In the current week, the violence subsided as compared to the previous week. The spree of target killing continued unabated in the largest metropolis of Pakistan, Karachi during the week: where the killing of a member of ethnic political party (Muthida Qaumi Movement, MQM) unleashed an awful cycle of violence in the city in the last week of March. During the week, 43 people were killed in Karachi as a result of 28 incidents of violence. The data collected through different sources suggests that 107 people lost their lives in 51 incidents of violence across the country, and once again it was the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and tribal regions, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) which witnessed majority of violence during the course of the week (for details see data sheet). The violent clashes also left 56 people injured across the country. Number of injured fell remarkably from last week 107 to 56 this week. Unlike previous week five sectarian attacks, which killed 23 injured 54 others, the current week witnessed one sectarian attack in Balochistan in which six people belonging to Shia community of Hazara were killed.

Just like the previous week, it was the civilians again who bore the brunt of the ongoing violent conflicts of various types, as 67 civilians perished and 29 others were wounded in different violent incidents. Militants suffered the second highest number of causalities with 23 killed and eighteen others injured, mostly as a result of military-militants– collisions in different areas of KP and FATA region. Furthermore, like the previous two weeks of March, the current week marked no CIA operated drone strike in any part of FATA. The sabotage attacks by the militants however continued this week as well, as two more government schools were blown up in KP province and FATA.

Target killings remained the major weapon of miscreants to inflict maximum human cost for the consecutive sixth week, as once again 82 percent of the total civilian causalities were a result of the wave of target killings thrashing Pakistan. 65 people lost their lives in 39 incidents of target killings while 17 others were critically wounded. Of these, 71 percent of the incidents were recorded in Karachi alone, claiming 66 percent of the total loss of lives and wounding 16 others. The number of clashes between militants and security forces declined slightly, as 22 percent of the total causalities were reported due to military-militants– clashes in KP and FATA regions.

The pie chart depicts that though a number of tools were used by miscreants, the target killing proved to be the most effective one constituting 60 percent of the total death toll. After target killings military vs. militants– clashes remained the second major cause of deaths as 22 militants and two soldiers were killed and ten others were injured. Seven dead bodies, all of them civilians, were also recovered from different areas of Balochistan, KP and FATA areas.

Overall, although, the number of violent incidents surged slightly ´ 51 against last week 42 during the current week, the number of deaths however declined considerably from last week 107 to 135 this week. Furthermore, 615 people were perished and 340 were wounded as a result of 202 violent incidents in the span of past four weeks. Most of the dead were militants and civilians, and the ongoing military operations in KP and FATA were the major cause of these deaths.

Sources

1. The News
2. Dawn
3. The Express Tribune
4. Pakistan Today
5. Daily Times
6. Dateline Islamabad
7. The Frontier Post
8. Jang (Urdu)
9. Daily Mashriq (Urdu)
10. Aaj (Urdu)