The terrorist attacks in Pakistan decreased by 13 percent during 2017 as compared to 2016, as 681 attacks were reported last year against 785 attacks occurred in the preceding year, according to National Counterterrorism Authority (NACTA). The NACTA in a recent report also highlighted that 37 percent decline was also witnessed in sectarian terrorism, as the country saw 23 sectarian related attacks in 2017 compared to 37 in 2016.
Giving an overall view of terror-related incidents, the NACTA noted that attacks have been declined by 58 percent since 2010 when the terrorism in the country was at its peak and the year had witnessed 2,061 terror incidents. The number of attacks, it noted, has been decreased to 681 in 2017. According to the data compiled by South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), the number of major attacks as well as casualties in the country has shown a slight decline in 2017 as compared to 2016. It noted that 445 people were killed in 27 major terror attacks in 2017 while 472 were killed in 28 incidents in 2016.
February was the most deadliest month of 2017 during which 119 people were killed in four major attacks while in December only two terror attacks were witnessed in which 20 people were killed. With the decline in the terror activities in the country, the US drone attacks have also been decreased in the current Trump administration, as only 8 drone attacks were carried out in 2017 during the first year of Donald Trump, according to the SATP.
It also pointed out that 301 US drone strikes were carried out in Pakistan during the entire tenure of former US president Barack Obama. As the Trump administration is pushing Pakistan to undertake decisive actions against the alleged 'safe havens' of terrorists in the country and also suspended the military assistance till the desired actions are taken, the sources anticipated more drone strikes in the coming months.
The sources further said that Pakistan has rejected the presence of any terrorist sanctuary in the country and also conveyed to the US side that it is ready to take action within its territorial boundaries if actionable intelligence is provided. However, Brigadier Asad Munir (retd), a defense analyst, said that the US has already eliminated the high-profile targets during the CIA-led drone operations and any major increase in these strikes is unlikely.
He pointed out that decrease in the drone strikes indicate that the US has achieved its targets, adding there were a large number of terrorists in the tribal areas during Obama's tenure. He said that a significant contribution to the decline in terrorism was made following Pakistan launched a comprehensive counterterrorism operation, Zarb-e-Azb, in June 2014 while the remaining terrorists are being apprehended or killed in the ongoing operation Radd-ul-Fasaad.
Comments
Comments are closed.