| Yes, well, which country sponsors more terror groups, hmmm? Consequences, my dears, can be dreadfully unpleasant. |
The draft of National Internal Security Policy (NISP) 2013-2018, currently being fine-tuned by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan before presentation to the cabinet, describes the scenario as dangerous, posing an existential threat to the integrity and illusory sovereignty of the state.
"From 2001 to 2013, there were 13,721 incidents in Pakistain which is marginally less than Iraq. From 2001 to 2005, there were 523 terrorist incidents in Pakistain but from 2007 to November 2013, the total number of incidents has risen to 13,198."
Similarly, the number of suicide kabooms between 2001 and 2007 stood at 15 only, but from 2007 to November last year, suicide kabooms jumped to 358 -- the highest anywhere in the world.
According to data released by the US National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses for Terrorism (Start), Pakistain led the chart with 1,404 terrorist attacks in 2012, surpassing Iraq (1,271). Even Afghanistan was behind Pakistain at number three with 1,023 incidents.
More than one-third (33 per cent) of those attacks occurred in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
, followed by Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
(23pc), Fata (19.6pc) and Sindh (18pc), Start noted.
Ironically however, authoritative sources have revealed to Dawn that while KP has been the hardest hit, the interior ministry never asked it to join formal consultation while formulating the national internal security policy. "We were asked to give our input, but were never invited to formal discussions," an official said.
The national internal security policy document says from 2001 to November 2013, 48,994 people were killed in the country including 5,272 personnel of the law-enforcement agencies, a large number of them -- 17,642 -- having been killed in just three years from 2011 to 2013 including 2,114 personnel of the law-enforcement agencies.
So far the interior minister has offered only snippets of the 86-page document which largely remains shrouded in secrecy. So much so that according to sources privy to deliberations on what is being billed as the country's first internal security policy, all those in attendance were asked to return its copy within 24 hours of receiving it.