After Iraq and Afghanistan, India is third worst hit by terror, US study says

On Thursday, September 20, 2018 a study contracted by US Department of State on terrorism and response to terrorism said that India is the third worst hit country in the world by terrorism after Iraq and Afghanistan.

US department study says, In 2017 India witnessed  806 terror attacks and stands at third in list of most affected countries after Afghanistan with 1171 attacks and Iraq with 1951 terrorist attacks. India faced 8% less terror attacks in 2017 as compared to 931 attacks in 2016. Number of deaths in such terrorist attacks in India increased from 344 in 2016 to 380 in 2017.

The US Department study says, as reported by TOI, “The frequency of terrorist violence by Maoist extremists in India declined between 2016 and 2017 with respect to the number of attacks (from 338 in 2016 to 295 in 2017); however, the number of people killed increased by 16%, and the number of people injured increased by 50%”.

Study said that, there are 43 terrorist groups active in India. 53 % attacks were carried out by CPI-Maoist in 2017, the fourth deadliest terror group after Islamic state, Taliban and Al- Shabaab. Almost half of the terror attacks in India in 2017 took place in three states, Jammu & Kashmir (24%), Chhattisgarh (15%) and West Bengal (10%). The increase in attacks in West Bengal was because of the Darjeeling unrest.

An official told TOI about the difference between terrorism in Pakistan and India, “Here in India, most of the terror activities are either sponsored by or emanating from the soil of Pakistan with its agencies and military allowing it. On the other hand, Pakistan is now facing the attacks from terror groups it harbored and raised for decades”.