The overall level of violence subsided considerably across Pakistan during the current week. Ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, however surged substantially during the week, wherein almost 40 persons (compared to 30 last week) were shot dead. 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 mount the death toll. The data collected throughten newspapers, that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 87 persons lost their lives as a result of 55 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 57 people injured.

Akin to the common trend witnessed in the past seven consecutive weeks, civilians endured the worst ofthe ongoing spate of violence in the country this week as well. The civilians accounted for 57 percent of the total death toll. Numerically speaking, 50 civilians lost their lives and 37 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across Pakistan. The second highest numbers of casualties were ofmilitants, wherein 27 militants perished and another 13 got injured in violent clashes. Furthermore, like the preceding week just one CIA operated drone strikewas recorded, killing five suspected militants in Tappi village of North Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile, the sabotage campaign by the militants continued unabated, as militants blew up three more government schools in KP and FATA.

Moreover, three sectarian attacks left five persons, one Shia and four Sunni men, dead in different areas of Karachi city (Sindh) during the course of the week. Meanwhile, death toll due to target killings surged by 22 percent, (48 percent of the total dead against last week 26 percent) during the current week. Overall, 64 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature.The trend also, underscores that the target killing stubbornly remains the preferred weapon for the violent actors to inflict 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, decimating 35 people (83 percent of the total dead in target killings) and injuring seven others. Death toll of the militants in the ongoing military operations in KP and FATA region decreased by one percent; militant casualties due to military operation accounted for 31 percent of the total fatalities against last week 32 percent. Meanwhile, 10 security personnel were killed and seven others got injured during the week.

Also, 10 dead bodies were recovered from different areas of Sindh, KP and Balochistan. Five dead bodies out of the total 10 were found in Karachi alone. In sum, the number of violent incidents surged slightly from last week 50 to 55 during this week, the resultant death toll however dropped significantly from 153 to 87 during the current week, while the number of wounded decreased from 133 to 57.

A peek into the weekly data and violent trends across the country suggests that the wave of ethno-political, sectarian, nationalist-separatist and religio-terrorism violence is insistently impinging on the state security leaving the defenseless civilians at the mercy of violent actors, roaming freely around the country. Against the backdrop of prevalent security situation the government urgently needs to restrain this horrific level of violence, but if it fails in curbing the violence, the future course of the state will be daunting.

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