Better record: Report claims nearly 50% decline in violence in Balochistan

Law enforcement agencies claim to have dismantled more than 50 camps of Baloch insurgents

ISLAMABAD:

Despite the latest upsurge in militant attacks in Balochistan, official statistics of the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) reveal that violence in the insurgency-hit province has dramatically fallen by nearly 50% this year.

In a report which the provincial home department and paramilitary forces submitted to Chief Minister Dr Malik Baloch last week, the LEAs claimed that they have dismantled more than 50 camps of Baloch insurgents, forcing some of them to hide in caves in the mountainous regions of the province.

Around 213 civilians were killed and 522 injured in terror incidents in Balochistan by September this year, while 530 people were killed and 1,162 injured last year, according to a 50-page report – a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.

It revealed that 73 people were killed and 74 injured in attacks motivated by sectarian hatred this year while 258 people were killed and 478 injured in 2013.



In 2014, 11 settlers (people from other parts of Pakistan) were killed and 23 injured while 42 settlers were killed and 26 injured last year. Fifty-two police/Levies personnel were killed and 59 injured this year while 93 were killed and 220 injured in 2013.

This year, 30 paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) troops were killed and 123 injured while 52 were killed and 156 injured last year. The statistics revealed that more than 2,118 people were killed and 3, 871 injured in 1,836 incidents from 2009 to 2014. Some 715, or one-third of the total victims, died in sectarian killings.

This year, insurgents targeted installations of Pakistan Railways, Sui Gas and Quetta Electric Supply Company 143 times while there were 368 such attacks last year.  However, apparently there has been no let-up in the incidents of dumping mutilated bodies as 124 bodies were recovered in nine months of this year as compared to 168 of last year.

Balochistan’s Additional Home Secretary Tariq Zehri said good coordination among all paramilitary forces led the government to perform better as compared to last year. “We rightly targeted insurgents. It remains the prime cause of our success,” he told The Express Tribune. 

“The Pakistan Protection Act has given more powers to the LEAs to take action against militants,” he said, adding that the government has also worked on capacity building of the police, levies and prison officials through Pakistan Army. The United States also has trained prison officials of Balochistan, he added.

“Normalcy has returned to major urban centres of the province as the new political government has equipped the paramilitary forces with latest weapons and training,” he said, adding that Rs1 billion has been allocated for the forces.

The provincial government is also spending Rs27.1 million monthly on 32 platoons deployed in Quetta, Mastung, Kachhi, Sibi, Kalat, Awaran, Killa Abdullah and Pir Ismail Ziarat for maintaining peace, the report further revealed.

“The Internal Security Policy is under review at the moment and the premier counterterrorism body, NACTA, is assisting the province to curb violence,” it added.


Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2014.