Urban Terrorism in Pakistan Challenges and Counter Strategies

Abstract

Terrorism is a prevailing threat and perpetual challenge for the peace and stability of Pakistan with varying motives, use of diverse strategies, engulfing wide areas and claiming more lives. Pakistan has been facing the menace of terrorism due its geopolitical importance, hostile neighbours, diverse ethnicity and culture, lack of political harmony, weak economic conditions and weak institutions etc. Pakistan is one of the most affected countries by terrorism for last three decades with an alarming number of terrorist incidents across its length and breadth. Terrorism and war on terrorism have charged Pakistan with a mammoth loss of human lives as well as economic loss. Both urban and rural areas are being targeted by terrorist. The main aim of attacking urban areas is to create chaos, fear and panic among a large number of people, destruction of urban life and its tolerance. The impact of terrorist incidents in urban areas is much more complex with far reaching implications. Cities being the economic engines of the country are more susceptible and vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Cites being the main hub of activities makes them an ideal hot spot for terrorists to propagate their message. Urban areas provide a wide opportunity to terrorist to disguise themselves among the general public with entails inability of law enforcing agencies for effective response and counter operations against terrorists. Protecting urban areas against terrorism has become a major challenge for Pakistan. The study aimed at examining the spatial temporal patterns of terrorist incidents in Pakistan from 2001-2015 to understand the dynamics of terrorist incidents in Pakistan. Understanding these patterns highlighted the vulnerable urban and rural areas vis-à-vis number of human causalities, strategies and tactics used by terrorists. GIS was used to give a visual synopsis of these terrorist incidents. This research offers simple timeline visualization and statistical analysis of terrorist incidents. The data and analysis have been presented in various ways to understand the dynamics of terrorist patterns. A total of 10,650 terrorist incidents happened in Pakistan over a period of 15 years from 2001-2015 out of which 438 were suicidal attacks. Approximately 18,176 individuals lost their lives in these incidents and another 32,861 got injured. Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Balochistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas experienced a total of 31% (3251) , 28% xiii (2933) and 20% (2185) terrorist attacks respectively. As far as suicidal attacks are concerned, the highest number i.e. 185 took place in Khyber Pakhtunkwa, 77 in Federally Administered Areas and an alarming number of 68 attacks took place in Punjab with entails a devastating increase in human casualties in these areas. Punjab being the most populous province of Pakistan experienced maximum human in terms of deaths (4368) and injured individuals (1704) in a total number of 429 (4%) terrorist incidents. The number of terrorist incidents was far less as compared to Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Sind. However their lethality vis-à-vis human causalities was far higher. In Pakistan, urban areas are the most affected by terrorism, over 70 percent of terrorist incidents happened in urban areas i.e 7540 out of total 10650 terrorist incidents. To combat terrorism in Pakistan, a comprehensive counter strategy has been suggested to improve urban security and safety.