Terrorism in Pakistan is down from levels prior to 2014: US report

WASHINGTON (92 News) – Confessing Pakistan’s effort against terrorism, the US has underscored that terrorist-related violence in Pakistan is down from levels prior to 2014. Launching the annual US report on counterterrorism and countering violent extremism for the year 2017, It underscored that while terrorist-related violence in Pakistan is down from levels prior to 2014, when Pakistan began its military operations in Fata, the country continued to suffer significant terrorist attacks, particularly against vulnerable civilian and government targets. The report said that the Pakistani military and security forces undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan, such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and also commended that such operations in the Fata area seriously degraded al-Qaeda’s presence in the region and the group’s freedom to operate. According to the report, 8584 terrorist related attacks were happened worldwide in 2017, in which, 18700 people were killed. The report mentioned that the total number of terrorist attacks worldwide in 2017 decreased by 23 per cent and total deaths due to terrorist attacks decreased by 27 per cent, compared to 2016. The report summarised that in 2017, the total number of terrorist attacks reported in Pakistan decreased 22 per cent, and the total number of deaths decreased 11 per cent; however, the total number of people injured increased six per cent in comparison to 2016. Perpetrator deaths comprised nine per cent of all deaths in Pakistan in 2017, compared to 24 per cent worldwide. “Although terrorist attacks took place in 100 countries in 2017, they were concentrated geographically. Fifty-nine per cent of all attacks took place in five countries (Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Pakistan, and the Philippines), and 70 per cent of all deaths due to terrorist attacks took place in five countries (Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, and Syria),” the report further stated. The report told that the proportions of terrorist attack further increased in Afghanistan. On The other hand, Iran was considered as state sponsor of terrorism on the top of list while North Korea, Sudan and Syria also included in this list.