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CMC sees drop in suicide attacks after suspension of Nato supplies Usman Manzoor Thursday, April 05, 2012 ISLAMABAD: Terrorism in Pakistan has been linked to drone attacks as there was no drone attack in December 2011 and so was no suicide attack in the country, says Conflict Monitoring Centre (CMC), an independent research centre which regularly monitors drone attacks and terrorism incidents in Pakistan. The spokesman of CMC, Abdullah Khan, while talking to The News said that ever since Salala incident when Nato supply line has been disconnected there is a remarkable decline in terror incidents. According to CMC data, there was no drone fired in December so was no suicide blast witnessed in the country. The drones resumed in January 2012 and so far there have been 11 drone strikes in the FATA while the tally of suicide attacks has also touched the same figure 11 so far during the first three months of 2012, the data says. The data says that 89 terror incidents were recorded in November 2011 including minor ambushes, firing, mortar attacks, and others while in December 2011 after Salala attack and suspension of Nato supply line these minor attacks reduced to 31, all in FATA. The CMC data mentions that in January 2012, 89 attacks were recorded mainly in FATA including 4 suicide attacks; 79 were recorded in February with 3 suicide attacks while 77 were noted in March including 4 suicide attacks. “The data shows that a remarkable decline in militant attacks was observed in December when drone attacks were stopped while in January when drone attacks were resumed militant activities also increased”, CMC spokesman said. While in the corresponding month i.e. December 2010, the CMC recorded 109 terror attacks that killed at least 700 people. Sources said that many agencies in Tribal Areas have been calm since last many months and the terror incidents that occur in Orakzai Agency are mainly the infighting among the militants. According to CNN’s web edition drones are also on the decline in Pakistan. “In the first three months of 2012, there were 11, compared with 21 in the first three months of 2011 and a record 28 in the first quarter of 2010. The US drone programme in Pakistan’s tribal regions, which was subsequently suspended for almost seven weeks, one of the longest pauses in the strikes since the programme started in 2004. Pakistan also ordered the United States to vacate Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan, from which many of the CIA drones were launched. For many months before this incident, the United States’ aggressive drone campaign in Pakistan had been slowing. There were 70 drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions in 2011, down from 118 in 2010, which saw the peak number of strikes since the programme began.” It is worth mentioning here that both, Pakistan military and civil leadership, have been endorsing drone strikes before the Americans as disclosed by the WikiLeaks while their public posture has been the reverse. The WikiLeaks cables leaked by Julian Assange, stated that General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani demanded predator surveillance in South Waziristan where army was conducting operation. The ISPR had denied the disclosures of cable. While Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, had told the American ambassador that PPP would protest against the drone attacks in the parliament and would latter forget it. Give Comments
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