Overview
Balochistan was the worst volatile region of Pakistan in the reporting month where nationalist insurgents intensified their activities across the province. The mounting sectarian killings and the attacks by militants on security forces besides the politically-motivated targeted killings remained the important features of volatile security landscape of Karachi. Nonetheless, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) stepped up attacks against security forces and political leaders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The security forces lost the lives of their 81 personnel and suffered the same number of injuries in assaults by the militants during the last month of the year. The assassination of senior minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Bashir Ahmad Bilour in a suicide attack traumatized the government of KP.

Amid overall surge in militants’ strikes in the country, a total of 178 terrorist attacks, an increase of 16 percent as compared to the last month, were reported across Pakistan that left 234 people dead and 441 others injured during the reporting month. (See Chart 1) Out of 178 attacks, 29 attacks were sectarian in nature whereas 48 were carried out by nationalist insurgents and the rest of the attacks were carried out by different Taliban groups and other banned militant outfits.  

As many as 58 terrorist attacks were reported in Balochistan, the maximum number of terrorist attacks among all the regions, that left 83 people dead and 98 others injured. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA faced 43 and 35 terrorist attacks respectively that resulted in death of 64 people in FATA and 35 others in KP and injuries to 123 people in KP and 116 others in FATA. As many as 49 people died and 99 others were injured in 36 terrorist attacks reported from Karachi. Moreover six terrorist attacks, all of them sectarian in nature, were reported from Gilgit Baltistan that killed three people and injured five others whereas the other areas of Pakistan including Punjab, Islamabad and Azad Jammu and Kashmir remained peaceful.   

Chart 1: Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan in December 2012

In all, 223 incident of violence were reported from different parts of Pakistan, including above mentioned terrorist/insurgent attacks, operational attacks by the security forces and their clashes with the militants, incidents of ethno-political violence, inter-tribal and inter-militants clashes, and cross- border attacks as well as drone strikes, that left 366 people dead and 494 others injured. (See Table 1) The overall incidents of violence, as described in Table 2, increased by 16 percent as compared with the last month, and the number of people killed increased by 22 percent whereas the number of people injured went down by 13 percent.   

In 13 incidents of political and ethnic violence, mostly reported from Karachi, 18 people lost their lives. Meanwhile 5 operational attacks by the Pakistani security forces and their 6 clashes with militants as well as four US drone strike took place in FATA wherein 77 suspected militants were killed and 27 others injured. Moreover 8 cross-border attacks and clashes were reported, 5 on Pak-Afghan and three on Pak-India borders in which three people were killed and injured 6 others.

A comparison of this month’s security situation–using the variables of the number of overall attacks/clashes given in Table 1 and the resulting killings and injuries–with the last month’s security landscape revealed an upward trend. (See Chart 2) The overall number of attacks/clashes and the number of deaths caused by these incidents went up in this month as compared to the last month. However the number of the people injured went down in the reporting month.   

Chart 2: Comparison with Last Three Months’ Figure

Civilians faced the highest number of fatalities compared to the militants and the security forces as 192 civilians were killed and 384 others injured in overall reported incidents of violence across country. As many as 93 militants were killed and 25 others injured in this month, whereas 81 security personnel were also killed and 85 others sustained injuries. (See Chart 3, Table 2)

Chart 3: Detail of Casualties

Table 2: Distribution of Security Forces’ Casualties Type Killed Injured Frontier Corp 8 12 Police 36 30 Army 10 40 Levis 24 3 Rangers 3 0 Total 81 85

Direct firing or shootout and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were the most frequently used tactic by militants to hit their targets with 77 and 38 reported attacks, respectively. Bomb blasts used in 15 attacks, landmines in 12 attacks, rockets’ attack in 11 times and hand grenade in 10 attacks, were among the other foremost tactics used by the militants in this month. (See Table 3)