Shocked, arent you? The Nation on Sept 15th published this appauling news when Pakistan finally topped the list of countries suffering from the menace of deadly suicide bombings which have caused the highest number of human losses during the first eight months of 2008, leaving Afghanistan and Iraq behind.
Following are the figures compiled by country’s intelligence agency
Pakistan suffered 28 suicide attacks during the first eight months of 2008, killing over 471 people and wounding 713 others, including innocent civilians as well as the armed forces personnel. On the other hand, the war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq, despite facing a higher digit of suicide bombings during the same period, underwent lesser number of human losses. Available figures show there were 42 incidents of suicide attacks in Iraq between January 1 and August 31, 2008, claiming 463 lives, besides wounding 527 others. In contrast, 436 people were killed and 394 injured in 36 suicide attacks that took place in Afghanistan during the same period.
Of the 471 people killed in suicide bombings across Pakistan in the first eight months of 2008, the number of the civilian casualties was 312. The number of the policemen killed in these attacks stood at 87, followed by 72 personnel of the security forces which have often been targeted in the aftermath of the bloody Operation Silence carried out against the fanatic clerics of the Lal Masjid (July 3-10, 2007).
The Pakistani security forces, especially the armed forces personnel, seem to be the main target of the human bombs ever since the Pakistan Army carried out the bloody Lal Masjid operation which allegedly killed hundreds, including innocent civilians. Look at the figures since then, compiled by the Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency: over 500 armed forces personnel have so far been killed and over 850 injured in 65 incidents of suicide hits across Pakistan in a duration of 13 months [between July 10, 2007 and August 31, 2008]. The year 2007 was the bloodiest since Pakistan joined the war against terror, as a series of deadly suicide attacks and roadside bombings rocked the four provinces as well as the federal capital, claiming over 1,100 lives. The dangerous trend of suicide hits, targeting the armed forces personnel touched alarming heights in 2007, averaging more than one suicide attack a week as the Pakistani establishment apparently lost control of the extremist militants’ networks and their leaders that it had nurtured to advance its geo-strategic agenda in neighbouring states.
While the PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s December 27, 2007 assassination in Rawalpindi was the most high-profile suicide attack of the year 2007, there were total 56 incidents of suicide bombings across Pakistan, mostly targeting the security forces. The tragic assassination of Benazir by a sharp shooter, followed by a suicide bombing, represented the peak of the assault going on in Pakistan for almost a year now. The previous attempt to kill the PPP leader on October 18, 2007, was also carried out by a human bomb which had blown himself up near her welcome procession which she was leading from the airport upon her return to Pakistan after spending eight years in self-exile. However, it was unusual for an individual suicide bomber to kill over 140 people, as had happened in Karachi. Before the Oct 18 attack, the deadliest suicide attack carried out anywhere in the world was the one that killed 133 people in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Feb 3, 2007 when a bomber had detonated an explosive-laden truck at a busy market place.
Figures compiled by the interior ministry show that Pakistan witnessed a ten-fold increase in the incidents of suicide bombings in 2007 as compared to 2006, although there are many who believe that the actual numbers of fatalities could be considerably higher given understated official accounts and erratic reportage from all the conflict zones. The year 2007 witnessed 56 suicide attacks, killing 472 armed forces personnel and injuring 230 civilians. 2007 also saw an increase of 100 percent in attacks targeting the law enforcement personnel, as 234 of them lost their lives in 465 attacks across Pakistan besides killing 262 civilians. In comparison, 224 attacks targeted law enforcement personnel in 2006, resulting in 82 personnel and 159 civilians being killed. The year 2007 also witnessed over a 100 percent increase in bomb blasts, as 42 law enforcement personnel and 164 civilians lost their lives in 477 explosions targeted at them compared to the killings of only ten law enforcement personnel and 110 civilians in 2006 in similar incidents of terrorism.
The year 2007 also topped in total causalities, as 2,116 people, including 558 law enforcement agencies personnel, were killed and 3,962 injured in 1,825 attacks compared to 1,482 attacks in 2006 in which 967 people, including 263 law enforcement agencies personnel, were killed and 1,895 injured. As a matter of fact, there had been only 12 such attacks all over Pakistan between January 1 and July 3, 2007, killing 75 people. Yet the turning point came with the Army’s blood-spattered military action on the Lal Masjid. The remaining 44 suicide attacks took place after the Operation, between July 4 and December 27, 2007, spreading to Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and other urban centres, killing 567 people, mostly the members of the military and paramilitary forces, the ISI and the police.
Thoughts: This is not happening itself we brought this on ourself by first giving birth to an illegal child called Al Qaeda to make our ‘dada’ (U.S) happy and now reaping what we sowed decades ago!!
