25 terror attacks left 37 people dead in March: PIPS report

Balochistan continues to see most terror attacks on law enforcers as prime target

ISLAMABAD: March saw a slight uptick in terror attacks from the previous month where 25 attacks across the country left at least 37 people dead and 55 others injured.

This was disclosed in a monthly terrorism report compiled by the Pakistan Institute of Policy Sciences (PIPS) released on Friday.

PIPS said that the 25 attacks had claimed 37 lives, including 19 civilians, 14 policemen, two personnel of the Frontier Constabulary and two militants.

Of the attacks, 13 attacks, or 52 per cent of the total, had targeted security personnel and law enforcement agencies.



In February, the report said, as many as 24 attacks had taken place which had claimed 38 lives. Around 42 per cent of the attacks had targeted security and law enforcement personnel.

Among those killed in these attacks, 13 were army officials, 12 were civilians, eight were FC troops, and three policemen, besides two militants.

The report noted that as in recent months, March also saw the most terrorist attacks reported from Balochistan where as many as 13 terrorist attacks in the province claimed 15 lives and injured many others. This was up from the nine attacks reported there in February which claimed 15 lives and left 16 injured.

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), once hotbeds of terrorist activity and the source of the latest diplomatic spat between Pakistan and Afghanistan, now comes in second after Balochistan for the number of terror attacks. The PIPS report noted that as many as 10 terrorist attacks took place region. Of these, seven took place in Fata and three in K-P.  These attacks left seven people dead and wounded 20 others.

By comparison, as many as six attacks took place in K-P and seven in Fata (a combined total of 13 in February). These attacks had claimed the lives of 21 people

Punjab reported a single terror incident in the past month: a solitary suicide blast.



However, that attack was the single deadliest attack of the month which claimed a third of all the deaths reported in the month.

The attack, which took place near a police camp — set up to provide security to of the annual congregation of the Tableeghi Jamaat in Raiwind, on the outskirts of Lahore — claimed 13 lives and left 17 others injured.

The attack gained further significance in how it came days before the Pakistan Super League returned to Lahore for the second time in two years.

A solitary terrorist attack was also reported in Karachi which left one person dead and injured two others.

Cross border attacks

On the whole, 11 cross-border attacks happened inside Pakistan in March – including nine from India and one from each of the Afghan and Iranian borders – which claimed three lives (two civilians and one FC trooper) and injured 25 others.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2018.