The raging wave of violence de-escalated slightly across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, also subsided during the week, wherein 28 persons (49 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 183 persons lost their lives as a result of 68 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 111 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 foralmost 54 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 100 civilians lost their lives and 89 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 60 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, one CIA operated drone strike was also reported during the week, killing 6 suspected militants in North Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants blew up 8 shops in KP and torched 6 vehicles in FATA.

Meanwhile, 6 sectarian attacksleft 37 dead, including 2 Shia men in Karachi and 30 in KP, this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 5 percent, (16 percent of the total dead against last week 21 percent) during the current week. Overall, 41 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 28 incidents of target killings; 46 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 15 persons (51 percent of the total dead in target killings). Meanwhile 64 militants were killed in different incidents across the country. On the whole, militant casualties were 35 percent of the total death toll. Also, 19 security personnel were killed and 17 other injured during the week.

Moreover, 16 bullet-riddled dead bodies were recovered, of which 1 from FATA, 2 from Balochistan and 13 from Karachi. In sum, the number of violent incidents decreased from last week 99 to 68 during this week, the resultant death toll, also decreased from 244 to 183 during the current week, while the number of wounded decreased from 110 to 111. 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 across Pakistan, Karachi. During the week, sectarian clashes resulted in the death of dozens of Shia men across Pakistan and the trend underscore that sectarian violence is not going anywhere, despite the government claims to curtail it.

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