New Delhi: India witnessed an 18 per cent surge in terror-related casualties in 2016 as compared to the previous year and has been ranked eighth in the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report released Wednesday.
Although 340 deaths from terrorism were recorded in 2016 alone, the figures were still the third-lowest since 2000. The GTI report is released annually by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics & Peace.
The report said that though there has been a palpable dip in terror-related deaths in the last couple of years, the number of terror attacks have actually increased 16 per cent over the last year. A total of 929 terror-related incidents were reported in the country as compared to 800 in 2015.
However, India still has the lowest rate of deaths per attack among the top 10 countries that are most impacted by terror-related violence. India had an average of 0.4 deaths per attack compared to 2.7 deaths per attack for the rest of the other countries that figure in the top 10.
The report elaborated that most of the non-lethal explosions were designed to attract people and the government’s attention and aimed at evoking a shock-and-awe effect. In fact, such blasts were intentionally carried out some distance away from crowded places to lessen the impact.
Maoist rebels, operating in the ‘red corridor’ in central and eastern India, remained the biggest challenge for India’s security apparatus. According to the report, Maoist groups were behind the highest number of blasts and were responsible for over 50% terror-related deaths.
The alarming figures raised questions about union home minister Rajnath Singh’s claim that the country would be rid of Maoist insurgency by 2022.
Police and civilians were the predominant target of Maoist rebels as they accounted for over 50 per cent of all attacks and 88 per cent of deaths last year, the report said.
On the issue of Islamist terrorism in the country, the report cited dispute with Pakistan over Jammu & Kashmir as the primary reason behind a spike in violence.
Despite numerous international sanctions - Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT), founded by Hafiz Saeed, and Hizbul Mujahideen, headed by Syed Salahuddin - remained the two deadliest terror groups.
The report said that LeT, which mainly operates out of Pakistan, was responsible for 30 deaths in as many as 20 attacks last year. Hizbul Mujahideen, on the other hand, was responsible for five deaths.
The report also revealed the role of various ethnic secessionist movements that are causing terror-related deaths in the country. For instance, National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), the report said, was responsible for 15 deaths, while United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) militants claimed 7 lives last year.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen and Somali are ranked first to seventh, respectively, in the 2017 terror index.
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