The wave of violence further subsided substantially across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, armed clashes between militants and the security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the deadly wave of target killings in Karachi (Sindh), continued to pile up death toll during the week. The data collected throughten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, shows that as many as 90 persons perished, as a result of 42 incidents of violence across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).These violent incidents also left 88 people injured across the country.

Unlike the previous few weeks, where militants were the prime target of violence; civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein 66 percent of the total casualties were of the civilians. Numerically, 60 civilians were died and 86 others were wounded as a result of violent clashes. The second highest number of deaths was ofmilitants, wherein 23 militants got killed under different circumstances. No CIA operated drone strikewas reported during the course of the week. Meanwhile militants blew up four power pylons, of 132 KV each in Kala Dher area of Charsadda district (KP), and five government schools in different areas of KP and FATA region.

Moreover, no sectarian attack was reported in any part of the country. Meanwhile, the unabated spree of target killings fell by 7 percent, (31 percent against last week 38 percent) during the current week. Overall, 60 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature.The trend also underscores that the target killing, persistently remains the weapon of choice for violent attackers to exhibit violence (seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data shows that of the total 25 incidents of target killings, a staggering 88 percent took place in Karachi alone, leaving 26 people dead (92 percent of the total dead in target killings) and injuring another. Deaths of militants in the ongoing military operations in KP and FATA region dropped by ten percent, as militant casualties due to military operation accounted for 25 percent of the total loss of lives against last week 35 percent. Meanwhile, seven security personnel got killed under different circumstances during the week.

Also, 36 dead bodies were recovered from different areas of Sindh, KP, FATA and Balochistan. Nine out of the thirty six dead bodies were found in Karachi alone. In sum, the number of violent incidents decreased from last week 58 to 42 during this week, and thus the resultant casualties also dropped sharply from 134 to 90 during the current week.

A peer into the prevalent violent trends across the country underlines that the largest city in Pakistan, Karachi, is rapidly emerging as the most dangerous city. As recent reports by the United Nations and other international rights groups noted that the current level of killings in the city is far higher than the other violent cities like Mexico and Baghdad. During current week, 35 persons were butchered in the city, mostly out of ethno-political motives. Thus, despite the fact of persistently high level of violence in the city, both provincial and central governments look mercilessly indifferent.

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