Terror incidents have significantly declined since June 15, 2014 when Pakistan military launched operation Zarb-e-Azb, according to data compiled by Business Recorder from official and independent sources. The country witnessed 82 percent decline in number of terrorists' attacks and 87 percent decline in number of casualties during the last four months of the current year as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
As many as 87 people including personnel of law enforcement agencies have been killed in 10 different terror incidents during the last four months (January, February, March and April), while 376 people including security personnel were killed in 56 terror incidents in first four months of last year.
Out of the 10 terror incidents in the first four months of 2015, three terror incidents occurred in January in which 19 were killed, three in February in which 44 were killed and 24 lost their lives in four terror incidents in March. As many as 22 labourers were killed by unidentified attackers in April this month in Turbat, Balochistan with 16 from Punjab and four from Hyderabad, Sindh. Responsibility for the attack was later claimed by a Baloch separatist group.
Out of 56 attacks between January to April 2014 the militants carried out 20 attacks in January in which 165 lost their lives, 64 were killed in 10 attacks in February, and 80 people lost their lives in nine attacks in March. In April, the militants conducted nine attacks in various parts of the country in which 67 people were killed.
The decline in terror attacks, according to defence sources and security analysts, is due to the successful operation against terrorists in the tribal areas with many militants either killed or crossed into Afghanistan. In a recent address to Islamabad Police, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar said that the credit for improvement of law and order situation in the country goes to Pakistan Army.
"Five to six terror attacks were launched in the country monthly before operation Zarb-e-Azb and now the number of terrorist attacks has declined significantly in the country," he said. Following the approval of National Action Plan (NAP), the Ministry of Interior has issued strict directives to police as well as other law enforcement agencies to ensure better co-ordination between law enforcement agencies to hunt down terrorists believed to have fled to other parts of the country to avert the higher risk of terror attacks in those areas.
According to provincial police chief reports submitted to Ministry of Interior two weeks ago regarding implementation of NAP, the law enforcement agencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa arrested 20,141 suspects followed by Azad Jammu and Kashmir where 9000 terror suspects were arrested. In Sindh 7,442 suspects were arrested, 34500 suspects from Balochistan, 2870 suspects from Punjab, 844 from federal capital and 200 were arrested in Gilgit Baltistan.