The deadly wave of violence escalated across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the economic hub, Karachi, significantly decreased during the week, wherein 40 persons (compared to 38 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 182 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 107 people injured.

Contrary to the preceding weeks, militants were the major target of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein militants accounted foralmost 61 percent of the total death toll during the course of week. Numerically, 111 militants were killed and 26 others injured in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofcivilians, wherein 65 civilians lost their lives and 67 sustained injuries under different circumstances. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strike was carried out during the week. Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability continued as militants blew up a gas pipeline in Balochistan, four CD shops, one cellular tower and shop in KP and three schools and two Hujras in FATA and KP.

Meanwhile, four sectarian attacksleft three dead in Karachi and one in KP this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings increased slightly by two percent, (25 percent of the total dead against last week 23 percent) during the current week. Overall, 55 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 37 incidents of target killings; 51 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 24 persons (52 percent of the total dead in target killings). Meanwhile 111 militants were killed in different incidents across the country. On the whole, militant casualties were 61 percent of the total death toll. Also, six security personnel were killed and 14 others were injured during the week.

Moreover, 9 bullet-riddled dead bodies were recovered across the country, of which two were from Balochistan and seven from Karachi. In sum, the number of violent incidents decreased from 53 reported during last week to 68 during this week. The resultant death toll, increased from 142 to 182 during the current week, and the number of wounded slightly decreased from 100 to 107. A peer into the trends and territory of violence suggests that the deadly wave of ethno-political, going on in Karachi and Quetta, has effectively taken over the once hub of bloodbath i.e. FATA and KP in recent months. Surprisingly this week saw the significant decrease in recovery of dead bodies from across the country. Secondly the militants– causality rate surged up because of suicide attacks and clashes between Ansarul Islam and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. A concise look into the trends of violence suggests that the terrorist activities continued to undermine the security situation in 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