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Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – November 30 – December 06, 2012
The wave of violence surged significantly across Pakistan during the current week. The spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, also escalated sharply during the week, wherein 25 persons (compared to five last week) perished and another four got injured. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, armed clashes between militants and the security forces in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies-continued to mount misery during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers, that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 78 persons lost their lives as a result of 49 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 89 people injured. During the current week, civilians were the prime target of violent actors, as civilians accounted for56 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically speaking, 44 civilians lost their lives and 36 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of casualties, was ofmilitants, wherein 26 militants got killed and another 19 injured in violent clashes. Unlike the previous eight weeks when there was no report of CIA operated drone strike; this week two drone strikes were recorded, killing seven militants and injuring another four in Sheen Warsak area of South Waziristan Agency (FATA). Militants also blew up a power pylon of main electricity transmission line in Khairabad area of Nowshera district (KP) and two government schools in Hangu district and Mohmand Agency areas of KP and FATA. Meanwhile, three sectarian attacksleft eight persons, six Shia and two Sunnis, dead and another two Shia men injured in different areas of Karachi city (Sindh). Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings surged by 25 percent, (40 percent of the total dead against last week 15 percent) during the current week. Overall, 47...
CRSS team for ΓÇÿSocial Cohesion Analysis of Pakistan’ at work during the training workshop at CRSS office
Team members from Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan gathered in Islamabad to discuss strategy for primary data collection and management tools. The product of several dozen individual interviews, workshops and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) will be a comprehensive analysis of Pakistan's socio-political landscape as well as identification of structural and trigger factors of conflict in different regions of Pakistan.
CRSS team for ΓÇÿSocial Cohesion Analysis of Pakistan' at work during the training workshop at CRSS office
Team members from Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan gathered in Islamabad to discuss strategy for primary data collection and management tools. The product of several dozen individual interviews, workshops and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) will be a comprehensive analysis of Pakistan's socio-political landscape as well as identification of structural and trigger factors of conflict in different regions of Pakistan.
EU Recipe for Countering Creeping Radicalization
A recent workshop on Effective Programming for Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) at Brussels drew experts, academics and analysts from all over the world to provide practical ideas on how to programme, identify, formulate, implement, and evaluate European Union assistance on CVE. Most of the debate was premised on the recognition in the last decade or so that security measures hardly provide medium to long-term answer to the threat of terrorism, posed by 'self-radicalized' or 'homegrown' individuals and groups. This is often branded as 'violent extremism', that according to most western analysts, requires greater focus on prevention, or on countering the creeping extremism of minds. Experts also agreed that both structural and trigger factors i.e. reasons behind extremist attitudes - the push and the pull factors - need more attention; push factors - drivers of extremism - such as weak governance, political repression, unemployment, poverty and injustices serve as a magnet for the pull factors i.e. political or religious ideologies such as one espoused and propagated by al-Qaeda and its regional auxiliaries. Socio-political exclusion, identity crisis and careless branding of disenfranchised segments of the society ´ sandwiched between oppressive political systems and religious militants also facilitate the pull factors such as iconic or cult figures, perceived or obvious benefits of association with radical groups or networks, personal tragedies, experienced directly or otherwise by individuals, family or friends, or indirectly by a community with which they share an emotive bond, can also create powerful cognitive openings to prompt participation in violent activities. Essentially, most of what we heard at the Brussels workshop echoed the American narrative, heavily focused on phrases such as radicalization and recruitment, de-radicalization and disengagement. The gathering provided a good insight into the divide that exists between the West and the countries...
Weekly Data Sheet – November 23-29, 2012
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – November 23-29, 2012
The level of violence sharply receeded across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, also subsided substantially during the week, wherein five persons (compared to 19 last week) perished and another three got injured. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, armed clashes between militants and the security forces in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies continued to pile up misery during the week. The data collected throughten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 39 persons lost their lives as a result of 25 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 124 people injured. During the week, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing violence across the country they accounted for79 percent of the total fatalities. Numerically speaking, 31 civilians lost their lives and 118 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of casualties was ofmilitants, wherein five militants were killed in violent clashes. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strikewas recorded in any part of the country this week as well. Also no significant sabotage attack was reported in any part of the country this week; however four government schools were blown up by the militants in Kohat, Nowshera, Hangu and Mohmand Agency areas of KP and FATA. Meanwhile, sectarian violence continued to mount death toll across the country during the current week, as five sectarian attacksleft 17 Shia men dead, and another 104 injured in different areas of D.I. Khan (KP), Karachi (Sindh), and Quetta (Balochistan). Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings further dropped by 14 percent, (15 percent of the total dead against last week 29 percent) during the current week. Overall, 24 percent of the total violent...
EU Workshop on Effective Programming for Countering Violent Extremism
Brussels (November 26-27, 2012): Addressing the ¿EU Workshop on Effective Programming for Countering Violent Extremism– in Brussels (Belgium), CRSS Executive Director Imtiaz Gul said that our point of reference is the electronic media ´ both radio and television ´ which has flourished with astounding pace since former President Musharraf permitted private electronic media in almost a decade ago. Today more than 15 private news TV channels and almost 80 FM radio stations dominate the electronic media landscape in Pakistan. Although most limited to urban and sub-urban centres, the private 24/7 TV channels have assumed an unprecedented role in the Pakistani socio-political context,serving as a)social messenger b)mirror of political happenings and c) a two-way transmitter of state to society and society to state messaging on governance and rule of law. Because of the disconnect between society and the state that had existed for decades the media has done a very good job by transmitting signals to the state on what is happening in the society (crime., social injustices, graft, abuse of power, bad-governance, and excesses by the police, etc). This means acute transmission of negatives, an overdose of the bad around us. And media has facilitated things look more desperate, bred and spread sense of despondency. When it keeps capturing bad/negative, it reinforces the bad, the negative in the society. This also means that like any other institution, electronic media is reflective of what is happening across the society. If our premise today is that Pak society has become intolerant ´ the narrative or attitude that condones extremist views, or is militant in responses to particular situations, thenwe should also accept if media also reflects that ´ either intentionally or otherwise. It is not its fault: This sensational/juicy side of the 24/7 live TV brings its own problems. The scramble for exclusive/ on the spot coverage ´ is a demand of the owners, who often...
Weekly Data Sheet – November 16-22, 2012
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – November 16-22, 2012
The overall level of violence further escalated across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the unending spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, however substantially receeded during the week, wherein almost 19 persons (48 were dead in the last week) were perished and another 34 got injured. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, armed clashes between militants and the security forces in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies continued to pile up death toll during the week. The data collected throughten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 92 persons lost their lives as a result of 48 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 182 people injured. Like the preceding week, yet again, the civilians turned out to be the major victims of the persistent wave of violence across Pakistan during the week, as civilians accounted for 71 percent of the total fatalities across Pakistan. Numerically speaking, 66 civilians lost their lives and 141 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of casualties was ofsecurity forces personnel, wherein 16 forces personnel were killed and another 29 got injured in violent clashes. Furthermore, for fourth week in a row no CIA operated drone strikewas recorded in any part of the country. Also no significant sabotage attack was reported in any part of the country this week; however three schools were blown up by the militants in Tank, Charsadda and Kotkai areas of KP and FATA. Death toll due to sectarian violence further surged during the week, as seven sectarian attacksleft 30 Shia men dead, and another 98 injured in different areas of Karachi (Sindh), Rawalpindi (Punjab) and Quetta (Balochistan). Meanwhile, the loss of lives due to target killings dropped by 35 percent, (29 percent...
Pakistan Conflict Tracker Weekly Report – November 09-15, 2012
The raging wave of violence receded significantly across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the unending spate of Ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, however surged substantially during the week, wherein almost 48 persons (compared to 36 last week) perished and another 41 got injured. Also, the wave of bomb blasts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), armed clashes between militants and the security forces in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies continued to mount death toll. The data collected throughten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 84 persons lost their lives as a result of 61 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 116 people injured. As a common trend witnessed in the past several weeks, thecivilians bore the major brunt ofthe ongoing conflicts in the country this as civilians accounted for 72 percent of the total fatalities across Pakistan. Numerically speaking, 61 civilians lost their lives and 65 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of casualties were ofmilitants, wherein 15 militants were killed and another 19 got injured in violent clashes. Furthermore, for a third consecutive week, no CIA operated drone strikewas recorded in any part of the country. Also no significant sabotage attack was reported in any part of the country. Death toll due to sectarian violence surged sharply during the week, as 18 sectarian attacksleft 28 men dead, 19 Shia and nine Sunni, and another 20 injured (five Shia and 15 Sunni) in different areas of Karachi (Sindh) and Quetta (Balochistan). Meanwhile, the loss of lives due to target killings surged sharply by 23 percent, (64 percent of the total dead against last week 41 percent) during the current week. Overall, 70 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin...
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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.