Violence sharply up in Pakistan

Suicide bombing in a Lahore mosque // Source: chinapost.com.tw

More than 2,500 people were killed in militant attacks in Pakistan in 2010, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). Nearly half of victims were civilians killed in suicide blasts. There were 67 such attacks last year, the group said.

The BBC quotes the report to say that at least 900 people had been killed in U.S. drone strikes during the same period.

The number of people killed by the army is not mentioned, but it estimated to be in the region of 600-700. The HRCP is the main human rights watchdog in the country. Its findings are often disputed by the authorities, the BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says.

BBC research published last July suggested 1,713 people had been killed by militants over the preceding eighteen months, while 746 people had died in drone attacks during the same period.

“Pakistan’s biggest problem continues to be violence carried out militants,” HRCP chairman Mehdi Hasan said after the report, which the period from January to December 2010, was released. “In 2010, 67 suicide attacks were carried out across the country in which 1,169 people were killed,” he said. “At least 1,000 of those were civilians.”

Dr. Hasan said that in all 2,542 people had been killed in militant attacks in the country last year.

He told the BBC that the most glaring example of government oversight had been in Balochistan province, where targeted killings shot up rapidly with 118 people being killed in 2010.

Dr. Hasan said the figure was set to increase in 2011, as the government seemed unconcerned about the unraveling of the law and order situation in Balochistan.

The HRCP report also spoke about increasing intolerance against religious minorities in the country. It said 99 members of the Ahmedi (Qadiani) sect had been killed in attacks in 2010, while 64 people had been charged under the country’s blasphemy law.

There was no immediate response to the report from the Pakistani authorities, nor was there any word from militant groups.

The Dawn offers these details from the report:

• The country witnessed a series of faith-based attacks in which not only were minorities targeted but 418 Muslims belonging to various sects were killed. Suicide attacks on Muslims injured 628 people, mainly Shia and Barelvi.
• The report said prejudices of law-enforcement personnel were believed to be a hurdle in effective protection of religious minorities in serious danger from Taliban or sectarian militant groups.
• The report highlighted a growing spread of hate literature and said it had been monitored that in the mainstream Urdu newspapers 1,468 news articles and editorials promoted hate, intolerance and discrimination against Ahmedis.
• The report highlighted a bleak picture of the official state of affairs regarding the blasphemy law and said 2010 saw the government’s flip–flopping on reform of the controversial law and also showed how it lost nerve in the face of intimidation by extremists after the idea of reform was floated.
• On the law and order front, about 12,580 people were murdered and 581 kidnapped for ransom. At least 16,977 cases of kidnapping were reported.
• U.S. drones strikes were responsible for 957 extra-legal killings and 338 people were killed in police encounters. Only 28 suspects were injured and captured.
• Target killings in Karachi claimed the lives of 237 political activists and 301 other civilians and 81 people were killed in the Lyari gang wars, the report said.