Subsequent to the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP), statistics show the arrests of over 4,500 terrorists and deaths of more than 2,200 in various operations against armed groups during the last one and half years. As many as 31 terrorist attacks took place in 2016 in which 418 were killed, showing a significant decline in the attacks as compared to 2015. According to State Department statistics, there were a total of 1,009 terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2015, compared to 1,823 in 2014, which is a 45 percent decrease. The total number of fatalities in the attacks - 1,081 in 2015 compared to 1,761 in 2014 - went down by 39 percent.
Despite a significant reduction in the terror attacks, the country witnessed some major terrorist activities in the beginning of last year including the Quetta bomb blast at a polio center on January 14 and killing of 15 persons. In the same month, Bacha Khan University was attacked by Taliban militants in Charsadda on January 20, killing at least 20 and injuring 60 others.
Exactly nine days later - on January 29 - a suicide bomber, attempted to enter Cantonment area in Zhob District of Balochistan at a time when the Friday prayers were underway and blew himself at a check-post in which seven people were injured, responsibility for which was claimed by the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Only one terrorist attack was witnessed in February when a TTP suicide bomber hit a vehicle of Frontier Corps (FC) in Quetta on February 6, killing nine people.
Three major terror attacks took place in March, killing 101 people. On March 7, as many as 10 people including three police men were killed and 14 others were injured when a suicide bomber targeted Charsadda - this time a local court. On March 16, the terrorists targeted a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, killing 17 and injuring more than 50. On March 27, 74 people were killed and 338 others were injured in a suicide bombing that hit the main entrance of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, one of the largest parks in Lahore.
On April 9, one person was killed and 17 others wounded after a suicide bomber attacked an Excise and Taxation office in Mardan. There were no terrorists attack in May while on June 22, noted Sufi singer Amjad Sabri was shot dead in Karachi. On August 8, a bomb blast outside a hospital in Quetta killed 70 people the majority casualties were that of lawyers. On September 2, 14 people were killed and 52 wounded in a suicide blast at Mardan district courts.
On September 13, a suicide bomber injured between 10 and 13 people, four policemen in Shikarpur, Sindh, while on September 16, at least 23 people were killed and dozens more injured when a suicide bomber detonated his vest in the veranda of a mosque during Friday prayers in the Mohmand Agency. On October 24, at least 3 militants stormed a police training center in Quetta and took between 200 and 500 cadets hostage. Two of the attackers blew themselves up while the third attacker was killed. At least 60 people were killed and more than 190 people were injured.
On November 12, 52 people were killed and over 100 were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the shrine of Shah Noorani in Khuzdar, Balochistan. On December 10, the militants killed a police DSP in Peshawar.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017