Militant Attacks in Pakistan Database

Critical Threats has published the data below to provide context for the recent attack upon the U.S. consulate in Peshawar. This data has been constructed from open source reporting of incidents, and therefore does not include incidents that were not reported in major Pakistani and international media organizations. Furthermore, while the data includes incidents in Azad-Kashmir, it focuses primarily on the FATA and NWFP regions. Thus, this data should be taken as representative rather than authoritative.

Terrorist attacks in Pakistan hit a nadir in the summer of 2009, after the Swat operation and prior to the Waziristan operation.  Attacks in Punjab, Islamabad, and Peshawar in the NWFP increased in the days before and the weeks during and immediately following the operation in Waziristan, as militant forces attempted to reduce public support for the operation and distract military planners. However, militant forces have largely not penetrated Punjab or Islamabad in recent months, perhaps due to a lack of capability or an inability to secure the assistance of Punjab-based militant groups, whose cooperation is traditionally necessary for the execution of attacks outside the FATA and NWFP.

Attacks in FATA and the NWFP remain high in number, however. This is likely due to ongoing Pakistani military operations in the FATA region. The Critical Threats team publishes a daily tracker of Pakistani military operations in the Orakzai agency, located in the center of the FATA, here.