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PRESS RELEASE

Pak Institute for Peace Studies

Islamabad/7 January 2018

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan still the most potent threat, followed by nationalist

insurgents – PIPS “Pakistan Security Report 2017”
 Footprints of Daesh increasing, killed 153 in 6 deadliest attacks
 Down 16% from the year before, 370 terrorist attacks took place in Pakistan killing 815
and injuring 1,736 people
 Balochistan and FATA, mainly Kurram Agency, remained critical areas with 288 and 253
terrorism-related killings, respectively, in 2017
 TTP, Jamaatul Ahrar and others with similar objectives perpetrated 58% attacks, while
37% and 5% of the attacks were carried out by nationalist insurgents and violent
sectarian groups respectively.
 Up 131 percent from previous year, 171 cross-border attacks took place from Pakistan’s
borders with India, Afghanistan, and Iran, killing 188 people and wounding 348 others.
 Security forces and law enforcement agencies killed 524 militants in military/security
operations as well as armed clashes and encounters.
 Ambiguity remains on which government body is responsible for National Action Plan
 Hints that National Security Policy, to be released in 2018, will take into account
especially global and regional scenarios including the evolving Pakistan-US relations
 National Internal Security Policy will be reviewed in 2018
 Any debate on mainstreaming militants should be steered by parliament, laying down
criteria

Despite a 16% decline in terrorist attacks in 2017, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and its
associated groups remained the most potent threat; they were followed by nationalist-insurgent
groups, especially Balochistan Liberation Army and Balochistan Liberation Front. What has
been quite alarming is the increasing footprints of Daesh, especially in Balochistan and northern
Sindh, carrying out the deadliest attacks. These realities require concerted effort and a revision
of the National Action Plan, country’s counter-terror plan for yet ambiguity remains about who is
responsible for NAP. It will be much better that parliament provides oversight to not only NAP,
help revise it in light of new realities, but also lay down criteria for mainstreaming militants –
which drew debate in 2017.

These are some of the major findings of the Pakistan Security Report 2017, released by Pak
Institute for Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think-tank specializing in security and conflict
dynamics of Pakistan and the region. The organization compiled its findings on the basis of its
multi-source database, coupled with interviews and articles by subject experts.

The report tallied that militant, nationalist/insurgent and violent sectarian groups carried out, in
all, 370 terrorist attacks in 64 districts of Pakistan during the year 2017 – including 24 suicide
and gun-and-suicide coordinated attacks, killing 815 people, besides injuring 1,736. These
attacks posted a 16 per cent decrease from the total in the previous year; even the number of
people killed fell by 10 per cent.
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Of these attacks, as many as 213, or 58 per cent, were perpetrated by Tehreek-e-Taliban

Pakistan (TTP), its splinter groups mainly Jamaatul Ahrar and other militant groups with similar
objectives such as local Taliban groups, killing 186 people. Meanwhile, nationalist insurgent
groups, mostly in Balochistan and a few in Sindh, carried out 138 attacks, or 37 per cent of the
total, killing 140 people. As many as 19 terrorist attacks were sectarian-related, in which killed
71 people and inflicted injuries on 97 others.

The report also noted that compared to 2016, a significant surge of 131 percent was witnessed
during 2017 in cross-border attacks from Pakistan’s borders with Afghanistan, India and Iran. A
total of 171 cross-border attacks claimed 188 lives and injured 348 others.

Furthermore, security forces and law enforcement agencies killed a total of 524 militants in 2017
– compared to 809 in 2016 – in 75 military/security operations as well as 68 armed clashes and
encounters with the militants reported from across 4 provinces and FATA.

At the same time, some new challenges raised their heads; these included emergence of self-
radicalized individuals and small terrorist cells, growing incidence of religious extremism
including on educational campuses, and, most importantly, increasing footprints of Daesh in
parts of the country and convergence of its fighters in Afghanistan near Pakistani border. In
2017, Daesh and its local affiliates/supporters claimed 6 major terrorist attacks, killing 153
people. In Balochistan, the group carried out a suicide attack on the convoy of Senate Deputy
Chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri in Mastung, besides abducting Chinese nationals
from Quetta and killing them later. Sindh’s deadliest attack in terms of casualties was on a Sufi
shrine in Sehwen Sharif, claimed by Daesh too.

An interview with National Security Advisor, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Nasser Khan Janjua, in the report,
reveals that National Security Policy has been documented and circulated internally in the
government; some broad contours of this policy, which is to be launched in 2018, have been
hinted at in the report; it is quite likely that this policy (NSP) will take into consideration global
and regional scenarios, including the relations between Pakistan, China, and the US. Yet
another interview, with National Coordinator NACTA, Ihsan Ghani, shares that National Internal
Security Policy is in review at present; the new policy as well as Counter-Extremism Policy will
be revealed in 2018 too.

PIPS also noted that the two interviews reiterated there are still ambiguities about which
government body is responsible for implementing NAP. It suggests revising National Action Plan
in light of new realities, and dividing it into two broader components, a counter-terror plank,
dealing with more immediate issues, and counter-violent extremism plank, dealing with issues
having affects in the longer term.

Meanwhile, taking stock of the debates surrounding mainstreaming of banned groups and
individuals, the report calls for removing any ambiguity to this end, and recommends that any
process to this end should be inclusive, led by parliament, which should lay down a criteria to
the pre-conditions of mainstreaming such groups.

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For any detail, please contact:

Muhammad Ismail Khan,

Pak Institute for Peace Studies
0333-5370904
ismkhan@pakpips.com