The cases of suicide attacks are continuously increasing in Pakistan, which is notorious for sponsoring cross-border terrorism.
Especially since Narendra Modi government came to power in India, since 2014 till now i.e. in 2023, there have been the highest number of suicide attacks, almost half of which were targeted at security forces.
According to a report by Pakistan’s famous newspaper ‘Dawn’, this year has seen the highest number of suicide attacks in the last 10 years.
Dawn, citing the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), reported that this year there were “a staggering 29 suicide attacks, resulting in 329 deaths and 582 injuries.”
The PICSS report said, “48 percent of the deaths and 58 percent of the injuries have occurred to Pakistani security personnel. “This is the highest death toll since 2013, when 683 people lost their lives in 47 suicide bombings.”
Comparing the data to the previous year, 2022, shows that there has been an alarming 93 percent increase in the number of suicide attacks within a year, resulting in a shocking 226 percent increase in the death toll. There is also an alarming 101 percent increase in the number of people injured in suicide attacks.
Furthermore, the share of suicide attacks in the total number of attacks in Pakistan has increased from 3.9 percent in 2022 to 4.7 percent in 2023, underscoring the gravity of the situation.
The report said that maximum number of such attacks have taken place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There were 254 deaths and 512 people injured in 23 incidents.
Within KP, 13 suicide attacks occurred in newly merged districts or the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), resulting in 85 deaths and 206 injuries.
Balochistan also faced five such attacks, resulting in 67 deaths and 52 injuries, while Sindh suffered a suicide attack, resulting in eight deaths and 18 injuries.
According to data shown through a pie chart in the report, 48 percent of the deaths and 58 percent of the injuries due to suicide attacks were on security forces personnel.
The report said that the number of such suicide attacks that could harm Pakistan was 30 in 2014, which came down to just three by 2019, but a sudden increase has been seen since 2022.
A total of 15 suicide attacks took place in 2022, killing 101 and injuring 290. The same trend is being seen in 2023 also.