ISLAMABAD: Pakistan witnessed a 28 percent increase in terror attacks across the country in 2022, while the highest number of 44 percent of militants’ attacks was reported in a single month of December, a report said.
According to the statistics released by an Islamabad-based independent think tank – Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) – the year 2022 witnessed a 28 percent increase in terror attacks across the country compared to the number of terror incidents in 2021.
The report stated that terror incidents increased by 88 percent in Balochistan and 54 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during a single month of December alone in 2022.
Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed most of the terror attacks that were carried out in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In response to the increase in terrorism across the country, 16 security forces actions were reported in which 39 suspected militants were killed and 47 others were apprehended.
According to the statistics, the number of militant attacks increased by 44 percent in December compared to November 2022. In December, the militants carried out 49 attacks in which 56 people were killed including 32 security forces personnel and 17 civilians.
In these attacks, 81 people also got injured including 31 security forces personnel and 50 civilians.
The data shows that the year 2022 has seen the highest number of militant attacks in Pakistan compared to such attacks during the last five years. A 37 and 35 percent rise in deaths and number of injured, respectively, was also recorded by the PICSS in its 2022 report.
It stated that the country witnessed at least 376 terror attacks in 2022, in which 533 people were killed and 832 were injured. “This is for the first time since 2017 that the country faced more than 300 militant attacks,” the report added.
In 2017, it stated that Pakistan witnessed 420 militant attacks in which 912 people were killed and 1877 injured. The human losses in terror attacks in 2022 were also the highest since 2018, as for the first time in the last four years the deaths were more than 500, it added.
December 2022 also witnessed four suicide attacks; three of them were carried out in tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while one was reported from federal capital Islamabad. Pakistan also faced 15 suicide attacks in 2022 compared with just four in 2021, it added.
In Balochistan, an 88 percent increase in militant attacks was reported as compared to November 2022. In December, 17 militant attacks were reported in which 14 people were killed including 11 security forces personnel and three civilians while 48 others were injured including six security forces personnel and 42 civilians in the province.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the report recorded a 54 percent rise in militant attacks in December as compared to November 2022. In December, 17 militant attacks were reported in which 17 people were killed including 15 security forces personnel and two civilians, while eight security forces personnel sustained injuries. In the security forces’ operations, reported from KPK, 32 alleged militants were killed and 10 others were apprehended.
In erstwhile FATA, the data shows that a total of 11 militant attacks were held in a single month of December 2022 in which 21 people were killed including four security forces personnel and 11 civilians, while 19 other people sustained injuries including 13 security forces personnel and six civilians. Six suspected militants were also killed in security forces’ operations in December 2022, the report added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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