Violence rises again in Balochistan

Balochistan has drifted back to high levels of violence after a slight improvement in the preceding year, a leading Pakistani newspaper said on Sunday.

This is despite the military offensives helping achieve relative stability in other parts of the country, official statistics made available to The News International revealed.

A total of 286 gun and bomb attacks were recorded in the province last year compared to 226 in 2013.

The worst factor is that the Islamic State has executed three deadly attacks in Balochistan by targeting law enforcers, shrines and politicians in the past seven months.

Balochistan witnessed 1,647 incidents of gun, bomb and suicide attacks in past six years, official documents revealed.

A total of 2,105 people were killed and 4,089 injured in these incidents during this period.

Around 1,000 bullet-ridden bodies were recovered from various parts of the province in the past six years, the documents show.

The current year witnessed around 80 incidents of bomb attacks.

The year 2016 saw the killing of 331 innocent people, much more than the 202 killed in 2015.

The militants repeatedly targeted Frontier Corps and police personnel in Balochistan, Pakistan's biggest and most troubled province.

--IANS

mr/ksk