http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...ver-12,800-militants-caught-in-2009-110-hs-06
ISLAMABAD: Over 12,800 suspected militants, 75 of them belonging to Al Qaeda and 9,739 local Taliban or members of other banned groups, were arrested during operations conducted by law-enforcement agencies and armed forces across the country in 2009, says a report issued here on Sunday.
The report titled Pakistan Security Report 2009 released by Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an independent think-tank, said that compared to 313 operational attacks conducted in 2008, 596 were carried out by security forces in 2009.
If the casualties in terrorist attacks, operational attacks by the security forces and their clashes with the militants, inter-tribal clashes and the cross-border attacks of the US and Nato forces in Fata are counted, the overall casualties amount to 12,632 people dead and 12,815 injured.
In 2009, the report says, 2,586 terrorist, insurgent and sectarian-related incidents were reported that killed 3,021 people and injured 7,334.
The highest number of 1,173 attacks was reported from the NWFP, followed by 792 in Balochistan and 559 in Fata; 46 attacks took place in Punjab, 30 in Sindh, 12 in Islamabad and five each in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.
The Taliban seem to have changed their tactics and they are now carrying out coordinated attacks, instead of using a lone suicide bomber. Part of that change was evident in choosing different and increasingly civilian targets, such as a university in Islamabad and markets in Lahore and Peshawar, the attack on the militarys General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, and drive-by shootings targeting senior military officers in Islamabad.
Although the number of terrorist attacks and casualties increased in 2009, the government forces were able to inflict heavy damage on terrorist networks and infrastructure in Fata and adjacent areas.
