The wave of violence surged significantly across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, also continued unabated during the week, wherein 27 persons perished and another three got injured. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies continued to mount the death toll. The data collected through10 newspapers, that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 84 persons lost their lives as a result of 44 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 159 people injured.

Like the preceding week, yet again, the civilians turned out to be the major victim of the persistent wave of violence across Pakistan during the current week, as civilians accounted for73 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically speaking, 61 civilians lost their lives and 143 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 14 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, unlike the preceding week, no CIA operated drone strikes was recorded in any part of the country this week. In continuation of their campaign to demolish state infrastructure, militants blew up a telephone exchange and a mobile tower in Lachi town area of Kohat district (KP) and a government school in Behram Killay area of Nowshera district (KP).

Meanwhile, one sectarian attackleft a person, belonging to Sunni sect, dead in Karachi city (Sindh) this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings dropped by 14 percent, (39 percent of the total dead against last week 53 percent) during the current week. Overall, 66 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; a staggering 65 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 20 persons (61 percent of the total dead in target killings). Meanwhile nine militants were killed and four got injured in three military operations in different areas of the country. On the whole, militant casualties were 17 percent of the total death toll. Also, nine security personnel were killed and another 12 injured during the week.

Also, 11 dead bodies, including three of security forces personnel, were recovered from Karachi (Sindh), Quetta (Balochistan) and Bara tehsil of FATA. In sum, the number of violent incidents remained the same as in the last week 44, the resultant death toll, however surged from 57 to 84 during the current week, while the number of wounded increased from 42 to 159.

A concise look into the trends and territory of violence suggests that the deadly spate of ethno-political violence continues to grip the economic hub of Pakistan. The city is rapidly emerging as the hub of invariable violence involving multiple actors and overlapping factors. Also in order to sabotage the polio vaccination campaign, nine polio vaccinators were shot dead (five in Karachi, one in Peshawar, and three in Charsadda) during the course of the week. The recent surge in attacks against people involved in polio vaccination campaign will potentially harm the aim of fighting and eradicating polio in Pakistan.

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