New York, Aug 17: Pakistan is the third most likely country to be the target of a terrorist attack within the next 12 months followed by the United States in a list of 186 countries, according to a research paper. The London-based World Markets Research Centre in its yet to be released report 'world terrorism index' puts Columbia on top of the list followed by Israel, Pakistan and the US. North Korea is at the bottom of the list.
The company, the New York Times said, provides research on the risk of terrorism for 500 public and private multinational clients including the European commission, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, General Motors, Microsoft, Intel, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble.
Warning that another Sept. 11-style terrorist attack in the US is highly likely," the report says "networks of militant Islamist groups are less extensive in the us than they are in western Europe, but US-led military action in Afghanistan and Iraq has exacerbated anti-US sentiment".
Israel, the report says, was ranked in second place despite a shaky cease-fire and continued international peace efforts.
Pakistan, whose government has struggled to stop the activities "of individuals and cells that espouse and pursue terrorism”, is in third place, the times said.
The report is due to be released tomorrow.
The criteria used for the rankings included motivation of terrorist groups, the presence of terror cells, the scale and frequency of past attacks, the ability of terror groups to organize and obtain weapons, and the ability of the government to prevent the attacks, company director and the author of the report Guy Dunn said. Bureau Report