New wave of terrorism

Terror attacks rise 56% in Pakistan during 2021

The recent terrorist attacks in Lahore and Islamabad in last couple of days have raised fears of a new terrorist wave in the country. These fears are not baseless as terror attacks rised 56% in 2021 compare to 2020.

It seems that militant groups after targeting the security forces in the different parts of country especially in Baluchistan and former tribal areas, they started to target the cities. Our security forces made enormous sacrifices to bring peace and stability in the country. So it is important to preserve the gains made in recent years.

According to a report compiled by Islamabad-based think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), Pakistan witnessed a 56% increase in the number of terror attacks this year, despite a one-month ceasefire with TTP.

The rise in militant attacks in Pakistan coincided with the Afghan Taliban’s military offensive, which started in May 2021 and reached its zenith when the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021. That same month, 45 militant attacks were reported, the most attacks of any single month in 2021, according to PICSS.  Despite a one-month ceasefire with TTP from November 10 to December 10, the overall number of militant attacks did not drop in either month.

                                                   

 In 2021, militants carried out 294 attacks, killing 388 people and wounding another 606 Six years after Islamabad declared victory in a bloody, brutal conflict with Al Qaeda-aligned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) insurgents, it is faced with a resurgence of terrorist activity that threatens to reverse its post-war recovery.

Disturbing reports are coming from North and South Waziristan, Bajaur and some other areas that local TTP affiliated militants have increased their activities since the fall of Kabul and Taliban victory in Afghanistan. The banned TTP groups are reorganising in some areas.

Compared to the last year’s fatalities, all regions except ICT and GB suffered an exponential surge in violence with Balochistan accounting for a net 80% increase in violence-related fatalities. A total of 146 security operations were carried out during this year leaving 298 outlaws dead – a rise of more than 40% against the last year’s figures.

As a whole, the combined losses of civilian and security personnel’s lives were 74% of the total fatalities while the outlaws, the main perpetrators of violence, suffered one fourth of the total fatalities – a rise of militancy that can be attributed to the success of the Taliban in Afghan that had bolstered the morale of Pakistani militants operating from within and outside of the country.

The report shows that the average number of militant attacks per month in Pakistan increased from 16 attacks per month in 2020 to 25 monthly attacks in 2021, the highest on record since 2017. Militant attacks have not been as deadly since 2018.  In 2020, there were 188 militant attacks in which 266 people were killed and 595 injured.

We saw lot of terror attacks, bombings and violence on our streets for nearly 8 years (2006-14). But since 2015, we saw big decline in the terrorism. Military operations launched against the militant groups destroyed their infrastructure and local networks since 2015. Thousands of civilians and soldiers were martyred in this battle to get rid of militancy and terrorism and bring peace, normalcy and stability in the country.

Our interior minister Sheikh Rashid having warned a few days back of terror attacks in Pakistan’s major cities. The scenes are much too familiar and terrifying: blood and bodies and tragedy. While law enforcement figure out the details in the latest attack, the fact is that the security that Lahore had become comfortable with stands shattered, bringing back memories of a time when the fear of terror used to hang in the air all the time.

The ability of militant groups to strike anywhere, at any time, cannot be seen as anything other than a failure of the National Action Plan. For all our undeniable successes on the battlefield, it is clear that the war is not yet over. Fighting it requires us not just to prevail on the battlefield but to improve our intelligence capabilities so that defensive measures can be taken to guard against impending attack – and to ensure we both the circumstance and ideology that create militancy.

                                                                     The Editor