Overview
While the number of reported terrorist attacks and consequent casualties from FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) considerably declined in the month under review, the security situation in Karachi and Balochistan further deteriorated. Nonetheless, security forces launched six small-scale operational attacks against militants, five in Balochistan and one in Karachi; no operational attack was launched in KP and FATA during the month.

Compared to four US-led drone strikes in previous month, only a single such strike was observed in August in Mirali, North Waziristan that killed four suspected militants and injured another five.

The situation at Pakistan’s borders with India remained tense throughout the month with 31 recorded incidents of Indian violations of the Line of Control (LoC) that intensified particularly after August 6 incident in which five personnel of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) were shot dead across Poonch sector of the LoC. 

A total of 124 terrorist attacks were reported across Pakistan during August, two more than previous month, which claimed the lives of 171 people, a decrease of about 18 percent compared to previous month, besides inflicting injuries on 325 others.

However, the terrorism-related casualties among security forces considerably increased during August as compared to previous month. Among those killed in terrorist attacks across Pakistan in the month were 91 civilians, 54 policemen, two FC troops, eight army soldiers, one Rangers personnel, and 15 militants. Those injured in these attacks included 231 civilians, 72 policemen, 19 army soldiers, one Levies person, and two FC troops.

As many as 78 of the total reported attacks in Pakistan were carried out by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), local Taliban and other militant groups of same category that killed 104 and injured 194 people. The nationalist insurgent groups in Balochistan perpetrated 29 attacks causing the death of 46 people and inflicting injuries on 97 others. Meanwhile 17 sectarian-related attacks claimed the lives of 21 people and wounded another 34. (See Chart 1a)

Sindh, mainly Karachi, faced the highest number of terrorist attacks in August (46) as compared to all other regions of Pakistan, which killed 52 and injured 85 people. However in terms of casualties in terrorist attacks, Balochistan suffered the most where as many as 81 people were killed and 164 others were injured in 34 reported attacks. Meanwhile 17 attacks were reported from FATA and 18 from KP that killed 15 and nine (9) people, respectively. Four attacks were reported from Punjab, three from Gilgit-Baltistan and two from Islamabad. (See Chart 1)

Chart 1: Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan in August 2013

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

Chart 1a: Classification of Terrorist Attacks by Perpetrators/ Nature of Attacks

Security forces and law enforcement agencies, civilians, members of Shia and Sunni religious communities, state installations and public and private property, and political leaders and workers were among the main targets hit by the militants during the month under review. A target-wise distribution of reported terrorist attacks in Pakistan in August is given in the table below.

Meanwhile officials of bomb disposal squad and security forces foiled at least 14 terror bids in August, including 12 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Islamabad. That could be, along with government’s indirect efforts to engage Taliban militants into dialogue, two apparent reason for decrease in terrorist activity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and also FATA during the month under review. 

When counted together–in above mentioned terrorist attacks, incidents of ethno-political violence, operational attacks by the security forces and their clashes with the militants and criminals, inter-militant and inter-tribal clashes, cross-border attacks, and criminal gangs’ clashes as well as drone strikes –the total number of casualties in Pakistan in the month of August stood at 272 people dead and 479 injured in 227 violent incidents of different types as described in the table below.

A comparison of this month’s security situation in terms of the number of overall incidents of violence and the resulting killings and injuries with the last three month’s security landscape is given in the table below:

Chart 2: Comparison with Last Three Months’ Figure

Civilians faced the highest number of casualties in August in overall violent incidents (described at Table 2) compared to militants and security forces with 148 dead and 323 injured. As many as 55 militants and 69 personnel of security forces were also killed during the month. (See Chart 3, Table 2a)

Chart 3: Detail of Overall Casualties

Table 2a: Distribution of Security Forces’ Casualties Security Forces Killed Injured FC 2 4 Police 54 72 Army 12 25 Levies 0 1 Rangers 1 1 Total 69 103

Militants used firing or direct shootout and IEDs in carrying out most of the attacks. Different other attack tactics used by the militants during the month of August are given in the table below.