After witnessing a marked drop in fatalities from violence during last year, the trend continued, despite a sudden upturn in violence during the second month in this quarter. The CPEC initiative, foreign intervention, and security lapses were some factors that led the militants and their supporters to strike using new strategies. Of all the regions in Pakistan, only Sindh showed an upsurge, when compared to data from last year’s first quarter. Every other province/region had declining amounts of violence-related casualties.
While the ongoing military operation against outlaws forced the militant outfits like Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Islami (LI), and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) to go into hiding, Da’ish (or Islamic State (IS)) also made itself known by claiming major suicide attacks at two Sufi shrines in Sindh and Balochistan.
In February, eleven coordinated attacks were reported across the country. Having lost thousands of militants in security operations, and with thousands more in custody, the militant ability to continue with such attacks was viewed as a shocking development and unprecedented given Pakistan’s recent gains.
Overall, the security situation continues to improve, although we are seeing more of a plateau in progress, as expected. It is hoped that with kinetic gains, the state apparatus also focuses on the softer side of things to try and eliminate extremism, which is the root cause of terrorism in the country.
To assess and evaluate what new challenges and threats are being faced by the country, this report makes use of the national print and electronic media sources. CRSS endeavors to ensure that the data is as accurate as possible within the available resources. However, it does not rule out errors and omissions, which are always a possibility in such public-source statistical work. Such mistakes, nevertheless, do not grossly affect the overall outcome and conclusions of this report. It must also be said that this work cannot take into account incidents of violence-related fatalities and casualties that go unreported.
Readers can approach CRSS for information related to this report. Alternately, you may send your queries to mail@crss.pk, directly to Mohammad Nafees, Senior Research Fellow, CRSS – the author of the report (mohammad.nafees@yahoo.com), or Zeeshan Salahuddin, Senior Research Fellow.