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Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – March 22-28, 2013
The raging wave of violence receded across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the economic hub, Karachi, significantly decreased during the week, wherein 29 persons (40 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 127 persons lost their lives as a result of 66 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 130 people injured. In contrary to the preceding weeks, militants were the major target of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein civilians accounted foralmost 61 percent of the total death toll during the course of week. Numerically, 78 civilians were killed and 87 others injured in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofsecurity forces, wherein 27 lost their lives and 43 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 two gas pipelines in Balochistan, two rail tracks and gas pipeline in Sindh, Basic Health Unit and filling station in FATA, and two schools in FATA and KP. Meanwhile, only one sectarian attack in KP left one dead this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings increased spike substantially by 12 percent, (37 percent of the total dead against last week 25 percent) during the current week. Overall, 58 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below). Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 38 incidents of target...
The Great Drone Debate
Unmanned aviation systems, popularly known as drones, are playing an increased role in armed conflicts.1 They are used both for collect­ing intelligence and for deploying lethal force. In 2007 there were 74 U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan.2 That year, there were five strikes in Pakistan.3 By 2012, the American military was executing an average of 33 drone strikes per month in Afghanistan, and the total number in Pakistan has now surpassed 330.4 Recently the United States has proposed further expanding its deployment of drones, developing plans to set up additional Predator drone bases in Africa that would allow these drones to cover much of the Saharan region.5 Drones have been employed in multiple theaters of the counterterrorism campaign, including Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Libya. They are now included in the arsenal of many nations including Israel, China, and Iran. They have even been operated by a non-state actor, Hezbollah, which has flown at least two drones over Israel.6 Several nations are currently developing drones that will be able to carry out highly-specialized missions, for instance tiny drones able to enter constricted areas through narrow passages. If the American military continues to move away from deploying conventional forces on the ground (in Iraq and Afghanistan) to a 'light footprint' strategy of 'offshore balancing' (as employed in Libya), drones are likely to play an even more important role in future armed conflicts. Like other new armaments (e.g., long-range cruise missiles and high-altitude carpet bombing) the growing use of drones has triggered a considerable debate over the moral and legal grounds on which they are used. This debate is next reviewed. Excessive Collateral Damage? Critics argue that a large number of civilians, including women and children, are killed by drones. Some hold that the number of civilians killed amounts to an overwhelming majority of all those killed. Syed Munawar Hasan, who heads the influential...
Weekly Data Sheet – March 15-21, 2013
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – March 15-21, 2013
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...
Weekly Data Sheet – March 08-14, 2013
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – March 08-14, 2013
The raging wave of violence receded across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the economic hub, Karachi, significantly decreased during the week, wherein 38 persons (compared to 96 last week)were perished. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodiescontinued to mount death toll during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 142 persons lost their lives as a result of 53 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 100 people injured. As in case of preceding weeks, civilians were the major target of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein civilians accounted foralmost 47 percent of the total death toll during the course of week. Numerically, 61 civilians lost their lives and 61 others injured in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 61 militants werekilled under different circumstances. Furthermore, in a CIA operated drone strike two men were killed during the week. Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability continued as militants blew up a power pylon in Balochistan and one school, two houses and two shops in KP. Meanwhile, two sectarian attacksleft two dead in Karachi this week. The loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 10 percent, (23 percent of the total dead against last week 33 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 29 incidents of target killings; 48 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 11 persons (33 percent of the total dead in target...
Strange bedfellows
Five US troops were killed in a helicopter crash and two American soldiers died in a green-on-blue attack on March 11, making it the deadliest day for the United States in Afghanistan this year so far. Last year, attacks by Afghan troops or police took at least 31 US lives. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel left Afghanistan at dawn the same day, after he described events in the country as complicated. "We are still in a war," he said. Hagel also snubbed Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had accused the US of "collusion with the Taliban" and also told US troops to leave the Maidan Wardak province, next to Kabul, by March 10 following angry protests by villagers. Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, during his recent interaction with journalists and writers, had already cautioned that with an insecure fated-to-exit Karzai becoming increasingly unpredictable, Washington and other NATO countries needed deft diplomacy to preempt mischief. The war of words that erupted in Kabul between the increasingly confrontational "lame-duck" president Karzai and the US-NATO military, as well as the cancellation of their joint press conference, underscored the intensity of another phase of conflict that stares at Afghanistan. In a readjustment of policy, the US military announced over the weekend it had stopped publishing monthly data on drone strikes because it made them "disproportionately focused". Missile attacks are made in only 3 percent of unmanned aerial vehicle sorties, according to CNN. Incumbents in Kabul and Washington appear to be at daggers drawn - both driven by their own objectives and deadlines, but discernible from almost every press dispatch out of Kabul, the progress on the Pakistan-US front offers reasons for comfort, if not rejoice. We are on the same page as far as reconciliation is concerned. The Doha process is on track, fully backed by Pakistan, while the US itself appears totally reconcilable with the inevitability of Islamabad's support in...
Weekly Data Sheet – March 01-07, 2013
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – March 01-07, 2013
The overall level of violence escalated significantly across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the economic hub, Karachi, surged during the week, wherein 96 persons (compared to 51 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 169 persons lost their lives as a result of 84 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The incidents also left 188 people injured. As in case of preceding weeks, civilians were the major target of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein civilians accounted foralmost 70 percent of the total death toll during the course of week. Numerically, 119 civilians lost their lives and 164 others injured in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 41 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strike was reported during the week in any part of the country. Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability continued as militants blew up five schools in KP, two CD shops, in FATA and torched 12 Vehicles in Sindh. Meanwhile, 5 sectarian attacksleft 54 dead in Karachi and one dead in KP this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 15 percent, (33 percent of the total dead against last week 48 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 46 incidents of target killings; 74 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 41 persons...
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Monthly Report – February 2013
The month of February witnessed unprecedented 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 killings in Karachi, started in the last week of March previous year, continued to mount death toll during February. This deadly wave left almost 181 persons dead during the current month. In total, 214 persons perished in Karachi during February under different circumstances. The data collected throughten newspapers, that CRSS uses as the source, suggests that some 731 people lost their lives in 343 incidents of violence across the country (for details see data sheet). The violent clashes also left 573 people injured. A concise look into the casualty figures underlines that the civilians remained the major target of violent actors accounting for major loss of lives.. As noted in pie chart I below, civilians were 64 percent of the total dead in February. The share of the civilian deaths is nearly the same as in the last month with slight decrease in civilian deaths, wherein 64 percent of the dead were innocent civilians. On the whole, 472 civilians were killed in different circumstances during the month. Moreover, the data also suggests that the militants fighting against the state remained the second major target i.e. 28 percent (203) of the total dead. Clashes also left 56 security forces– personnel (eight percent of total deaths) dead that were mostly recorded in insurgency infested areas of FATA, Karachi and Balochistan. Furthermore, during February, two CIA operated drone strikes were reported in different areas of North Waziristan Agency (FATA), leaving as many as 14 suspected militants dead. Between March 2012 and February 2013, 51 drone attacks have killed almost 351 suspected militants. Meanwhile, continuing their sabotage campaign to...
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TESTIMONIALS
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I am also a member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting. Recently, we held a meeting with the Director General of Radio Pakistan and we told them to initiate such local programs (like Constituency Hour) in regional languages to educate and inform people. Even Indian Radio can be heard in FATA which is being used for propaganda purposes and must be closed. Therefore, we should launch some standard and quality programs like CRSS that will change the taste of the listeners.