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 killings). Meanwhile 12 militants were killed in different incidents across the country. On the whole, militant casualties were 12 percent of the total death toll. Also, nine security personnel were killed and five others were injured during the week.

Moreover, 11 bullet-riddled dead bodies were recovered across the country, of which eight from Sindh and three from FATA. In sum, the number of violent incidents increased slightly from 52 reported during last week to 74 during this week. The resultant death toll, increased significantly from 68 to 99 during the current week, and the number of wounded increased from 152 to 238. An up surge is apparent in the pre-poll violent activities this week. Candidates of different parties were targeted either through bombs or grenade attack or through firing. Their security holds a major part in conducting peaceful elections. Militants had a stance to keep away the liberal democratic parties from election process. On one hand, it is a huge threat to the law and order situation. On the other hand, peaceful transfer of power through democratically held elections.

Sources

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