8 Pakistani cities feature in world’s deadliest cities index

Eight Pakistani cities are listed among 64 cities from around the world that are at an “extreme risk” of terror attacks, according to a new index by Verisk.

The cities in Pakistan include Peshawar (7), Quetta (9), Hassu Khel (10), Karachi (16), Rawalpindi (27), Lahore (29), Sukkur (24) and Islamabad (44).

The index after assessing 1,300 of the world’s most important commercial hubs and urban centres ranked world cities by the likelihood of a terror attack based on historic trends.

Peshawar rose sharply in the index following a deadly attack on an army-run school in the city on December 16 which claimed more than 142 lives mostly children.

Quetta and Karachi are privy to terrorist activities as well.

In 2013, a US magazine Foreign Policy termed Karachi “the most dangerous megacity” in the world.

In a piece on Karachi’s role in the global trade of methamphetamine — an illegal psychostimulant – Foreign Policy cited a murder rate of 12.3 per 100, 000 residents, “some 25 percent higher than any other major city”.

The world’s seven most dangerous cities are all in Iraq, with Baghdad topping the list as the world’s most dangerous city. Islamic State-held Mosul ranked number 2 and Ramadi was at number 3.

Though majority of the cities in the index are in the Middle East (27) and Asia (19), European cities have also been placed at a risk of a terror attack in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Paris is ranked 97th in the world, up from 201st at the start of the year prior to the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Three are in Europe, namely Luhansk (46) and Donetsk (56) in Ukraine, and Grozy (54) in Russia. The only South American in the list is Colombia’s Cali ranked at number 59.

The British city most at risk of terror attacks is Belfast (91), followed by Bristol (178), Cardiff (313), Manchester (398) and London (400).

Some 14 are in Africa, where the rise of Boko Haram and al-Shabab as well as political instability have increased risk of terror attacks.

In Verisk Maplecroft’s new Global Alerts Dashboard (GAD), an online mapping and data portal that logs and analyses every reported terrorism incident down to levels of 100m² worldwide, cities were ranked based on the intensity and frequency of attacks in the 12 months following February 2014, combined with the number and severity of incidents in the previous five years.

Over the period, the world’s most dangerous country Baghdad suffered 380 terrorist attacks resulting in 1141 deaths and 3654 wounded.