PESHAWAR: Terrorists’ attacks across the country have surged amid the Taliban takeover of Kabul [15th August] and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – especially in North and South Waziristan – alone terror attacks have spiked by 71%, the Center for Research and Security Study (CRSS) said in a report.
The CRSS report, based on data collected during the third quarter of 2021 – July, August and September – stated that Balochistan province remained the second most affected region after KP where a total of 66 persons have been killed.
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The grim data revealed that a total of 237 people have been killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with North tribal district is worst affected by terrorism with 25 causalities. During these three months, said the report, a total of 75 persons were killed in ground operations, 50 in targeted attacks, 41 in Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) blasts, hand grenade attacks and other explosions, 25 in armed attacks, 25 in encounters and clashes, 18 in suicide attacks, and three dead-bodies were recovered.
The report said also informed that terror activities have decreased by 30% in Punjab and 10% in Balochistan. However, the ratio of killings across the country increased by 16.7% as 30 people were killed North Waziristan, 20 in Karachi, 19 in Quetta, 10 in Bajaur, and 12 in Kohistan.
The report said that out the 237 victims, 85 were associated with banned terror organisations. A total of 77 security men killed in clashes with terrorists, bomb blasts, and other terrorism activities. The victims also include 63 civilians.
During this time, the worst terror activity occurred in July when a bus carrying Chinese engineers were targeted by a suicide bomber in Dasu, Upper Kohistan District, killing nine Chinese engineers. The attacks had huge repercussions for the country as China had terminated Pakistani employees after halting work on Diamer Basha Dam. Though China has recruited all the terminated workers but work on the project is still stopped.
The report also informed that so far no one has claimed responsibility for the murders of 196 people but the banned TTP has claimed to have killed 21 persons, the Balochistan liberation front claimed to have killed 10 persons while the responsibility of killing six persons were accepted by Afghanistan based terror groups.
The CRSS report revealed that there was constant decline in terrorism activities since 2016 but in 2021, there has been a slight surge in violence. The report revealed, “There was 4% rise in first quarter, 3% in second quarter and a sharp rise [17%] in the third quarter.” A total of 128 causalities were reported in KP, 66 in Balochistan, 27 in Punjab, 3 in Islamabad.