September turned to be the deadliest month across the country as casualties touched figure of 1,048 people (493 died and 555 injured), a report by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Islamabad has read.
According to the report, this is an increase of 35 percent compared to 774 casualties occurred in August (432 dead and 342 injured).
Besides, more than 50 percent of the total casualties had taken place during the last nine days of the month (September 22–30) when 240 people died and over 370 persons were injured across the country.
Holding of the long-awaited All Parties Conference (APC) on September 9 was a major development to tackle, through peaceful means, insurgence and politically-motivated violence plaguing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Karachi.
While the participants of APC were agreed to seek an end to the problems through peaceful negotiations, the joint resolution issued after the conference failed to clearly identify stakeholders on the other side and whether such parleys would be held under the constitution. Thus, the vague outcome provoked the media to severely criticise the government and commentators even condemned it as surrendering to those using violent means to propagate their cause.
The report said the peace overtures shown by the government and various political parties, however, were not enough to dissuade terrorists from violence. Peshawar and its surrounding areas in particular witnessed some of the deadliest attacks in the later part of September. They included a twin suicide bombing on the All Saints’ Church in the city that left more than 85 people dead, nearly half of them women and children. Christian sources claimed the death toll to be around 120.
Besides, Balochistan had a sigh of relief this month when it experienced a significant reduction in deaths of violence. As against deaths of 138 people in August, 53 people lost their lives in violence this month, almost 40 percent reduction in fatalities. However, unsuccessful attempts were made by the militants and insurgents to target high-profile government officials during the rescue operation for the quake-affected people of Awaran.
The report has also figured out the casualties resulted by five drone attacks during the month of September that remained 28 (24 deaths and 4 injuries). Two of these drone attacks had taken place prior to the APC resolution while the remaining three occurred afterward. The Taliban recently added “stoppage of drone attacks” as another precondition for ceasefire and negotiations.
