Country saw 27pc hike in terrorist attacks in 2022 as compared to 2021: report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan witnessed 27 percent increase in 2022 in terrorist attacks as compared to 2021. A total of 262 terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2022 – including 14 suicide bombings –claimed in all 419 lives and injured another 734 people, says Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) annual report “Pakistan Security Report 2022” released on Saturday. It says that a 25 percent increase has been recorded in fatalities in 2022 as compared with 2021.

According to the report, out of the total attacks, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out 89 terrorist attacks in Pakistan in the year 2022. The Islamic State’s Khorasan (IS-K) chapter also stepped up its attacks in the year and carried out at least 23 terrorist attacks as compared to eight in 2021.

In 2022, the proscribed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) remained the major source violence in Balochistan. The group carried out 46 terrorist attacks – including 45 in Balochistan, and one in Karachi – as compared to 38 in 2021.

The security report notes that the Afghan Taliban’s taking power in Kabul, and the Pakistani state’s mistaken and persistent ambition to engage in peace talks with the TTP encouraged the group to regroup and escalate terrorist violence in the country. It appears “unconvinced that the Taliban will fulfil their promises on foreign militant groups such as Al-Qaeda, Islamic State Movement of Uzbekistan, ETIM (East Turkestan Islamic Movement) or TIP (Turkistan Islamic Party), and TTP,” reads the report. It added that the Taliban have so far only acted against IS-K.

The TTP, local Taliban groups such as Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, IS-K, and other similar religiously inspired groups perpetrated a combined total of 179 terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2022 as compared to 128 in the previous year, which killed 250 people and injured 262 others. Different Baloch and Sindhi nationalist insurgent groups carried out 79 attacks, as compared to 77 such attacks in 2021, which claimed 97 lives and wounded another 259 people.

As compared to two in 2021, four sectarian-related terrorist attacks were recorded in 2022 claiming 72 lives and inflicting injuries on another 213 people.

Out of the total 262 terrorist attacks recorded in 2022, as many as 180, or about 69 percent, targeted personnel, vehicles, convoys, and posts or facilities of security and law enforcement agencies, PIPS said in its security report.

About half of the total fatalities or deaths (419), caused by terrorist attacks in 2022, concentrated among personnel of security forces and law enforcement agencies another 234 personnel of security and law enforcement agencies were also injured in the reported terrorist attacks. Similarly, 152 civilians lost their lives and another 498 were wounded in these attacks. About 95 percent of the total recorded terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2022 happened in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces.

Out of the total terrorist attacks, as many as 169, or over 64 percent, occurred in KP. Balochistan faced the second highest number of terrorist attacks after KP. Baloch insurgents as well as religiously inspired militant groups perpetrated a total of 79 attacks in the province, compared to 81 in the previous year, which claimed 106 lives and wounded 271 others. Same as in the previous year, eight terrorist attacks took place in Sindh province including six in Karachi and two in interior Sindh. A combined total of five terrorist attacks took place in Punjab and Islamabad which claimed 11 lives and injured 39 others.

Compared to five in the year before, as many as 14 suicide attacks happened in 2022 including 10 in KP (nine in North Waziristan and one in Peshawar), two in Balochistan’s Quetta and Sibi districts, and one each in Karachi (Sindh) and Islamabad. These attacks claimed 108 lives – compared to 30 in 2021 – and injured 287 others.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023