Pakistan overtakes Afghanistan as country worst hit by terror | World News

pakistan over Afghanistan As the country with the largest number of terrorist attacks and deaths in South Asia, the annual Global Terrorism Index report released by the Australian Institute of Economics and Peace said. Pakistan Last year saw the second largest increase in terror-related deaths worldwide, with the death toll rising sharply to 643. The death toll in Pakistan is the largest year-on-year increase in the past decade. At least 55 percent of all terror-related victims were military. It jumped four places to sixth in the index due to a sharp rise in deaths, the report said.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) was responsible for 36 percent of terrorism-related deaths in Pakistan, a nine-fold increase from the previous year. The BLA has reportedly overtaken the Pakistani Taliban Movement (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, as the deadliest terrorist organization in Pakistan.

The BLA’s fatality rate has risen to its highest level, with 7.7 deaths per attack in 2022, compared with 1.5 deaths per attack the year before. Of the 233 BLA-related deaths in 2022, 95% were in the military.

The BLA claims to be fighting for the independence of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran. Pakistan, the US and the UK have designated the BLA and TTP as terrorist organisations.

According to the report, the BLA’s deadliest attack in 2022 occurred in February last year when its gunmen bombed and shot at two separate security posts of the Pakistan Frontier Corps. While no official death toll has been confirmed, the BLA claimed responsibility for the attacks and that they killed 195 soldiers in two attacks.

The Global Terrorism Index noted that terrorism remained largely concentrated along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, where 63 percent of attacks and 74 percent of deaths occurred. Increased terrorism by the TTP and the Islamic State Khorasan group contributed to the rise in the death toll across the country, the report said.

The TTP has been terrorizing Pakistani security forces in its quest for a Sharia-compliant state like the one established by the militant Taliban in Afghanistan.

– The Pakistani Taliban is an offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban. Its leaders and commanders are based in Afghanistan, from where they allegedly plan cross-border terrorism. Islamic State Khorasan attacks have occurred along the Afghan border, with 13 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with eight and Balochistan with two. The deadliest ISK attack in Pakistan in 2022 occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, when a suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque during Friday prayers killed at least 56 people, the report said.