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Pakistan Conflict Tracker Monthly Report – April 2013

April witnessed considerable up surge in violence across Pakistan. Ethno-political violence in Karachi, religio-terrorism in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and nationalist-separatist violence in Balochistan, meanwhile continued unabated. The deadly wave of target killing in Karachi, started in the last week of March 2013, continue to mount death toll during April. The deadly wave left almost 100 persons dead (due to target killing) during the current month. Most of the persons perished in Karachi during April in different circumstances. The data collected throughten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, suggests that some 533 people lost their lives in 244 incidents of violence across the country (for details see data sheet). The violent clashes also left 520 people injured only in April. A concise look into the casualty figures underlines that the civilians remained the major target of violent actors, as a result of various acts of violence and terror in Pakistan. As noted in pie chart I below, civilians were 46 per cent (64 percent in last month) of the total dead in April. As a whole 241 civilians were killed in different circumstances during the month. Moreover, the data suggests that the militants fighting against the state remained the second major target i.e. 38 percent (199) of the total dead. Clashes also left 80 security forces– personnel (16 percent of total deaths) dead and these were mostly recorded in insurgency infested areas of FATA, Karachi and Baluchistan. Furthermore, during April, two CIA operated drone strikes were reported in different areas of FATA, leaving as many as 13 suspected militants dead. Meanwhile, continuing their sabotage campaign to demolish state infrastructure, militants blew up five state run and private schools and 38 other sort of infrastructure in different parts of FATA, Baluchistan, Sindh and KP during the course of month. In contrary to preceding months, in April again,...

Weekly Data Sheet – April 26 – May 02, 2013

Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – April 26 – May 02, 2013

The raging wave of violence substantially escalated across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the economic hub, Karachi, increased during the week, wherein 45 persons (27 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 99 persons lost their lives as a result of 74 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 238 people injured. As in the case of preceding week, civilians were the major target of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein civilians accounted foralmost 80 percent of the total death toll during the course of week. Numerically, 79 civilians were killed in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. This week the number of fatalities ofsecurity forces was nine and militants were 12. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strike was carried out during the week. Meanwhile three sabotage campaigns were carried out by the militants to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability. Militants blew up four election offices in KP, FATA and Balochistan, a railway track in Sindh and three schools and two Hujras of ANP workers in KP. In two sectarian attacks a member of Sunni Tehreek was killed in Sindh this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings slightly decreased (31 percent of the total dead against last week 32 percent) during the current week. Overall, 39 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below). Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 25 incidents of target killings; 62 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 19 persons (61 percent of the total dead in target...

Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province under Siege

Pakistan's area-wise largest southwestern Balochistan has been in the grip of a bloody secessionist, ethnic Baloch-led insurgency for decades. The latest insurgency began in August 2006 with the mysterious killing of a tribal chief and former governor Nawab Akbar Bugti. This sparked a new cycle of insurgency that continues to date and has claimed hundreds of lives. Nationalist separatists have also been warning political parties and people at large to stay away from the May 11 elections. The province which was known to the world for its nautral resources today faces a ruthless insurgency, compounded by an abysmal governance and an extremely indifferent civilian and military ruling elite now a days. The breakdown of law and order in the province amounted to ultimate failure of the provincial government which, according to an October 2012 ruling by the apex Supreme Court, had lost 'constitutional authority' to continue. Balochistan has also seen a systematic terror campaing targetting shia-Hazara Muslim community, resulting in deaths of hundreds of innocent shia Muslims. General Introduction to Balochistan The population of Pakistan area-wise largest province stands at slightly over 13 Million (according to 2011 estimates, daily The News, April 05, 2012). Reeling from a security crisis and plagued by misgovernance, Balochistan currently faces multiple socio-political challenges. Decades of socio-political neglect, economic injustices, under-development and the tribal make-up of the society has turned it into Pakistan 'soft belly' ´ reeling from the consequences of a raging Baloch insurgency ( both subversion of utility infrastructure as well as kill and dump pro-government Baloch leaders, the military brutal response to it (kill and dump) , wave of anti-shia sectarian violence (that spiked in 2012 with hundreds of target-killings), abysmal mis-governance and rampant crime under political patronage. The apex Court, in an October 2012 ruling on the Law and Order...

Pakistan's Baluchistan Province under Siege

Pakistan's area-wise largest southwestern Balochistan has been in the grip of a bloody secessionist, ethnic Baloch-led insurgency for decades. The latest insurgency began in August 2006 with the mysterious killing of a tribal chief and former governor Nawab Akbar Bugti. This sparked a new cycle of insurgency that continues to date and has claimed hundreds of lives. Nationalist separatists have also been warning political parties and people at large to stay away from the May 11 elections. The province which was known to the world for its nautral resources today faces a ruthless insurgency, compounded by an abysmal governance and an extremely indifferent civilian and military ruling elite now a days. The breakdown of law and order in the province amounted to ultimate failure of the provincial government which, according to an October 2012 ruling by the apex Supreme Court, had lost 'constitutional authority' to continue. Balochistan has also seen a systematic terror campaing targetting shia-Hazara Muslim community, resulting in deaths of hundreds of innocent shia Muslims. General Introduction to Balochistan The population of Pakistan area-wise largest province stands at slightly over 13 Million (according to 2011 estimates, daily The News, April 05, 2012). Reeling from a security crisis and plagued by misgovernance, Balochistan currently faces multiple socio-political challenges. Decades of socio-political neglect, economic injustices, under-development and the tribal make-up of the society has turned it into Pakistan 'soft belly' ´ reeling from the consequences of a raging Baloch insurgency ( both subversion of utility infrastructure as well as kill and dump pro-government Baloch leaders, the military brutal response to it (kill and dump) , wave of anti-shia sectarian violence (that spiked in 2012 with hundreds of target-killings), abysmal mis-governance and rampant crime under political patronage. The apex Court, in an October 2012 ruling on the Law and Order...

Pakistan Conflict Tracker Data Sheet – January – April 2013

Pakistan Conflict Tracker Report – January – April 2013

The first four months of the year 2013, witnessed unprecedented surge in violence across Pakistan. Accompanied by an unusual escalation in attacks on political parties– offices and their candidates in the month of April, the ethno-political violence in Karachi, religio-political terrorism in the northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and nationalist-separatist violence in Balochistan, continued to surge. The deadly wave of target killing in Sindh took over 701 lives. The data that the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) collected throughopen sources, suggests that some 2674 people lost their lives in 1108 incidents of violence across the country (for details see data sheet). The violent clashes also left 2386 people injured from January to April 2013. A closer look into the casualty figures underlines that the civilians remained the major target of violent actors, with the civilians accounting for about 1542 deaths. Moreover, the data suggests that the militants fighting against the state emerged as the second major target i.e. 856 casualties. Clashes with militants, target-killings or ambushes of military convoys also left 276 security forces– personnel dead, mostly recorded in insurgency infested areas of FATA, Karachi and Balochistan. Furthermore, during the four months under review, as many as 12 CIA operated drone strike were reported in different areas of North Waziristan Agency (FATA), leaving about 71 suspected militants dead. Between March 2012 and February 2013, 51 drone attacks had killed over 351 suspected militants. Meanwhile, continuing their sabotage campaign against state infrastructure, militants blew up 39 state run and private schools in different parts of FATA, Balochistan and KP during the course of four months. As a whole target killing topped as the major cause of deaths. Pie chart II above shows that 45 percent of all the violent incidents were of target killing in nature. Karachi...

Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws

An Overview Religion has been one of the most sensitive issues for the communities living in the Indian sub-continent. During the British colonial rule, too, India experienced several religious riots which necessitated the enactment of ¿Blasphemy Laws.– It was in fact the absence of an appropriate law to handle blasphemy offenses committed in the written format that led the British India Government to introduce the Blasphemy Law 295-A in 1927.Following the partition of the sub-continent into India and Pakistan in 1947, the latter inherited and retained these laws. The lethal blend of politics and religious extremism was also evident in most of the communal riots and sacrilegious acts (directed at one or the other religion or its followers) that took place before and after the creation of Pakistan. The cause was a few sacrilegious offences committed by one religious community that offended the other community ´ triggering a chain of events that resulted in targeted murders or communal riots. Despite the presence of a legal framework, violence rooted in or flowing from faith continued unabated in Pakistan, whereby conservative religio-political parties faced no systemic hurdle in perpetuating hate-speech and sowing seeds of communal and sectarian hatred. In 1974, the then government led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto caved in to pressures by religio-political and declared the minority Ahmadis sect as non-Muslim. Real religiousization of state and its legal framework, however, began under former military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq who enforced controversial regulations he called 'Islamic.' This laid foundations for religious radicalization within the society, precipitated by the US-led anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Gen Zia also added radical Ahmadi-specific clauses into the blasphemy laws which have often been exploited by religious extremists or even individuals to settle personal feuds, and thus condemning the accused to years of imprisonment and tedious...

Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws

An Overview Religion has been one of the most sensitive issues for the communities living in the Indian sub-continent. During the British colonial rule, too, India experienced several religious riots which necessitated the enactment of ¿Blasphemy Laws.– It was in fact the absence of an appropriate law to handle blasphemy offenses committed in the written format that led the British India Government to introduce the Blasphemy Law 295-A in 1927.Following the partition of the sub-continent into India and Pakistan in 1947, the latter inherited and retained these laws. The lethal blend of politics and religious extremism was also evident in most of the communal riots and sacrilegious acts (directed at one or the other religion or its followers) that took place before and after the creation of Pakistan. The cause was a few sacrilegious offences committed by one religious community that offended the other community ´ triggering a chain of events that resulted in targeted murders or communal riots. Despite the presence of a legal framework, violence rooted in or flowing from faith continued unabated in Pakistan, whereby conservative religio-political parties faced no systemic hurdle in perpetuating hate-speech and sowing seeds of communal and sectarian hatred. In 1974, the then government led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto caved in to pressures by religio-political and declared the minority Ahmadis sect as non-Muslim. Real religiousization of state and its legal framework, however, began under former military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq who enforced controversial regulations he called 'Islamic.' This laid foundations for religious radicalization within the society, precipitated by the US-led anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Gen Zia also added radical Ahmadi-specific clauses into the blasphemy laws which have often been exploited by religious extremists or even individuals to settle personal feuds, and thus condemning the accused to years of imprisonment and tedious...