The overall level of violence surged drastically across Pakistan during the current week. The unrelenting wave of Ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, also surged substantially during the week, wherein almost 36 persons were shot dead. Meanwhile, the wave of bomb blasts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA, 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 127 persons lost their lives as a result of 58 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 111 people injured.

During the current week, yet again, civilians were the prime target of violent actors, as they accounted for 75 percent of the total fatalities across Pakistan. Numerically speaking 96 civilians lost their lives and 89 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of casualties were ofmilitants, wherein 24 militants perished in violent clashes. Furthermore, like the preceding week, no CIA operated drone strikewas recorded in any part of the country this week as well. No significant sabotage attack was reported in any part of the country; however militants blew up five government schools in Swat (KP), Mohmand and Kurram Agency (FATA) areas.

Casualties due to sectarian violence rose sharply during the week, as six sectarian attacksleft thirteen men dead, two Bohra, seven Shia and four Sunni, in different areas of Sindh and Balochistan. Meanwhile, death toll due to target killings surged by three percent, (41 percent of the total dead against last week 38 percent) during the current week. Overall, 64 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature.The trend also suggests that target killing insistently remains the preferred weapon in the hands of miscreants to inflict violence (seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data underlines that of the total 37 incidents of target killings; a staggering 51 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 26 people (50 percent of the total dead in target killings) and injuring another. Death toll of the militants in the ongoing military operations in KP and FATA region dropped by 12 percent; militant casualties due to military operation accounted for just 15 percent of the total fatalities against last week 27 percent. Meanwhile, seven security personnel were killed and nine others got injured during the week.

Also, 15 dead bodies were recovered from different areas of FATA, KP and Sindh. In sum, the number of violent incidents surged significantly from last week 32 to 58 during this week, the resultant death toll hence raised from 70 to 127 during the current week, while the number of wounded increased from 54 to 111.

Recent trends underline that violence in Karachi and killing of militants in FATA are proving to be the major causes of bloodshed in the country nowadays. Security situation, especially in Karachi remains volatile in recent months, where almost 40 people are being killed in a week, mostly out of ethno-political and sectarian motives. It looks as if both federal and provincial law enforcement agencies have practically failed to check the insistent wave of violence in the city, which is being labeled as ¿the most dangerous city– by recent reports in international media.

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