Pakistan third worst hit by terrorism in 2013: Global Terrorism Index

LONDON —

A new global study says there were nearly 10,000 terrorist attacks in 2013, 44 percent more than the year before;  mostly in four countries including Pakistan.

The London-based Institute for Economics and Peace says those attacks in 2013 resulted in nearly 18,000 deaths.

Its Global Terrorism Index reported four groups dominated the attacks — the Islamic State group, Boko Haram, al-Qaida and the Taliban — and were responsible for 66 percent of the fatalities.

The report said more than 80 percent of the deaths from terrorist incidents were in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria.

It said Iraq was the country most affected by terrorism, with 2,492 attacks that killed more than 6,300 people. It said the Islamic State group was responsible for “most” of the deaths in the country. Iraq recorded a perfect 10 Terrorism Index Score (TIS).

Following Iraq is Afghanistan with 1148 terror attacks killing 3111 people and 9.39 TIS.

Pakistan, ranking 3rd out of 162 countries was recorded to have suffered 2345 fatalities and 5035 injuries in 1933 terror attacks. 701 events of loss or damage to property were also recorded in terrorism across the country in year 2013 with a TIS of 9.37.

Nigeria was recorded as the fourth worst hit by terrorism with 303 attacks resulting in 1826 fatalities and 8.58 TIS.

Syria ranked fifth, followed by India with the TIS of 8.12 and 7.86, respectively.

In 2013, 24 countries experienced terrorist attacks that killed more than 50 people. There were 75 countries that did not experience a terrorist attack.