The raging wave of violence receded across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the economic hub, Karachi, significantly decreased during the week, wherein 38 persons (compared to 96 last week)were perished. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, spree of target killings and the recovery of mutilated dead bodiescontinued to mount death toll during the week. The data collected through10 newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 142 persons lost their lives as a result of 53 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 100 people injured.

As in case of preceding weeks, civilians were the major target of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, wherein civilians accounted foralmost 47 percent of the total death toll during the course of week. Numerically, 61 civilians lost their lives and 61 others injured in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities was ofmilitants, wherein 61 militants werekilled under different circumstances. Furthermore, in a CIA operated drone strike two men were killed during the week. Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability continued as militants blew up a power pylon in Balochistan and one school, two houses and two shops in KP.

Meanwhile, two sectarian attacksleft two dead in Karachi this week. The loss of lives due to target killings decreased by 10 percent, (23 percent of the total dead against last week 33 percent) during the current week. Overall, 55 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; 48 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 11 persons (33 percent of the total dead in target killings). Meanwhile 61 militants were killed in different incidents across the country. On the whole, militant casualties were 43 percent of the total death toll. Also, 12 security personnel were killed and nine others were injured during the week.

Moreover, 23 bullet-riddled dead bodies were recovered across the country, of which two from Balochistan, three from KP, and 18 from Karachi. In sum, the number of violent incidents decreased from 84 reported during last week to 53 during this week. The resultant death toll, increased from 169 to 142 during the current week, and the number of wounded significantly decreased from 188 to 100. A peer into the trends and territory of violence suggests that the deadly wave of ethno-political, going on in Karachi and Quetta, has effectively taken over the once hub of bloodbath i.e. FATA and KP in recent months. Moreover, this week saw exacerbation in the recovery of dead bodies from different parts of Karachi. On the other hand there was noticeable decrease in number of sectarian attacks as compared to last week figures. FATA experienced renewal of Tirah clashes between Ansarul Islam; pro-government group and militants. On the whole law and order situation remained far from satisfactory during the week.

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