India witnessed more terror attacks than Pakistan in 2016: US State Department report
India remained one of the states worst hit by attacks during 2016. Photo courtesy: Hindustan Times
(Web desk) – A US State Department report has claimed that India suffered more terrorist attacks than Pakistan in 2016.
According to the Hindustan Times, the report compiled by the US State Department shows that Pakistan suffered the fourth highest number of terrorist attacks during the year 2016 while India witnessed the third highest number.
The report also said that the terrorism in India was not spread out evenly with just four states accounting for more than 50% of the attacks withIndian occupied Kashmir experiencing 19% of overall attacks , Chhattisgarh experiencing 18%, Manipur 12% and Jharkhand 10%.The rise in attacks had increased the total number of deaths in India by 17% for 2016.
However, the report further revealed that while India remained one of the worst hit countries in 2016,terrorist attacks in India had a lower lethality rate compared to other countries hit by attacks.On average a terror attack in India during 2016 caused 0.4 deaths (less than half of the 2.4 deaths per attack worldwide) and nearly three-quarters of the attacks in the country during the year were non-lethal.
According to the report, the terrorism situation in Pakistan remained better during 2016 with the total number of attacks in the country decreasing by 27% and the total number of deaths falling by 12%.However, while the total number of deaths from attacks fell in 2016, the number of people injured in attacks increased by 29% compared to the previous year.
Perpetrator deaths also decreased in Pakistan during 2016 with a 25% reduction reported for the year. While perpetrator deaths remained at 26% worldwide, they only comprised 9% of all deaths in Pakistan for 2016.
Additionally the State Department’s report focused on attacks carried out by the Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
According to the report attacks by the TTP showed a sharp decline from previous years with 67 attacks in 2016 down from more than a hundred in 2013.However, the death toll from the TTP’s attacks increased with 283 deaths reported from attacks in 2016 compared to 240 in 2015.
While both India and Pakistan experienced significant damage from terrorism in 2016 other countries were hit worse. Iraq suffered 2,965 terrorist attacks while Afghanistan was hit with 1,340. Both were worse hitthan either India, with a recorded 927 attacks, or Pakistan with734 attacks.
