An Overview
May was the month of violence for North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where more than 60 percent of the total terrorist attacks in Pakistan took place during the month.  Parts of the province are also witnessing massive military operations against the Taliban militants. Tribal agencies of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were once again drifting into violence and militancy, and government may soon intensify security operation there. Baloch insurgency continued uninterrupted. Lahore was hit hard by the militants this month through a car suicide attack. The security situation in Karachi was also deteriorating amid increasing ethno-political and criminal violence. In total 257 terrorist and insurgent attacks killed 264 and injured another 909 people across Pakistan during the reporting month. (see Chart 1).

Chart 1: Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan in May 2009

In addition to the terrorist and insurgents attacks, carried out mostly by Taliban (in NWFP and adjacent tribal belt) and nationslist  insurgents (in Balochistan), there were reported 60 operational attacks, 14 clashes between security forces and militants, 5 incidents each of  cross-border attacks and ethno-political violence, and 7 inter-tribal clashes. The total number of casualties in all these attacks and clashes reached 1,858 killed and 1,676 injured across Pakistan. (see Table 2).

The casualty figure in May 2009 was a much higher number than the casualty figures in the last four months (see Chart 3). Indeed the casualties in just one month of May were more than the combined casualties of the previous three months i.e. February to April '09.

Chart 3: Comparison with Last Four Months’ Figures

This significant rise in casualties was due to the government’s military operation in Malakand division. The maximum number of killed and injured belonged to militants followed by civilians and security forces. (see Table 4 and Chart 4a).

Chart 4a: Distribution of Casualties (May ‘09)

The militants used multiple tactics to hit their targets in NWFP, FATA and Balochistan. Maximum incidents, 54, were reported of firing, followed by 37 incidents each of bomb blasts and hand grenades attacks, 33 IEDs blasts and 29 rocket attacks. (see Table 5).

Table 5: Attack Tactics Used by Terrorists
Tactic	Number of incidents
Suicide attacks	6
Rocket attacks	29
Beheadings	12
Remote-controlled bombs	19
Kidnapping	9
Landmines	6
Firing	54
Sabotage, burn, fire	8
Target killings	7
Bomb blasts	37
Hand grenades	37
Improvised explosive devices (IEDs)	33
Total	257