The raging wave of violence de-escalated slightly across Pakistan during the current week. Relentless wave of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, picked up drastically during the week, wherein almost 44 persons were butchered during the course of the reported week. Meanwhile, the wave of bomb blasts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), armed clashes between militants and the security forces in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies – continued to wreak havoc. The data collected throughten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 119 persons perished, as a result of 54 incidents of violence across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left a staggering 241 people injured.

As in case of past week, yet again, it were the civilians who bore the major brunt of the persistent wave of violence across Pakistan during current week, wherein civilians were accounted for 66 percent of the total death toll. In total 79 civilians were killed and 173 others wounded as a result of violent clashes across Pakistan. The second highest number of deaths was ofmilitants, wherein 67 militants were killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, two CIA operated drone strikesstruck in Dattakhel and Mir Ali sub-divisions of North Waziristan Agency (FATA), during the course of the week, killing eight suspected militants. Meanwhile, continuing their campaign to demolish state infrastructure, militants, blew up two power pylons, two state-run schools and a portion of gas pipeline in different areas of KP and Balochistan.

Moreover, five sectarian attacks left 11 persons, four Sunni and seven Shia men, dead and another four Shia men injured in Karachi (Sindh) and Quetta (Balochistan). The number of deaths due to target killing incidents surged by eight percent, (36 percent against last week 28 percent) during the current week. Overall, 65 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature.The trend also underscores that the target killing insistently remains the preferred weapon in the hands of violent actors to exhibit violence (seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 35 incidents of target killings, a staggering 80 percent took place in Karachi alone, leaving 38 people dead (86 percent of the total dead in target killings) and injuring 10 others. Death toll of the militants in the ongoing military operations in KP and FATA region fell by 12 percent, wherein militant casualties due to military operation were accounted for 26 percent of the total loss of lives against last week 38 percent. Meanwhile, nine security personnel were killed and 67 others got injured during the week.

Also, 12 dead bodies were recovered from different areas of Sindh, KP, FATA and Balochistan. Six dead bodies out of the total were found in Karachi. In sum, the number of violent incidents increased slightly-from last week 51 to 54 during this week, the consequent casualties however dropped from 151 to 119 during the current week.

A peer into the weekly data and violent trends across the country suggests that the persistent wave of violence, with slight variations, continues to undermine the security of the state. Ongoing targeting killings in Karachi and rage among Pakistanis while observing Yaum-i-Ishq-i-Rasool, to demonstrate love of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) to condemn the anti-Islam video, resulted in the major loss of lives. Violent response of the general public on the day which was supposed to show love for the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and his teachings, in a way, also underlined the state of anger and frustration among people against the state and governance system. Overall 23 people including security forces– personnel were killed and more than 200 injured across the country on this very day.

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