An Overview
The security landscape of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan and Karachi remained volatile in the reporting month. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliated groups stepped up their attacks against security forces in different parts of country. Besides persistent attacks by the Baloch nationalist insurgents in Balochistan, the Sindhi nationalists in interior Sindh also took up arms and as a result violent incidents were reported from this historically peaceful area. Banned sectarian outfits continued targeting rival communities and religious scholars in Quetta, Karachi, and Kurram Agency of FATA. The US increased the frequency of drone strikes in FATA. Pakistani security forces continued their fight against militants with small-scale military operations in FATA and Balochistan and search and hunt operation in KP and Karachi.     
A total of 121 terrorist attacks were carried out across Pakistan in the month of May mainly by religiously motivated militants, nationalist insurgents and sectarian groups that claimed lives of 132 people and injured another 342. (See Chart 1) Balochistan faced the maximum number of attacks (38 attacks) in which 37 people were killed and 125 injured. FATA was the worst-hit region of the country in terms of casualties where 63 people were killed and 103 injured in 31 reported militant attacks. As many as 30 terrorist attacks were reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) that left 10 people dead and 76 others injured. Moreover 19 people were killed and 36 others injured in 20 reported terrorist attacks in Sindh province whereas Punjab witnessed two attacks that left 3 people dead and 2 others injured.

Chart 1: Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan in May 2012

As many as 372 people were killed and 620 were injured in a total of 180 incidents of violence reported across the country. The casualties were the result of above mentioned terrorist/insurgent attacks, operational attacks by the security forces and their clashes with the militants, ethno-political violence, inter-militant clashes, and cross border attacks as well as drone strikes (See Table 2). In 24 incidents of political and ethnic violence reported from Karachi, 38 people lost their lives whereas 59 people got injuries. 125 people, most of them militants, were killed and 133 were injured in 17 operational attacks carried out by the security forces and their clashes with militants.
In 6 reported drone attacks in FATA during the month, 39 people were killed and 4 others injured. Moreover six incidents of inter-militant clashes and 4 incidents of clashes between security forces and criminal gangs were also reported in this month that killed 25 and 12 people and injured 20 and 59 people, respectively.  

Chart 2: Comparison with Last Three Months’ Figure

A comparison of this month’s security situation–using the variables of the number of overall attacks/clashes given in Table 2 and the resulting killings and injuries–with the last three months’ security landscape reveals an upward trend (See Chart 3).  The overall number of attacks/clashes increased significantly compared to the previous month, similarly a sharp increased was witnessed in the number of people killed and injured in these attacks/clashes.

Chart 3: Detail of Casualties

Civilians faced the highest number of casualties as compared to the militants and security forces with 167 people killed and 469 injured. Furthermore 162 militants were killed and 72 others injured. As many as 43 personnel of security forces were killed and 79 injured in the above mentioned incidents of violence across the country. (See Table 4, 4a)

Militants used a variety of tactics in carrying out their attacks. Direct firing or shootout and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were the most commonly used tactics with 52 and 36 reported incidents, respectively. 12 incidents of remote control bombs, 7 rocket attacks, 4 hand grenades and 3 of bomb blasts were among the other foremost tactics used by the militants in this month. (See Table 5)