The wave of violence further escalated across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, continued unabated during the week, wherein 40 persons (32 were in the last week) were perished. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies continued to mount death toll during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers that CRSS uses as the source indicates that as many as 130 persons lost their lives as a result of 57 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 189 people injured.

Like in case of preceding weeks, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, as civilians accounted formore than 60 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 85 civilians lost their lives and 147 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 31 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, one CIA operated drone strike was also reported during the week, killing five suspected militants in Mana Gurbaz area of North Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants blew up a portion of Gas pipeline in Dear Bugti (Balochistan) and Charsadda (KP) provinces respectively, two power pylons in Dadu (Sindh),two houses and five government schools in KP were also blown up.

Meanwhile, five sectarian attacksleft 23 people, including 22 Shia and one Sunni, dead in different parts of the country this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 12 percent, (36 percent of the total dead against last week 48 percent) during the current week. Overall, 39 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 18 incidents of target killings; 38 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 20 persons (43 percent of the total dead in target killings). Meanwhile 17 militants were killed in three military operations in different areas of the country. On the whole, militant casualties were 35 percent of the total death toll. Also, 14 security personnel were killed and another seven injured during the week.

Moreover, three bullet-riddled dead bodies were recovered from Kurram Agency in FATA. In sum, the number of violent incidents increased from last week 41 to 57 during this week, the resultant death toll, also surged from 92 to 130 during the current week, while the number of wounded increased from 27 to 189.

A concise look into the trends and territory of violence suggests that the deadly spate of ethno-political violence continues to undermine the security landscape in the economic hub of Pakistan, Karachi. The city has emerged as the epicenter of persistent violence since March 2012.

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