Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: The Fata Research Centre in its annual report said during the year 2018 total of 264 terrorism-related incidents happened in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and erstwhile Fata districts that killed 152 and injured 214 persons 2018.
The annual security report issued on Tuesday said that 127 terrorism and 137 counter-terrorism incidents were recorded during the year of 2018. It said that compared to 2017 the number of untoward incidents had been recorded at 325, which showed a 17 percent decrease in the terrorism-related incident. It further said 153 terrorism and 172 counter-terrorism incidents happened in 2017.
This shows a decrease of 17 percent in terrorism incidents and 20 percent in counter-terrorism incidents in 2018 as compared to the previous year.
According to the report of a total of 127 terrorist incidents in 2018, 63 terrorist attacks targeted the security forces while 58 attacks were carried out directly against civilians. Five terrorist attacks had also targeted members peace committee locally known as Amn Lashkar.
The Fata research report further said that an incident that happened between terrorist groups was also reported during the year 2018.
The report said a total of 152 persons were killed while 214 others were injured in both terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism actions in all the KP Tribal districts, marking a significant decrease of 70 percent in overall casualties.
Of the total casualties, the report mentioned that 75 were killed and 117 were Injured were civilians among those killed in 2018. It said 136 casualties were borne by the security forces which made it 37 percent of the overall casualties while eight casualties of Amn Lashkar personnel in which five persons were killed and three injured during the year 2018.
The reports found that in terms of volatility, the North Waziristan tribal district where repatriation of internally displaced persons is going on after the full-fledged military operation Zarb-e-Azb remained the most turbulent area. It said that total of 58 terrorism incidents were recorded in the North Waziristan district during the reporting year compared to 27 such incidents in the previous year. The Bajaur tribal district stood second with 21 terrorist incidents, followed by Khyber and South Waziristan where 18 and 16 terrorist incidents happened respectively.
Although only three incidents of terrorism were reported in Orakzai tribal district, however, they remained more significant due to the massive number of civilian casualties in these attacks.
According to the report Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) Wazir Taliban, Mehsud Taliban, Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI), Tauheed ul Islam and Islamic State of Khorasan (ISK) remained the major actors of instability in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal districts during the year 2018.
Irfan Uddin, a senior security analyst at FATA Research Centre told this scribe that the decline in terrorism incidents in the year 2018 no doubt illustrates the effectiveness of military operations in weakening the operational capacity of terrorist groups. He said with the new alliance of Baloch terrorists, TTP, and other affiliated groups could unleash a new wave of terror against security forces and Chinese working in various parts of the country.
“Although the killing of Fazalullah was considered a huge blow to tehreek-e-Taliban the appointment of Noor Wali Mahsud as the new chief has again strengthened the group significantly”, Irfan said. He added that the ability of Noor Mahsud to bridge back the rifts between Mahsud factions of Taliban and the new alliance of the group with Baloch terrorist groups has significantly increased the operational capacity of the terrorist groups to not only carry out terrorist activities inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal districts but also could target security forces and Chinese in Balochistan province and other parts of the country.
The security analyst said the return of Lashkar Islam head Mangal Bagh to Tirah valley of Khyber Agency is also a dangerous indication of who could again launch attacks in Khyber Agency. He said Mangal Bagh return to Tirah was the chance to re-emerge Laskher Islam in the Khyber district.
