Pakistan continues war against terrorists   

By Nasir Aijaz
The AsiaN Representative

ISLAMABAD: The year 2024 has come to an end – but the year’s end, in fact, is neither an end nor a beginning but an ongoing process. This truly applies to Pakistan, a south Asian nation that has been striving for peace with a war on terror for about a quarter century when the allied forces invaded Afghanistan after 9/11.

During all these years, Pakistan faced the worst kind of terrorism directed against the civilians as well as law enforcement agencies.  According to a report by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, 23,372 Pakistani civilians and 8,832 Pakistani security personnel were killed in the War on Terrorism during the period from 2001 to 2019.

According to the Ministry of Interior, attacks and fatalities in Pakistan were on a declining trend between 2015 and 2019, but have gone back up from 2020-2022, with 971 fatalities (229 civilians, 379 Security Force personnel and 363 terrorists), in 2022. Almost similar trend continued during the year 2023, as the data show after five consecutive years of declining fatality rates down to 365 in 2019, the number of terrorism deaths in Pakistan was up every year since, quadrupling to at least 1,438 in 2023.

The year 2024 was also not different to previous years as every month of this year witnessed bloodshed. August remained the deadliest month for Pakistan in the past six years, when 254 people, including 92 civilians and 54 security personnel, were killed in militant attacks and bombings.

October emerged as the second deadliest month of the year as fatalities rose to 198. Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank, said in its report released in November that 198 lives were lost last month, including 98 terrorists, 62 security personnel and 38 civilians, across the South Asian country. Additionally, 111 people, including 56 civilians, 44 security forces personnel and 11 militants, sustained injuries.

The PICSS noted that October recorded the highest number of militant fatalities and security forces deaths in a single month this year, with combatants accounting for 81% of the total deaths. The data showed that the number of militant attacks dropped by 12% to a total of 68 incidents in October but the month still saw a sharp 77% increase in the overall death toll compared to September. About 87% of attacks, 59 out of 68, occurred in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province followed by Balochistan province with 24 attacks, both provinces bordering Afghanistan.

Other two provinces experienced relatively fewer violent incidents, with Punjab recording six incidents that led to 19 deaths, all terrorists, and Sindh reporting four incidents with six fatalities.

“Pakistan has endured a total of 785 militant attacks during the first ten months of 2024, resulting in 951 deaths and 966 injuries, reflecting a persistently high level of violence across the country,” according to the report.

Islamabad accuses “Afghan-based” TTP militants of carrying out terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, while Kabul denies the allegation that its soil is being used against its neighbors.

In September last, the top spokesman for the Pakistani Army said that since the beginning of 2024 the army conducted 32,173 anti-terrorism operations in which 193 officers and soldiers have been killed. Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in Rawalpindi that in the past month a total of 4,021 operations were conducted in which 90 suspected militants were killed. He said that the army and law enforcement agencies conduct an average of 130 operations per day. The army has recently stepped up raids against militants, and Chaudhry said the Pakistani Army was “continuing its efforts” to “end terrorism.”

On December 27, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry while addressing a press conference, shared the overall figures of the year according to which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces have seen a surge in terror attacks in recent months, with groups like the Pakistani Taliban and other militant and separatist groups attacking security forces’ convoys and check posts and carrying out daily targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials.

The military spokesman said that security forces conducted 59,775 intelligence-based operations this year, during which 925 militants had been killed and hundreds of others arrested.

“Over the last five years, this is the highest number of terrorists killed in a single year,” Chaudhry said, adding that 73 of the militants killed were “high value targets.”

“During these counter-terrorism operations in 2024, 383 brave officers and soldiers embraced martyrdom.”

According to official reports, a few days before the military spokesman’s press conference, the terrorists had attacked a military caravan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan district and killed 16 soldiers. The attack was retaliated by killing eight terrorists. Pakistan also carried out air strikes on December 24 in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province to destroy hideouts of the terrorists. Pakistan reiterated while briefing a United Nations Security Council meeting that TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, was orchestrating terrorist attacks from Afghan sanctuaries.

“The TTP, with 6,000 fighters, is the largest listed terrorist organization operating in Afghanistan. With safe havens close to our border, it poses a direct and daily threat to Pakistan’s security,” said Usman Iqbal Jadoon, Pakistan’s representative at the United Nations.

Pakistan is perhaps the only country in the word who is under constant threat of terrorism and whose army is engaged in war against the terrorists round the year to eliminate the terrorists and restore the peace.