India sixth worst affected by violence, says global terrorism index

India is the sixth worst affected country by terrorism, the new Global Terrorism Index said on Tuesday as it painted a gloomy picture about the scourge, which claimed 61 per cent more victims in 2013 than the previous year.

The Index developed by the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace put Iraq at the first place followed by Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria ahead of India in terms of worst affected by the menace. “The number of terrorist attacks around the world has increased dramatically,”the report, released in London, said.

According to the Index, 17,958 people were killed in terrorist attacks last year, compared to 10,000 in 2012. Of the 82 per cent of all deaths from terrorist attack occurred in just 5 countries —Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria.

Terrorism increased by 70 per cent in India from 2012 to 2013, with the number of deaths increasing from 238 to 404. “In India, there remains significant terrorist activity, including on the border between India and Pakistan,” the report said, acknowledging  Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

Though the number of attacks also increased, with 55 more attacks in 2013 than 2012, the study said majority of terrorist attacks in India have low casualties. In 2013, around 70 per cent of attacks were non-lethal.

India faced attacks from 43 different terrorist groups who can be categorised into three groups —Islamists, separatists and Maoists. “Communist terrorist groups are by far the most frequent perpetrators and the main cause of deaths in India. Three Maoist communist groups claimed responsibility for 192 deaths in 2013, which was nearly half of all deaths from terrorism in India,” the study said.

After studying the impact of terrorism through out the year, the Institute said four groups —the Taliban, Boko Haram, Islamic State, and al Qaida — dominated the attacks. These four groups alone accounted for 66 per cent of all fatalities and their primary targets were citizens and private property.

Since 2000, there have been over 48,000 terrorist attacks that have killed over 1.07 lakh people. There are five times more people killed in terrorist attacks today than there were in 2000.

In a significant finding that could be read as an indictment of the United States-led war against terror, the study noted that since the 1960s, 83 per cent of terrorist organisations that ended ceased to operate due to policing or politicisation. “Only 7 per cent ended due to military intervention,” it said.