India has been ranked as the 6th most affected country in a Global Terrorism Index that points to an 80 per cent spike in terrorist activity worldwide during 2014, claiming as many as 32,685 lives with ISIS and Boko Haram emerging as the biggest merchants of death.
Released by the Institute for Economics and Peace on the basis of a global database on terrorist activity, the Global Terrorism Index 2015 says that Boko Haram was responsible for 6,644 deaths during 2014, while ISIS killed 6,073 people.
“The number of people who have died from terrorist activity has increased nine-fold since the year 2000,” said the report by IEP, a think tank with offices in New York, Sydney and Mexico.
Terrorist activity is now highly concentrated in five countries, accounting for 78 per cent of deaths. They are: Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. Iraq topped the table of casualties with 9,929 deaths, followed by Nigeria (7,512), Afghanistan (4,505), Pakistani (1,760) and Syria (1,698).
India, in 2014, suffered 416 deaths on account of terrorism which, according to the report, represents the highest number of terrorist incidents and deaths since 2010.
“Islamist terrorists were responsible for 57 deaths in the (Jammu and Kashmir) region,” the report said, describing laskhar-e-Tayyeba and Hizbul Mujahideen as the two deadliest Islamic terror outfits focusing on India.
The release of the report came in the midst of Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif’s US visit, with US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter pressing him to act against Pak-based terror outfits such as the Haqqani Network that are threatening American forces in Afghanistan.
“The Secretary made clear that the US feels strongly about the need to go after groups like the Haqqani Network that threaten the United States, threaten, certainly, US forces operating in Afghanistan,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters.
Gen. Sharif, who had a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry as well, is reported to have brought up the Kashmir issue yet again, despite Washington’s well-known position that it was for India and Pakistan to bilaterally deal with this issue.
After the meeting, Pakistan’s Inter-Services spokesman Gen Asim Bajwa tweeted that Gen Sharif “highlighted need for resolution of Kashmir”, adding regional security including Afghanistan and India was discussed with Kerry.