Security situation: Study finds decline in incidents of violence in Pakistan

Sindh recorded highest number of fatalities from sectarian violence in first three months of 2015.

KARACHI: Sindh has the highest number of victims of sectarian violence among all the provinces, with 163 casualties recorded between January 2015 and March 2015. This was revealed in the quarterly report on security by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).

"Fatalities from violence in Pakistan during the first quarter of 2015 were 18 per cent less than the fatalities recorded during the same period last year and 25 per cent less than the year preceding that," Muhammad Nafees, a senior research fellow who drafted the report in the wake of the National Action Plan devised by the government, told The Express Tribune.

The overall violence figures suggest that FATA had the highest number of deaths from violence during this quarter, followed by Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Islamabad, and Gilgit-Baltistan. At the district level, Khyber Agency proved to be the most violent with 365 fatalities, followed by Karachi with 274 fatalities and Shikarpur with 63 fatalities.

According to the report, there have been 58 bomb attacks in the first quarter of 2015. The number saw a sharp decline from the corresponding period in 2014, when there were 133 bomb attacks.

The report also states that nearly 50 per cent of the victims of violence in the country during this quarter were militants, followed by civilians, criminals, security officials and others. Of the 1,236 victims of violence in the three months, 577 were militants.

Sectarian violence has escalated in all the provinces except Balochistan and the largest group of victims is the Shia community at nearly 60 per cent, followed by Christians at almost 20 per cent. "Apart from sectarian-related violence, the retaliation of militants to the military operation is likely to be one of the main reasons for the upsurge in sectarian violence," concludes the report.

Sindh

Sindh witnessed around a 40 per cent decline in the number of casualties from incidents of violence during the three months following the National Action Plan. Karachi was the most affected, with nearly 80 per cent of all violent deaths in Sindh reported in the provincial capital.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2015.