— Drop in civilian deaths, but security and government officials at increased risk, says report
ISLAMABAD: A new report has revealed that the number of people killed or wounded in militant attacks and counter-terrorism operations during the first quarter of this year was significantly lower than in the same period last year.
The report, compiled by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), found that 854 people were killed or wounded between January and March, which is half the number recorded during the whole of 2022.
The majority of the deaths occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 245 people lost their lives, followed by Balochistan, where 64 people were killed.
The report also revealed that January was the most fatal month for security forces in a decade, with 111 fatalities. However, the number of civilians killed in violence dropped by over 50 percent compared to the same period last year.
Despite this drop in civilian deaths, the report found that the number of security and government officials killed almost doubled, from 88 in the first quarter of last year to 167 this year.
The majority of the violence was attributed to attacks by the proscribed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which carried out at least 22 attacks resulting in 107 fatalities.
