The deadly wave of violence picked up drastically across Pakistan during the current week. Ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, however subsided slightly, wherein almost 30 persons ( compared to 43 last week) lost their lives. Meanwhile, the wave of bomb blasts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA, armed clashes between militants and the security forces in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies-continued to pile up the death toll. The data collected throughten newspapers, that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 153 persons lost their lives as a result of 50 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 133 people injured.

For sixth week in a row civilians paid the maximum human cost of the persistent wave of violence across Pakistan as they accounted for 56 percent (1/2) of the total death toll. In total, 87 civilians perished and another 101 injured as a result of violent clashes. The second highest number of causalities was ofmilitants, wherein 50 militants were killed and another 11 got injured. Furthermore, for the third consecutive week, just one CIA operated drone strikewas recorded, killing 26 suspected militants and injuring five others in Bulandkhel area of Orakzai Agency (FATA). Also, continuing their sabotage campaign to demolish state infrastructure, militants blew up a mosque, a community health centre and an electricity tower in different areas of FATA and Balochistan.

Moreover, nine sectarian attacks left 15 persons, nine Shia and six Sunni men dead and another seven injured in Karachi (Sindh), Quetta (Balochistan) and lower Kurram Agency (FATA) during the course of the week. Meanwhile, death toll due to target killings dropped by 15 percent, (26 percent of the total dead against last week 41 percent) during the current week. Overall, 58 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature.The trend also underscores that the target killing insistently remains the weapon of choice for violent actors to inflict violence (seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 29 incidents of target killings, a staggering 65 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 19 people (46 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 increased by 12 percent; militant casualties due to military operation accounted for 32 percent of the total fatalities against last week 20 percent. Meanwhile, 16 security personnel were killed and 21 others got injured during the week.

Also, 12 dead bodies were recovered from different areas of Sindh and Balochistan. Eleven dead bodies out of the total 12 were found in Karachi alone. In sum, the number of violent incidents dropped significantly from last week 73 to 50 during this week, the resultant casualties however, surged from 123 to 153 during the current week, while the number of wounded increased from 80 to 133.

A concise look into the weekly data and violent trends underlines that the persistent wave of violence, with slight variations, continues to infringe upon the state security. During the week, renewed wave of violence visited Balochistan and FATA, leaving many people dead and maimed. Thus, at a time when violence is on the rampage across Pakistan, political actors remain apathetic as ever towards the daily violence and loss of lives in Pakistan. They look busy in discussing the outcome of violence rather making any sincere attempt to solve the causes behind this violence. The current state of violence and the level of governmental interest to curb it underline that the people of Pakistan will have to live with this scale of violence for a longer period of time.

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