262 terror attacks killed 595 people in Pak in 2018: Report

Islamabad: At least 595 people, including Pakistani security officials, have been killed and 1,030 others injured in 262 terror attacks in the country during 2018, according to a report.

Most of the attacks were targeted at security and law enforcement agencies.

Among these attacks, the most menacing were carried out on political leaders and workers.

The deadliest attacks took place in the run-up to the July 25 general elections, the Pak Institute for Peace Studies' (PIPS), an Islamabad-based think tank, said in its annual Pakistan Security Report 2018.

In July, a suicide bomber killed 128 people at an election rally in southwestern Pakistan in the second election-related attack. The bombing was the most deadly attack in Pakistan in over three years.

It stated that there was a "29 per cent decline in

terrorist attacks and 27 per cent in consequent fatalities in 2018, compared to previous year".

The PIPS said that about 38 per cent of the total 595 people killed in acts of terrorism in Pakistan in 2018 were the result of five lethal attacks claimed by ISIS in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

"Balochistan was the only region where terrorism-related killings surged, by over 23 per cent, when compared to 2017; most of these fatalities resulted from attacks by religiously-inspired militant groups," according to the report.

Around 171 attacks in entire Pakistan were perpetrated by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its splinter groups Jamaatul Ahrar, Hizbul Ahrar and others, which killed 449 people.

Nationalist insurgent groups, mostly in Balochistan and a few in Sindh, carried out 80 attacks, martyring

96 people.