2015 witnesses 34.22pc decline in terror trends

ISLAMABAD: The year 2015 is all set to bid adieu leaving a positive impact on the overall law and order situation in Pakistan as compared to previous years. The country faced 34.22 percent reduction in the incidents of terrorism and fatalities this year as compared to 2014, analysis of official data reveals.

According to official data, the year 2015 faced substantive reduction of 34.22 percent in terrorism as compared to year 2014. During the year 2015, as much as 3615 fatalities were reported in the incidents of terrorism as compared to last year’s 5496 fatalities. The security experts believe Zarb-e-Azb played decisive role in maintaining peace and stability in the country. Similarly, the implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) has also played important role in reducing the terrorism in the country.

“The base camps and other facilities to the terrorist networks operating in the North Waziristan as well as in other parts of the country have been destroyed during the military offensive Zarb-e-Azb and it played a decisive role in maintaining peace in Pakistan. However, despite the military offensive, the sleeper cells of these militant organisations rarely succeeded to carry out terrorism in the country,” Senator Gen (R) Salahuddin Tirmizi told The News.

The analysis of official data suggests that the military offensive brought significant improvement in law and order situation and an apparent reduction of 50.81 percent came in the civilian casualties. During the current year from January 01 to December 15, total 905 civilians lost their lives in the incidents of terrorism whereas during the same period last year 1781 died of terrorism.

In 2013, law and order situation in the country was even worse as the civilian casualties were highest and 41.64 percent higher than 2014 as during 2013 as much as 3001 people lost their lives. However, the situation started improving since the operation Zarb-E-Azb kicked off in mid of June 2014.

Tirmizi believes the major challenge for the military as well as civilian leadership is how to make this peace sustainable in the country. Both the civilian as well as military leadership will have to take measures for ensuring sustainability in peace and this is only possible when the government starts development projects in the tribal areas.

The data further shows that during last one and half years from June 2014 to December 2015, since Operation Zarb-e-Azb kicked off, 4325 terrorists and insurgents were killed. Out of the 4325 militants, 2375 were killed in 2015 and 1950 from June to December 2014. On the other hand, the analysis shows that total 549 security forces personnel sacrificed their lives during the same period.

It is pertinent to mention here that from 2008 to 2014, terrorism was on its peak and Pakistan was the worst-hit country as on average almost 6000 people including civilians, military personnel and militants were killed. However, year 2009 was the most violent year as 2324 civilians and 991 security forces personnel sacrificed their lives.

Tirmizi believes that besides the destruction of terror base camps in tribal areas, joint actions of civilian and security agencies in the urban areas particularly in Karachi improved the overall law and order situation in the country. He feared peace in the country would not be sustainable if the NAP is not implemented in letter and spirit and less developmental work is carried out particularly in the tribal areas.

He said the military leadership’s policy of operation and dialogue and development in Balochistan has also improved the overall situation in the country and this also needs to be continued until the peace prevails in the province.