Global Terrorism Index: Terror deaths soar to all-time high

Pakistan ranked third on the list with 2,345 deaths reported in 1,933 attacks.

WASHINGTON: The number of people killed in militant attacks worldwide jumped more than 60% last year to a record high of nearly 18,000 and the figure could rise further in 2014 due to an escalation of conflict in the Middle East and Nigeria, a report showed on Tuesday.

Four militant groups operating in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria were responsible for two thirds of the 2013 attacks and the vast majority of the deaths occurred in those countries, the Australia and US-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) said in its Global Terrorism Index.

However, militant attacks are on the rise more broadly, with two dozen countries seeing more than 50 deaths in 2013, it said. The four most active militant groupings are Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (now renamed Islamic State), Nigeria’s Boko Haram, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and transnational al Qaeda-affiliated networks.

Iraq was found to be the country most affected by terrorism, recording a 164% rise in fatalities, to 6,362, with IS responsible for most of the deaths. Afghanistan was in the second place where 3,111 people were killed in 1,148 attacks, while Pakistan was ranked third with 2,345 deaths in 1,933 attacks.

Defence analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais blamed flawed policies of successive governments in Pakistan for the spike in incidents of terrorism. “Social injustice, poverty and other reasons make Pakistan a fertile breeding ground for terrorism. Our failures are not in the battlefield, they are in our society.”

Another defence analyst Hassan Askari said there could be multiple implications of the report, especially for foreign investments or inflow of international tourists into Pakistan.

The report found that attacks had also increased in the rest of the world, with fatalities rising by half the previous figure, to 3,236 in 2013. A total of 60 countries recorded deaths from terrorist attacks last year.

“There is no doubt it is a growing problem. The causes are complex but the four groups responsible for most of the deaths all have their roots in fundamentalist Islam,” said IEP founder Steve Killelea. “They are particularly angry about the spread of Western education. That makes any attempt at the kind of social mobilising you need to stop them particularly difficult - it can just antagonise them more,” he said.

The number of attacks themselves rose 44% in 2013 from the previous year to almost 10,000. Deaths in such attacks are now five times higher than in 2000, the report showed, citing analysis of data in the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database. Most but not all militant attacks were religiously motivated.

Attacks in India - the sixth most affected country - rose 70% in 2013 largely due to attacks by communist insurgents. The majority remained non-lethal.

The report highlighted Angola, Bangladesh, Burundi, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Iran, Israel, Mali, Mexico, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Uganda as countries at increased risk from terror attacks.

Despite the global spike, the report stressed that the risk to westerners remained slim. According to its figures, a person in Britain was 188 times more likely to be victim of a murder, and in the US 64 times more likely.

Increased targeting of police by the militant groups makes managing the problem even harder, Killelea said, sometimes fuelling rights abuses that compound existing grievances.

The report showed 60% of attacks involved explosives, 20% firearms and 10% other actions such as arson, knives or attacks with motor vehicles. Only five per cent of all incidents since 2000 have involved suicide bombings.

The report showed some 80% of the militant groups which had ceased their activity since 2000 did so following negotiations. Only 10% achieved their goals, while seven per cent were eliminated by military action.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2014.