The overall level of violence further sub-sided across Pakistan during the current week. Ethno-political violence in Karachi, the largest metropolis of Pakistan, also decreased slightly during the week, wherein almost 42 persons (compared to 44 last week) lost their lives. 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 mount death toll. The data collected throughten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 101 persons were dead, as a result of 58 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 31 people injured.

Like in case of past week yet again, the civilians bore the major brunt of violence during current week, wherein civilians were accounted for 52 percent of the total death toll. In total, 53 civilians were killed and 16 others wounded as a result of violent clashes across Pakistan. The second highest number of deaths was ofmilitants, wherein 41 militants were killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, one CIA operated drone strikesstruck in Haiderkhel village of Mir Ali sub-division, North Waziristan Agency (FATA), during the course of the week, killing two suspected militants. Meanwhile, continuing their campaign to demolish state infrastructure, militants blew up two power pylons and two state-run schools in different areas of KP and FATA.

Moreover, eight sectarian attacks left eight persons, five Sunnis and three Shias dead in Karachi (Sindh) and Quetta (Balochistan). The number of deaths due to target killing soared by six percent, (42 percent against last week 36 percent) during the current week. Overall, 67 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature.The trend also underlines that the target killing insistently remains the preferred weapon in the hands of violent actors to inflict violence (seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, the data underlines that of the total 39 incidents of target killings, a staggering 76 percent took place in Karachi alone, leaving 33 people dead (76 percent of the total dead in target killings) and injuring two others. Death toll of the militants in the ongoing military operations in KP and FATA region surged by 14 percent, wherein militant casualties due to military operation was accounted for 40 percent of the total loss of lives against last week 26 percent. Meanwhile, seven security personnel were killed and 15 others got injured during the week.

Also, 10 dead bodies were recovered from different areas of Sindh and KP. Nine dead bodies out of the total were found in Karachi. In sum, the number of violent incidents increased slightly from last week 54 to 58 during this week, the consequent casualties however dropped from 119 to 101 during the current week.

A concise look into the weekly data and violent trends underlines that the insistent wave of violence, with slight variations, continues to rip apart the state. In recent months Karachi has emerged as the hub of urban violence, leaving almost 50 people dead in a week and accounting for 1/3 of total violence across the country. The latest wave of violence in the city has become a bitter reality for the city dwellers and failed to get the attention of political leadership, which always play decisive role to curtail violence. The number of killings in the city in recent weeks has left behind the restive Balochistan and militancy-stricken KP in scale of violence.

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