517 killed in terrorism incidents: NACTA 2018 report

ISLAMABAD: Annual report of the National Counter Terrorism Authority Pakistan (NACTA) has said at least 517 people have died across the country last year in terror-related incidents, 288 of them were killed in Balochistan, ARY News reported on Sunday.

Pakistan has witnessed significant cut in terrorism incidents during 2018, the NACTA report said. NACTA has on Sunday submitted its report to Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The report said despite downtrend in terrorism, Balochistan remained the most affected. Overall terrorism in Balochistan and erstwhile FATA have reduced by 22 percent, it added.

The NACTA said terrorism had reduced by 80 percent in 2018 in Sindh.

Terrorism has cut by 50 percent in Punjab and Islamabad and 67 percent in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

In terror-related incidents last year, 138 people were killed in FATA, 59 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 in Punjab and 10 in Sindh, the NACTA reported.

Five people were killed in Gilgit-Baltistan and one person was murdered in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad each, the report added.

On April 4, the Foreign Office (FO) had told foreign diplomats the ongoing operation, under the National Action Plan (NAP), would continue till elimination of terrorism and extremism across the country.

Briefing the foreign ambassadors about the NAP, the FO spokesperson had said that the current government had taken concrete, effective and irreversible steps against terrorists.