LAHORE - More than 21,000 persons including 4,800 security personnel were killed in terror related attacks across the country after a moratorium on executions was enforced in 2008 under what the government circles say “international pressure”.
As far as suicide attacks are concerned, at least 330 incidents were reported from January 2008 to November 2014, in which no less than 4937 persons were killed and more than 10,000 wounded.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday ordered to end a de facto moratorium on the death sentence in terror-related cases a day after Taliban gunmen butchered 141 people including 132 school children in Peshawar. The assault, which triggered worldwide revulsion, was the deadliest terror attack in the country’s history.
Reportedly, 533 condemned prisoners including 76 terrorists are lying in the prisons. Official sources state that the government has decided to hang the terrorists and at least eight of them would likely to be hanged within 24 hours. During the last seven years, only one person, a soldier convicted by the military court, has been hanged.
This year (from January to November 23) at least 23 suicide attacks were reported all over the country in which 184 persons were killed and 483 injured. Last year, terrorists carried out 43 suicide attacks which left 752 persons dead and 1411 others injured.
In 2011, the country suffered 41 suicide attacks in which 628 persons were killed and 607 wounded.
According to a research group which compiles the fatalities in terror related incidents in the South Asian region, at least 893 persons were killed and 1846 wounded in suicide attacks in 2008. Similarly, 494 people were killed and 2356 injured in 76 suicide attacks reported in 2009. Also terrorists killed 1167 people and injured 2199 in 49 suicidal attacks in 2010.
Rights groups estimate that more than 8,000 prisoners are on death row in the country and most of them have exhausted the appeals process. Officials said that the mercy petitions of at least 467 prisoners, who are death row in the country, had already been dismissed by the courts.
Experts argue that the death penalty is the only effective way to deal with the scourge of terrorism since the country’s criminal justice system is complicated and slow. Protection for the witnesses, judges, and prosecutors is also a serious matter in the justice system.
“It is a harsh reality that terrorists get acquitted from the courts on the plea that the cases lacked evidence or the proper legal procedures were not followed,” says a Lahore-based analyst. The war on terrorism has to be fought by the entire nation and the judiciary being part of the State will have to realise the threat, he added.
“Terrorists must not be allowed to get freed and rejoin their main groups,” another security expert said. People also talk around that 12 innocent people in Islamabad District Courts lost their lives as many terrorists managed to get freed from courts for lack of evidence.
Last year, the PML-N led government had scrapped the moratorium in a bid to crack down on criminals and militants. But two weeks later, the government announced a further stay of executions after an outcry from rights groups and the then-President Asif Ali Zardari. The European Union officials also warned that if Pakistan resumed executions the GSP plus status for the terror-hit State could be at risk.
Following are the major terror strikes reported this year in different parts of the country.
November 2: 61 persons, including three Rangers officials, were killed and over 150 received injuries when a suicide bomber blew himself up at Wagah check-post, close to the international border with India.
Feb13: At least 13 policemen were killed and 58 others were injured in a suicide blast targeting a bus carrying 50 police officers near the gate of Razzakabad Police Training Center in Shah Latif Town of Karachi. TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said, “We carried out the attack against the police because they are killing our people”.
January 20: A TTP suicide bomber killed 13 persons, including eight soldiers and three children, and wounded 29 others in Royal Artillery Bazaar close to General Headquarters in Rawalpindi District.