The wave of violence further escalated across Pakistan during the current week. Meanwhile, the spate of ethno-political violence in the largest metropolis, Karachi, continued unabated during the week, wherein 29 persons (32 in the last week) 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 153 persons lost their lives as a result of 70 violent incidents across the country during the reported week (for detailssee data sheet).The violent incidents also left 83 people injured.

Like in case of preceding weeks, civilians bore the major brunt of the ongoing spate of violence across Pakistan during the current week, as civilians accounted foralmost 50 percent of the total death toll across Pakistan. Numerically, 76 civilians lost their lives and 50 others were wounded in violent clashes of various kinds across the country. The second highest number of fatalities were ofmilitants, wherein 72 militants got killed under different circumstances. Furthermore, six CIA operated drone strikes were also reported during the week, killing 36 suspected militants in different areas of North and South Waziristan Agency (FATA). Meanwhile thesabotage campaign by the militants continued to demolish state infrastructure and undermine stability as militants blew up a portion of gas pipeline in Dear Bugti (Balochistan), three power pylons, a grid station,two government schools, an under construction jail, a hujra(place of gathering), and eight shops in different areas across the country.

Meanwhile, four sectarian attacksleft five people, including two Shias and three Sunnis, dead in different parts of the country this week. Moreover, the loss of lives due to target killings increased by 11 percent, (47 percent of the total dead against last week 36 percent) during the current week. Overall, 47 percent of the total violent attacks wereoftarget killingin nature(seethe pie chart below).

Furthermore, the data underlines that of the total 33 incidents of target killings; 39 percent took place in Karachi alone, decimating 22 persons (44 percent of the total dead in target killings). Meanwhile, 30 militants were killed in two military operations in different areas of the country. On the whole, militant casualties were 47 percent of the total death toll. Also, five security personnel were killed and 11 other injured during the week.

Moreover, 13 bullet-riddled dead bodies were recovered of which eight from FATA, one from KP and four from Karachi. In sum, the number of violent incidents increased from last week 57 to 70 during this week, the resultant death toll, also surged from 130 to 153 during the current week, while the number of wounded significantly decreased from 189 to 83. A concise look into the trends and territory of violence suggests that the deadly wave of violence continues to undermine the security landscape across Pakistan. During the week, US picked up its deadly drone campaign in Pakistan tribal region and launched six strikes killing 36 suspected militants including Mullah Nazir, the chief of Mullah Nazir faction of Pakistani Taliban.

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