ISLAMABAD, APR 15 (DNA) – The first quarter of 2019 was quite volatile for Pakistan with an overall 12% increase in violence related fatalities, as compared to year 2018.

Balochistan witnessed the highest number of violent activities; however, the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Area appeared as the least affected region, despite being the hub of militants at one point. Dera Ismail Khan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also showed an increase in violence in first quarter of 2019.

The primary method of violence used in this quarter was target killings following with the two suicide attacks.

The fatalities of civilians and security officials didn’t see any improvement in this quarter, in comparison to the last quarter – October to December 2018, though a slight decrease from 74% to 62% and 25% to 19% was observed respectively in total number of fatalities. The militants’ fatalities; however, went up from 25% to 28%.

The only militant organization that accepted the responsibility for a suicide and an armed attack was Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Seven high ranking militants of Daesh were also killed by the security forces with no claims of any terror attacks by the organization. Sectarian related violence declined in this quarter as compared to the last quarter, and was only limited in Punjab and Sindh with six fatalities.

Readers can approach CRSS for information related to this report. Alternately, you may send your queries to [email protected], directly to Mohammad Nafees, Senior Research Fellow, CRSS – the author of the report ([email protected]), or Zeeshan Salahuddin, Senior Research Fellow, the editor.=DNA

=============