Overview
Heightened sectarian violence continued to play havoc with the lives of people, particularly in Quetta and Karachi, in the month of February. More than 48 percent of the overall reported fatalities in terrorist attacks across Pakistan were caused by sectarian-related attacks. As many as 238 people have been killed in the first two months of 2013 in sectarian-related attacks. After a horrible suicide attack in Quetta that had led to the imposition of Governor’s rule in Balochistan in previous month, another massive blast was reported from the city during the month under review that killed more than 80 people, mostly members of Hazara Shia community. Meanwhile the targeted killings of Sunni and Shia religious scholars and activists continued unabated throughout the month, particularly in Karachi. Security forces, their convoys and check posts, and anti-Taliban tribesmen were also frequently targeted by the terrorists during the month. Security forces launched 13 operational attacks against militants in FATA and Balochistan and entered into armed clash with the militants at least 10 times in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA and Balochistan.

A total of 129 terrorist attacks were reported from different regions of Pakistan in the second month of 2013, a decrease of 40 percent as compared to the previous month, which left 247 people dead, 23 percent less than those killed in such attacks in previous month, and 456 others injured. (See Chart 1) Despite a decrease in the number of terrorist attacks and the consequent casualties as compared to January, the month of February was still extremely violent.

Out of 129 attacks, 28 were sectarian in nature that claimed the lives of 119 people and injured 220 others. As in previous month, Quetta and Karachi were the most affected areas by sectarian violence in the month under review. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups perpetrated 83 attacks across Pakistan causing the death of 109 people and inflicting injuries on 211 others. Another 19 people lost their lives and 25 were injured in 18 attacks carried out by nationalist insurgents, largely in Balochistan.

Maximum number of casualties (109 dead and 227 injured) in terrorist attacks was reported from Balochistan. Sindh, mainly Karachi, faced the highest number of terrorist attacks (38) among all regions of Pakistan followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (37 attacks). FATA was the least terrorism affected region of Pakistan during the month under review.

One incident of sectarian targeted killing was reported from Punjab’s capital Lahore. The security situation in Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad remained calm as no terrorist attack was report from any of these regions. 

Chart 1: Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan in February 2013

A classification of the overall reported terrorist attacks from Pakistan in the month of February based on their perpetrators is given in the chart below:  

Chart 1a: Classification of Terrorist Attacks by Perpetrators

When counted together in above mentioned terrorist/insurgent attacks, operational attacks by the security forces and their clashes with the militants, incidents of ethno-political violence, inter-militants clashes, and cross- border attacks as well as drone strikes, the overall number of the people killed during the month stood at 492 and those of injured at 582 in a total of 183 reported incidents of violence of different types. (See Table 1)  

The inter-militant and tribesmen-militants clashes continued in Khyber Agency during the month under review. As many as 40 militants were killed and 36 injured in nine reported incidents of such clashes between the TTP and Ansarul Islam (AI), between Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) and AI, and between LI and anti-Taliban tribesmen.

Parallel to sectarian violence and militants’ attacks, the incidents of political violence also continued in Karachi as 13 more political activists lost their lives in 15 reported incidents of targeted killings of political leaders and workers.

The situation at Pak-India border remained peaceful whereas two incidents of cross-border attacks were reported form Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Two drone strikes were also recorded in South and North Waziristan agencies of FATA.

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 three month’s security landscape suggests that a trend of increase in violent incidents that started during last two months of 2012 continued unabated during the first two months of 2013, although with some variations. (See Chart 2)  

Chart 2: Comparison with Last Three Months’ Figure

As in the previous two months, civilians faced the highest number of casualties compared to the militants and the security forces as 250 civilians were killed and 434 others injured in overall reported incidents of violence across country. As many as 203 militants were killed and 80 injured in this month in security forces’ operational attacks and clashes with them and also inter-militant clashes reported from Khyber Agency. Moreover, 39 security personnel were also killed and 68 others sustained injuries. (See Chart 3, Table 2)

Chart 3: Detail of Overall Casualties

Table 2: Distribution of Security Forces’ Casualties Type Killed Injured Frontier Corps (FC) 10 16 Police 10 20 Army 18 25 Levies 1 7 Total 39 68

Direct firing or shootout and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were the most frequently used tactic by militants to hit their targets with 58 and 31 reported attacks, respectively. Six suicide blasts, remote controlled blasts, used in 10 attacks, bombs used in five attacks, and hand grenades and landmine blasts, used in four attacks each, were among the other foremost tactics used by the militants in this month. (See Table 3)