Wave of terror: Over 1,600 killed in terror attacks since Jan 2012

The death toll is highest in K-P’s Lower and Upper Dir districts, where more than 300 people lost their lives.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan was hit by the worst wave of terrorism in the last 20 months with more than 1,600 people killed and over 5,600 injured in over 2,100 attacks, the interior ministry told the National Assembly.

The death toll was the highest in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) Lower and Upper Dir districts, where more than 300 people lost their lives in terror attacks, including a two-star military general, Sanaullah Khan Niazi, who died in a mine-blast last week.



These are the highest figures since 2009 when over 3,100 people were killed and 8, 000 were injured in terror incidents.  Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan claimed that the estimated number of people killed and injured in Pakistan in militancy-related violence since 2002 totalled 40,447.

“Out of 2,174 incidents, over 43 were cases of suicide bombings. There is an estimated 30% rise in attacks from the previous year,” Nisar stated in his written reply to the National Assembly.

He stated that more than 1,613 people had been killed from January 2012 to August this year; while over 5,600 had got injured.



“As many as 797 people were killed in 858 incidents this year while as many as 2,985 people got injured with the Upper and Lower Dir districts being the most affected,” Nisar was responding to a written question by Jamaat-e-Islami MNA Sahibzada Tariqullah, who had sought details of terrorist attacks in Lower Dir district of Malakand division.

Half of the victims of militancy were associated with the law enforcement agencies as over 760 armed personnel were killed while 1,463 were injured in multiple terror incidents, he reported.

The law enforcement agencies remained the prime target of militants as they were hit the most—501 times in the last 20 months. More than 2,174 terror incidents were reported from January 2012 to August 2013.

This year, a record 25 suicide attacks were reported as compared to 18 of last year. The year 2012 had witnessed a sudden rise in sectarian violence with over 40 incidents reported. More than 45 missiles were fired by the militants in terror incidents during this time, Nisar told the lawmakers.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2013.