The ongoing challenge.

Byline: Muhammad Amir Rana

IN 2019, Pakistan witnessed a further decline in the number of terrorist incidents and consequent casualties. Though one might view this as an indication of terrorists' weakening operational capabilities, the war against terrorism is still on. Terrorists have been scattered - but not yet shattered - and persisting extremist tendencies are still a primary source of their human, financial and ideological strengths.

According to data collected by the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, terrorist attacks this year decreased by around 11 per cent as compared to 2018, and the number of people killed in these attacks plummeted by 40pc. Indeed, there has been a gradual decrease in terrorist attacks and casualties since 2009 (with the exception of 2013, when a surge in sectarian violence mainly contributed to a rise in attacks and casualties). Continuous anti-militant operational and surveillance campaigns by security forces and police counterterrorism departments, as well as some counter-extremism actions taken under the National Action Plan, have apparently helped sustain that declining trend 2013 onwards.

The statistics also show that, for the past few years, much of the militant violence has been visibly concentrated in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while other regions have been facing less frequent attacks. While the number of terrorist attacks in Balochistan in 2019 declined by 27pc, the number of attacks in KP remained unchanged from the year before. The number of terrorist incidents recorded in these two regions was significant; 125 attacks took place in KP and 84 in Balochistan, which were over 91pc of the total attacks reported from across Pakistan.

Terrorist attacks in Pakistan continued to decline but the threat is not yet over.

This year, so-called religiously inspired militant groups such as the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, its splinter groups Hizbul Ahrar and Jamaatul Ahrar, as well as other militant groups with similar objectives such as local Taliban groups, Lashkar-i-Islam and IS-affiliates perpetrated 158 terrorist attacks and nationalist insurgent groups, mainly Baloch, carried out 57 attacks. Meanwhile, 14 of the reported terrorist attacks in 2019 were sectarian-related.

These trends indicate that the threat is not over yet, but talk of countering militancy and terrorism has almost disappeared from media, public and policy discourses. It seems all are becoming convinced by the narrative that we have...