Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has revealed yesterday in Islamabad that 247 suicide bombings in the past nine years in Pakistan have left 5,550 dead and injured thousands more. Among the dead almost 3,000 were civilians.
Mr. Qureshi was speaking to the group ‘Friends of Democratic Pakistan’, which includes foreign firms with business interests in Pakistan. He further revealed that terrorism has cost Pakistan’s economy $43 billion. Incidentally, these gory stats were part of Mr. Qureshi’s sales pitch to attract further investment in Pakistan.
Mr. Qureshi’s numbers are highly understated. The total death toll resulting from terrorist violence in Pakistan, and not just suicide bombings, far exceeds what has been stated by the foreign minister. According to the statistics maintained by South Asia Terrorism Portal, which is headed by famed K. P. S. Gill, victims of terrorist violence in Pakistan during 2003-09 alone exceeded 25,000. This also includes 14,596 individuals killed by the security forces. The number of civilian victims at 7,598 far exceeds 5,550, as is maintained by the foreign minister.
| Year | Civilians | Security Forces | Terrorists | Total |
| 2003 | 140 | 24 | 25 | 189 |
| 2004 | 435 | 184 | 244 | 863 |
| 2005 | 430 | 81 | 137 | 648 |
| 2006 | 608 | 325 | 538 | 1471 |
| 2007 | 1523 | 597 | 1479 | 3599 |
| 2008 | 2155 | 654 | 3906 | 6715 |
| 2009 | 2307 | 1011 | 8267 | 11585 |
| Total | 7,598 | 2,876 | 14,596 | 25,070 |
Source: South Asia Terrorism Portal
No one is immune to the terrorist violence in Pakistan. In the mid seventies, when militancy started to take root in Pakistan, its victims were predominantly Shiites and other religious minorities. The military personnel became targets of terrorism only after 9/11 because religious extremists were not pleased with the Pakistani military siding with the Western coalition against the Taliban. As of late, the violence is targeted even at moderate Sunni Muslims as is evidenced by the recent suicide attack at the shrine of Lahore’s patron saint, Data Ganj Bakhsh.
The violence in Pakistan is unlikely to subside in the near future. The hate-laced propaganda is unlikely to stop flowing from Pakistan’s religious establishment, who is motivated by its religious convictions and encouraged at the same time by Pakistan's intelligence apparatus.
The military and civilian intelligence in Pakistan believes in maintaining a strategic depth against India by keeping religious extremists as reservists to be called in for service, if and when needed. Nothing could be more misguided than this notion of strategic depth that has inadvertently exposed the shallowness of Pakistan's social and economic foundations.
The same militants trained by the intelligence to fight against the Soviet and Indian armies are now busy killing Pakistanis in their homes, places of worship, and on streets. A nation of 180 million individuals now lives in a perpetual state of fear. Streets are devoid of life, and bazaars long for shoppers. The militants, who were once considered assets by Pakistan's intelligence, have now become a major liability.
Concomitantly, the Pakistani State has failed to provide even the very basic services, such as clean drinking water, sanitation, primary healthcare, and electricity to the masses. In its drive to achieve a strategic depth against India, Pakistan's intelligence apparatus has created a sorry state of affairs where the populace lives in fear and deprived of the very basic necessities.
While the state and the society continues to falter in Pakistan, the recent round of talks between Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers in Islamabad have ended without progress. Whereas many naively hoped for a major breakthrough, even a modest progress would have been a cause of celebrations across the border.
If such talks continue to fail in producing results, those who advocate dialogue risk losing ground to hawks in both India and Pakistan. One should never let this happen. The stakes are much higher for Pakistan than they are for India. Any dialogue between Pakistan and India should, for Pakistan’s sake, bring the two nations closer to resolving their outstanding issues, most important of which for Pakistan is no longer Kashmir, but is water and domestic terrorism.
Following the failed talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan, any posturing by Pakistan fails to recognize that the country is at the precipice of an economic and social meltdown. With thousands of Pakistanis killed at the hands of other Pakistanis, there's not much room to dig for any strategic depth. Pakistan should try to preserve what it has than to aspire for what it lacks.
For Pakistan, this is the time to make compromises, admit faults, seek forgiveness for decades of transgressions, and chart a new path towards peace, prosperity, and tolerance.
To do anything else would seal Pakistan's disastrous fate.
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