Pakistan: Man killed by masked gunmen

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [Pakistan], April 17 : An official of Pakistan's Spinwam police station has said that masked gunmen on April 14 attacked, and killed Malik Adil Wazir in Spinwam when he was going home after Friday prayers, Radio Mashaal reported.

Spinwam Tehsil is a subdivision located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's North Waziristan district.

Malik Adil Wazir, according to police officials and local people, was injured in the attack, but the militants came after him and bombed him. No one has claimed responsibility for his murder.

A case has been registered against the unknown militants by the police. The police is investigating the incident. Malik Adil Wazir was a social activist of Spinwam and used to take an active part in public and political meetings.

According to Radio Mashaal, this is the 12th targeted attack in North Waziristan since the beginning of 2023. In 2022, there were 47 such incidents. Tribal districts and especially North Waziristan have been targeted for years, the attacks continue.

Casualties from violence have soared in Pakistan, at least 854 people were killed or wounded in terrorist attacks and counterterrorism operations in the first quarter of this year, Dawn reported.

According to the report prepared by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, the number of deaths was 358 and that of injuries was 496, which resulted from as many as 219 terrorist attacks and counterterrorism operations during the January-March period.

Notably, this number was half of what was witnessed during the entire of 2022. Most deaths 245 (or 68 per cent) were reported from KP, followed by Balochistan's 64 (18 pc), and then in Sindh, Punjab and Islamabad, reported Dawn.

As per the report, the month of January 2023 was the most fatal for security forces in a decade, following a similar trend from the previous year, which ended with the decade's deadliest Dec for them.

With a death toll of 111, January recorded the second-highest number of fatalities of security personnel in a single month, second only to July 2014 with 118 fatalities, reported Dawn.