The level of violence sharply receeded across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, also subsided substantially during the week, wherein five persons (compared to 19 last week) perished and another three got injured. Also, the wave of bomb blasts across the country, armed clashes between militants and the security forces in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the recovery of mutilated dead bodies continued to pile up misery during the week. The data collected throughten newspapers that CRSS uses as the source, indicates that as many as 39 persons lost their lives as a result of 25 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 124 people injured.

During the week, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing violence across the country they accounted for79 percent of the total fatalities. Numerically speaking, 31 civilians lost their lives and 118 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of casualties was ofmilitants, wherein five militants were killed in violent clashes. Furthermore, no CIA operated drone strikewas recorded in any part of the country this week as well. Also no significant sabotage attack was reported in any part of the country this week; however four government schools were blown up by the militants in Kohat, Nowshera, Hangu and Mohmand Agency areas of KP and FATA.

Meanwhile, sectarian violence continued to mount death toll across the country during the current week, as five sectarian attacksleft 17 Shia men dead, and another 104 injured in different areas of D.I. Khan (KP), Karachi (Sindh), and Quetta (Balochistan). Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings further dropped by 14 percent, (15 percent of the total dead against last week 29 percent) during the current week. Overall, 24 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, data underlines that of the total six incidents of target killings; a staggering 33 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating two persons (33 percent of the total dead in target killings). Death toll of the militants in the ongoing military operations in KP and FATA region surged by three percent; militant casualties due to military operation accounted for ten percent of the total fatalities against last week seven percent. Meanwhile, three security personnel were killed and six others got injured during the week.

Also, three dead bodies were recovered from Karachi (Sindh) and Pasni (Balochistan) areas. In sum, the number of violent incidents dropped from last week 48 to 25, the resultant death toll hence dropped from 92 to 39 during the current week, while the number of wounded decreased from 182 to 114.

A concise look into the data and recent violent trends suggest that at a time when overall level of violence is gradually decreasing across Pakistan, sectarian violence is picking up. During the current week almost half of the dead belonged to different sects and primarily of Shia sect, which is under severe onslaught of sectarian militants in recent months. Surprisingly, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has also jumped into the sectarian foray in recent weeks and claimed resposnibilties for the killing of innocent Shia mourners during Moharram in different cities of 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