The overall wave of violence further increased substantially across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the economic hub, Karachi, significantly decreased during the week, wherein 17 persons (23 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 205 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 45 people injured.

In contrary to the preceding week, militants were the major target of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein militants accounted foralmost 68 percent of the total death toll during the course of week. Numerically, 143 militants were killed and five others injured in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. This week the number of fatalities ofsecurity forces and civilians remained the same that is 31. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strike was carried out during the week. Meanwhile eight sabotage campaigns were carried out by the militants to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability. Militants blew up railway track and two gas pipelines in Balochistan and Government College and four shops in KP.

In a sectarian attack a cleric was killed in KP this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 13 percent, (11 percent of the total dead against last week 24 percent) during the current week. Overall, 35 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 19 incidents of target killings; 42 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 9 persons (41 percent of the total dead in target killings). Meanwhile 143 militants were killed in different incidents across the country. On the whole, militant casualties were 70 percent of the total death toll. Also, 31 security personnel were killed and eight others were injured during the week.

Moreover, 11 bullet-riddled dead bodies were recovered across the country, of which eight from Sindh and one from KP and two from Punjab. In sum, the number of violent incidents decreased slightly from 57 reported during last week to 55 during this week. The resultant death toll, increased significantly from 71 to 205 during the current week, and the number of wounded decreased from 90 to 45. After a peaceful week in terms of recovery of dead bodies, this week the number surged up. The situation in Tirah remained severe as Ansar ul islam, pro-government organization, failed to contain Lashkar-e-Islam. Security forces stepped into the situation. Gun battles, bombings and shelling left numerous numbers of militants dead. They account for the majority of dead in current weeks figures– of death toll. However the civilian causalities decreased significantly.

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