Violence in Baluchistan has claimed 2,100 lives in five years

Violence in Pakistan`s Baluchistan has claimed over 2,100 lives and left 3,845 injured in 3,234 incidents of bomb blasts, rocket attacks besides sectarian and ethnic killings in the last five years.

Karachi: Violence in Pakistan`s troubled Baluchistan province has claimed over 2,100 lives and left 3,845 injured in 3,234 incidents of bomb blasts, rocket attacks besides sectarian and ethnic killings in the last five years. According to the home department records, sectarian killings remain the biggest challenge for the government and security forces in the province as from 2008 to 2012, 758 members of the Shia community were killed in 478 incidents. Of these, 338 victims belonged to the Hazara community, indicating that Hazaras remain the prime targets of these aggressions, the Express Tribune daily reported. The province has also become a base for a decade-long insurgency as well as a killing field for various sects. Banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi allegedly keeps targeting Shias throughout Balochistan. Accordingly, officials have beefed up safety measures from Quetta to Taftan and are even planning to hold meetings with Iranian authorities to discuss possible arrangements to facilitate the movement of Hazaras from Marriabad to Hazara Town and Hazar Ganji. "The shia community, the Hazaras in particular, remains the prime target of violent groups in the province," Balochistan Home Secretary Captain (retd) Akram Durrani told the newspaper. "We are struggling against militants, but the situation is not as bad as [what is] being reported," he claimed. He added that the increasing trend of violence in Balochistan is alarming, regardless of the disparity between the reported numbers and the actual happenings on the ground. The findings also uncover staggering "kill and dump" statistics. Around 570 dead bodies have been found strewn throughout the province, with 370 of the victims belonging to the Baloch community and 89 to the Pashtun community. The rest remain unidentified to this day. Further, over 402 non-Baloch have been killed in 498 incidents, and over 486 injured in multiple attacks. Not surprisingly, security personnel have also suffered great losses. As many as 340 Frontier Corps personnel and 380 policemen have lost their lives in the line of duty, and 508 security officials in total have been left wounded. PTI