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 49 persons (45 in the last week) 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 244 persons lost their lives as a result of 99 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 110 people injured.

As 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 foralmost 48 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 117 civilians lost their lives and 57 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 115 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strike was reported during the week. Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants attacked one building in Balochistan, two passenger coaches in Sindh, three vehicles in FATA and a shop, girls– hostel and three power pylons in different parts of KP.

Meanwhile, 6 sectarian attacksleft six persons dead in Karachi while four were injured in KP this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 36 percent, (21 percent of the total dead against last week 57 percent) during the current week. Overall, 56 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 55 incidents of target killings; 67 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 35 persons (67 percent of the total dead in target killings). Meanwhile 115 militants were killed in different incidents across the country. On the whole, militant casualties were 47 percent of the total death toll. Also, 12 security personnel were killed and 23 others were injured during the week.

Moreover, 19 bullet-riddled dead bodies were recovered, of which two from FATA, five from KP, five from Karachi, two from Punjab and seven from Balochistan. In sum, the number of violent incidents increased from last week 73 to 99 during this week, the resultant death toll, significantly increased from 101 to 244 during the current week, while the number of wounded also increased from 46 to 110. A concise look into the trends and territory of violence suggests that the deadly wave of violence continues to undermine the security landscape across Pakistan.

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