Current Projects
Weekly Data Sheet – January 25-31, 2013
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – January 25-31, 2013
The wave of violence further escalated across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, continued unabated during the week, wherein 49 persons (45 in the last week) 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 244 persons lost their lives as a result of 99 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 110 people injured. As in case of preceding weeks, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, as civilians accounted foralmost 48 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 117 civilians lost their lives and 57 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 115 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strike was reported during the week. Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants attacked one building in Balochistan, two passenger coaches in Sindh, three vehicles in FATA and a shop, girls– hostel and three power pylons in different parts of KP. Meanwhile, 6 sectarian attacksleft six persons dead in Karachi while four were injured in KP this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 36 percent, (21 percent of the total dead against last week 57 percent) during the current week. Overall, 56 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below). Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 55 incidents of target killings; 67 percent...
Weekly Data Sheet – January 18-24, 2013
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – January 18-24, 2013
The deadly wave of violence receded across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, surged substantially during the week, wherein 45 persons (33 in the last week) were shot dead. 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 101 persons lost their lives as a result of 73 violent incidents around the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet). The violent incidents also left 45 people injured. Like in case of last week, civilians again bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein civilians accounted foralmost 84 percent of the total death toll. Numerically, 85 civilians were killed and 19 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds in the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 10 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 as militants attacked two school buses, a cellular tower, blew up three houses, five government schools and blew up seven shops in different parts of KP. Meanwhile, 12 sectarian attacksleft 13 dead, including one in KP and 12 in Karachi. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings increased by 16 percent, (57 percent of the total dead against last week 41 percent) during the current week. Overall, 43 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below). Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 32 incidents of target killings; 81 percent took place in Karachi alone,...
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – January 11-17, 2013
The overall level of violence increased substantially across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, continued unabated during the week, wherein 33 persons (compared to 29 in the last week) were killed. 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 251 persons were dead as a result of 50 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 457 people injured. As in case of preceding weeks, civilians were the major victim of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week. Civilians accounted foralmost 80 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 203 civilians lost their lives and 323 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofsecurity forces, wherein 35 security personnel got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, one CIA operated drone strike was also reported during the week, killing six suspected militants in North Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants attacked eight NATO containers and blew up a state department in Balochistan, a government school in FATA, blew up two check posts in KP and Balochistan. Meanwhile, sectarian attacksleft 128 persons dead as a result of three bomb blasts in Quetta and one bomb blast in KP. Most of the dead were from the Shia sect. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings decreased by six percent, (41 percent of the total dead against last week 47 percent) during the current week. Overall, 41 percent of the total violent...
Weekly Data Sheet – January 11-17, 2013
CRSS ED Imtiaz Gul to advise UN Rapporteur on Drones
Ben Emmerson QC, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, has picked up Imtiaz Gul, the executive director of the independent Centre of Research and Security Studies, as part of a group of international specialists who will examine CIA and Pentagon covert drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. The second Pakistan on the panel of experts isJustice Shah Jehan Khan Yousafzaiwhohas spent two decades assenior judgein the circuit of Peshawar high court, has heard high-profilelegal challengesto the drone campaign. Ben Emmerson announced the launch of the enquiry in London on Jan 24thsaying that those states using this technology and those on whose territory it is used are under an international law obligation to establish effective independent and impartial investigations into any drone attack in which it is plausibly alleged that civilian casualties were sustained.– Inclusion of two Pakistani experts i.e. Imtiaz Gul, a multiple author and security analyst,and Justice Shah Jehan Khan Yousafzai, who boasts a long legal career plus an in-depth understanding of the implications of the controversial drone strikes underscorea growing international appreciation of the public resentment of the CIA-operated drone strikes. CRSS helped Emmerson in compiling cases wherein innocent people, mostly women and children, became victims of the predator attacks. One area the inquiry is expected to examine is the deliberate targeting of rescuers and funeral-goers by the CIA in Pakistan, as revealed in aninvestigationby the Bureau for the Sunday Times. Emmerson recalled that the Bureau had (in October 2012)alleged that since President Obama took office at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims and more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. Christof Heyns [UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing] … has described such attacks, if they prove to have...
India-Pakistan Tensions: Brinkmanship?
The events that followed a series of controversial incidents on the Line of Control beginning on January 6 lead to an obvious conclusion: the ups and downs that the Pakistan-India relations suffer from every now and then stem from deep-rooted bilateral mistrust, if not hatred and dislike with in certain segments of the Indian society. Within a span of 12 days, almost all those who matter in India - from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Sushma Sauraj to the army chief inter alia - took umbrage to the incidents on the Line of Control, vowing revenge. Then came the turnaround. "It is unfortunate that out of context debates take place in the media. But the media is free. You have to take the good and bad of the media if you believe in a free society. But we are not going to be influenced necessarily by jingoistic conversations that take place on some sections of the media," India's External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told Karan Thapar on CNN IBN'sDevil's Advocateprogramme (January 20). Asked if the peace process had been put on hold, the minister said, "I don't think so. I think the peace process is going well. What our indication is, we have got back on track quite a bit. I don't even know to what extent we had gone off track but certainly there was a sense that we were slipping." Only two days earlier, Khurshid had offloaded his anger by describing the alleged beheading of an Indian soldier as "absolutely unacceptable, ghastly, and really, really terrible and extremely short-sighted on their part". He said any response would be "proportionate". This assessment on January 20 sounded ridiculous and paradoxical to earlier pronouncements. One simply cannot dismiss as a teenager's reckless rhetoric what the Indian civilian and military leaders harped on for several days. It is therefore instructive to revisit what Indian leaders said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: "Those responsible for this crime will have to be brought to book. It can't be business as usual."...
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – January 04-10, 2013
Weekly Data Sheet – January 04-10, 2013
The wave of violence further escalated across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, continued unabated during the week, wherein 29 persons (32 in the last week) 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 153 persons lost their lives as a result of 70 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 83 people injured. Like in case of preceding weeks, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, as civilians accounted foralmost 50 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 76 civilians lost their lives and 50 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities were ofmilitants, wherein 72 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, six CIA operated drone strikes were also reported during the week, killing 36 suspected militants in different areas of North and South Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants blew up a portion of gas pipeline in Dear Bugti (Balochistan), three power pylons, a grid station,two government schools, an under construction jail, a hujra(place of gathering), and eight shops in different areas across the country. Meanwhile, four sectarian attacksleft five people, including two Shias and three Sunnis, dead in different parts of the country this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings increased by 11 percent, (47 percent of the total dead against last week 36 percent) during the...
TOP STORIES
TESTIMONIALS
“
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.