Islamabad: Pakistan has witnessed the highest number of terrorist attacks in 2022 during the past five years as the terror incidents rose by 28 per cent in comparison to 2021, according to media reports. Pakistan also saw four times more suicide attacks in 2022 in comparison to 2021.
Pakistan witnessed at least 15 suicide bombings while only four suicide attacks were reported in 2021. It is the highest number of suicide attacks in a year since 2018, as per the data released by the Islamabad-based security think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS).
According to the data, there has been a 37 per cent increase in deaths while 35 per cent rise was witnessed in the number of injured in 2022. As per The Nation report, Pakistan witnessed at least 376 terror attacks in 2022, in which 533 people were killed and 832 were injured.
Pakistan has faced more than 300 terrorist attacks for the first time since 2017. In 2017, Pakistan reported 420 terrorist attacks which claimed lives of 912 people and 1877 were injured. In 2022, the human losses from terror attacks were the highest since 2018 as deaths exceeded 500.
The provincial breakdown of terror incidents shows an increase in anti-state violence reported from mainland Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where terrorist attacks rose by 119 per cent and deaths increased by 229 per cent while injured rose by 433 per cent, media reports said.
Furthermore, 34 per cent of the total terror incidents in 2022 were reported from mainland Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while 30 per cent of the total terror attacks were witnessed from its tribal districts (former FATA), which implies that 64 per cent of the total terror incidents were seen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 127 terrorist attacks were reported in 2022 which claimed lives of 204 people and 309 others were injured. According to Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, 113 terror attacks were reported in erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) which claimed the lives of 173 people and 138 others were injured, reports said.
27 per cent of the total attacks were reported in Balochistan which witnessed 103 attacks in which 123 people were killed and 303 others were injured. Sindh witnessed 25 terror incidents, claiming lives of 22 people while 40 others were injured, as per the news report. In Punjab, at least three terrorist attacks caused five deaths and 33 others were injured. Three low-profile attacks were witnessed in Gilgit-Baltistan, where no casualty was reported.
The rise in terrorist attacks in Pakistan began in 2020. It is the same year when different factions of Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) were reunited. The violence further rose in Pakistan after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.
According to the report, 56 per cent increase in terror attacks was witnessed in Pakistan in 2021 while a further 28 per cent rise was seen in 2022. The average of terror attacks per month in 2020 was 16, which rose to 25 in 2021, and it further increased to 31 attacks per month in 2022.
