inflict violence (seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data shows that of the total 40 incidents of target killings; a staggering 62 percent took place in Karachi alone, killing 31 people and maiming six others. Militant casualties due to the ongoing military operation in KP and FATA region dropped by 34 percent, as just 28 militants were killed this week against last week 42. On the whole, militant casualties were just 20 percent of the total death toll. Meanwhile, the killings of security forces– personnel increased by 31 percent, as 23 security personnel lost their lives against last week 16.

Moreover, the phenomenon of recovery ofdead bodies is once again changing terrain and shifting to Balochistan this time, as of the total 22, ten dead bodies were recovered from different areas of Balochistan and seven from Karachi during the current week. In sum, the number of violent incidents raised considerably from last week 48 to 60 this week, the consequent fatalities, however dropped slightly from 143 to 138 during current week, while the number of wounded decreased from 66 to 60.

The security landscape of Pakistan continues to paint a grim picture. Accumulative data of last four weeks suggests that that almost 508 people lost their lives as a result of 190 violent episodes of various kinds across Pakistan. At a time when Pakhtuns in KP and FATA were bearing the major brunt of violence, they were also targeted in relatively peaceful Punjab capital city, Lahore, wherein the gory murder of under training wardens of KP police was reported during the week. Meanwhile, the killing of coalminers followed by a bomb attack on Awami National Party (ANP) rally and target killing of eight ANP workers in Quetta were the salient violent incidents of the week.

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