ISLAMABAD, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- A notable decrease has been witnessed in terrorist activities in Pakistan during the year 2017, local media reported Monday.
According to figures released by the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), 426 terrorist incidents happened in 2017 so far as compared to 785 such attacks in the whole year 2016, Urdu newspaper NawaiWaqt said Monday.
It is reported that in the country's southern port city of Karachi, a 97 percent drop has been witnessed in target killings; murder rate decreased by 87 percent; terrorism incidents were down by 98 percent and robberies dropped by 52 percent due to successful operations carried out by police and paramilitary troops. The law enforcement agencies also recovered 33,378 weapons from Karachi in 2017.
The authority said that 110 incidents of terrorism occurred in 2001, 56 in 2002, 88 in 2003, 159 in 2004 and 113 in 2005.
A total of 1,444 terrorist activities were carried out in 2006 alone, 2007 witnessed a further surge with 1,820 incidents, 2008 recorded 1,575 terrorist activities, and 1,938 terrorist activities happened in 2009.
The terrorist incidents hit their peak in 2010 with 2, 061 attacks.
An estimated 1,680 attacks were launched in 2011, about 1,316 in 2012, a total of 1,571 in 2013 and 1,816 terrorist activities were witnessed in 2014 in the country.
A decline in the terrorist activities was noticed in 2015 when only 1,139 activities were noted, the authority said.
The drop in the terrorist attacks is the result of the armed offensive "Operation Zarb-i-Azb" launched in the restive tribal areas of the country in mid-2014.
Pakistani army launched the extensive operation to remove the sanctuaries of local and foreign terrorists in tribal area of North Waziristan, which leads to the falling number of terrorist attacks.
Apart from this, to curb militancy in the country, the army also launched operation in Khyber Agency area, in four phases between Oct. 2014 and Aug. 2017, to reinforce troops' deployment and effectively check and guard against terrorists movement along high mountains and all weather passes.
The military also launched Operation Radd-ul-Fassad and National Action Plan to hunt down militants and their sleeping cells in other parts of the country, which bore the fruit in the form of decline in terrorist attacks in the country.
