By: Azhar Azam
The economic impact of terrorism is only 1% of the total global economic impact of violence – revealed Institute of Economics & Peace (IEP) in its so-called research paper ‘Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2017’ released this month.
Terrorism sparked global economy an impact of $84 billion in 2016 – only a trifling aggregate as compared to economic impact caused by violence that reached $14.3 trillion in 2016 or 12.6% of the global GDP.
Previously, GTI 2014 had also discovered that global homicide killings are 13-times more than the deaths from terrorism. At-least 437,000 people die of homicides every year, which is 13-times more than the victims of terrorism.
Globally, there has been 17% increase in terrorist attacks on civilians in 2016. The year 2016 also observed a unique resemblance due to similar increase in deaths from terrorism (67%) and battles (66%).
The overall score of global GTI however deteriorated by 4% in 2016 as terrorist activities expanded in 77 countries as compared to 65 countries last year – with at least one death caused by terrorism.
Independent, non-profit think tank however suggests that although the economic impact of terrorism is much small but it is vital to contain it over its potential to expand quickly and kindle major social consequences.
The report explores that terrorism widely prevailed in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), South Asia, and sub-Sahara Africa regions – otherwise mainly in most parts of Asia and Africa. Nearly 84% of all terrorists’ attacks and 94% of all deaths from terrorism resulted only from these regions.
In comparison, Central America and the Caribbean accounted for 0.05% of the total attacks and deaths – lowest levels of terrorism.
Except for Iraq that witnessed 40% death increase attributed to ISIS, ISIL or IS – terrorism has fallen in the other four epicenters in 2016 – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Nigeria those all recorded a consolidated decline of 33%.
Nigeria has been the pick of the countries which impressively confined deaths from terrorism by 80% in 2016 – 3,100 fewer deaths as a result of 80% decline in deaths attributed to Boko Haram.
Afghanistan also showed some recovery as the deaths from terrorism in the country fell by 14% in 2016. This decline is however attributable to Afghan Taliban tactical shift to focusing on conventional armed conflict with Afghanistan security forces.
In 2016, there were nearly 18,000 battle-related deaths in Afghanistan – that is 700 more deaths in 2015 and the largest since US invasion in the devastated country in 2001 after September 9.
For the third consecutive year, Pakistan witnessed fewer terrorist attacks and deaths. In 2016, there were 956 deaths from terrorism – lowest in a decade (since 2006), 12% fewer than 2015, and 59% less than peak 2013.
India is constantly the surprise inclusion in several global terrorism indices by IEP – has been ranked between 2nd and 6th from 2002 to 2015. Despite the increase in the terrorist attacks (+16%), the GTI score of India has improved for the last two years.
This is because, unlike in other countries where single terrorist group is involved in killings – 39 militant organizations are operating in India predominately left wing extremists (LWE) like Maoists or Naxalites parties promoting the communist ideology ‘due to abject poverty, deprivation, exploitation, displacement of people, and social injustice’.
Maoists or Naxalites are responsible for more than half of the attacks and 88% of the deaths in India. IEP also cites two deadliest Islamic groups – Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HuM) – for fatal militant activities in 2015 in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
In 2016, India experienced some 929 attacks which claimed 340 deaths averaging 0.4 deaths/attack but the number is still significantly lower than the other most terrorism-impacted countries those averaged 2.7 deaths/attack.
On deaths from terrorism chart, deaths in India (340) are even scarcer than the deaths in Democratic Republic of Congo (479) and South Sudan (472) – both excluded from 2017 GTI top-10 most impacted countries from terrorism.
But the number of attacks (929) favored India to limelight – majority of those were least lethal or more discriminate and did not result in any deaths and the report itself clarifies ‘This discrepancy between the number of attacks and deaths reflect how the nature of terrorism in India differs when compared to other countries’.
So India must be excluded from the list of most impacted countries from terrorism since Kashmir struggle for plebiscite under UN resolution and Maoists/Naxalite drive against inequality and injustice are the result of international community total failure to insert its role on dispute resolution and providing basic human rights to asphyxiated people in India.
The economic impact of terrorism is only 1% of the total global economic impact of violence – revealed Institute of Economics & Peace (IEP) in its so-called research paper ‘Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2017’ released this month.
Terrorism sparked global economy an impact of $84 billion in 2016 – only a trifling aggregate as compared to economic impact caused by violence that reached $14.3 trillion in 2016 or 12.6% of the global GDP.
Previously, GTI 2014 had also discovered that global homicide killings are 13-times more than the deaths from terrorism. At-least 437,000 people die of homicides every year, which is 13-times more than the victims of terrorism.
Globally, there has been 17% increase in terrorist attacks on civilians in 2016. The year 2016 also observed a unique resemblance due to similar increase in deaths from terrorism (67%) and battles (66%).
The overall score of global GTI however deteriorated by 4% in 2016 as terrorist activities expanded in 77 countries as compared to 65 countries last year – with at least one death caused by terrorism.
Independent, non-profit think tank however suggests that although the economic impact of terrorism is much small but it is vital to contain it over its potential to expand quickly and kindle major social consequences.
2017 GTI finds that the number of deaths from terrorist attacks have declined for the second consecutive year in 2016 to 25,673 people – 13% less from 2015 (29,376 deaths) and 22% fewer than peak 2014 (32,685 deaths).
Five countries – Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Syria together comprised about 75% of total deaths from terrorism in 2016.
The report explores that terrorism widely prevailed in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), South Asia, and sub-Sahara Africa regions – otherwise mainly in most parts of Asia and Africa. Nearly 84% of all terrorists’ attacks and 94% of all deaths from terrorism resulted only from these regions.
In comparison, Central America and the Caribbean accounted for 0.05% of the total attacks and deaths – lowest levels of terrorism.
Except for Iraq that witnessed 40% death increase attributed to ISIS, ISIL or IS – terrorism has fallen in the other four epicenters in 2016 – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Nigeria those all recorded a consolidated decline of 33%.
Nigeria has been the pick of the countries which impressively confined deaths from terrorism by 80% in 2016 – 3,100 fewer deaths as a result of 80% decline in deaths attributed to Boko Haram.
Afghanistan also showed some recovery as the deaths from terrorism in the country fell by 14% in 2016. This decline is however attributable to Afghan Taliban tactical shift to focusing on conventional armed conflict with Afghanistan security forces.
In 2016, there were nearly 18,000 battle-related deaths in Afghanistan – that is 700 more deaths in 2015 and the largest since US invasion in the devastated country in 2001 after September 9.
For the third consecutive year, Pakistan witnessed fewer terrorist attacks and deaths. In 2016, there were 956 deaths from terrorism – lowest in a decade (since 2006), 12% fewer than 2015, and 59% less than peak 2013.
IEP classifies these improvements ‘notable’, ascribing this success to Pakistan’s military effort ‘Zarb-e-Azab’ started in mid-2014, as the country has a long history of high levels terrorism and this year’s result is the best in a decade.
The trend outlines the decline in the terrorist activities of TTP which is responsible for over half of the deaths from terrorism in Pakistan. The military estimates to kill over 3,500 TTP terrorists besides destroying their hideouts and infrastructure in the country.
Subsequently as a result of comprehensive military operation, Pakistan upgraded its ranking in GTI to #5 in 2016 – for the first time ever. The South Asian country has been ranked as at least 4th worst country for terrorism since 2007 and was ranked 2nd on six occurrences.
After a radical wave of civil war in the last decade – terrorism in Syria paraded a slight improvement in deaths from terrorism in 2016 as the terrorism death toll fell 24% – to 2,102 due to 75% decline in deaths from terrorism attributed to Al-Nusra Front.
Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen are the countries that saw 500 fewer deaths from terrorism year-over-year.
Iraq is the country that has consistently been most impacted by terrorism for last 13 years. In 2016, terrorism in Iraq killed 2,803 more people than 2015 – an increase of 40%. The country witnessed one of the largest deaths increase due to nearly 1,000 attacks carried by Islamic State (Daesh), killing 7,351 people.
Egypt (9x) and Turkey (16x) experienced substantial increase in terrorism whereas for the first time, Turkey has been included in top-10 countries those have been affected by terrorism mainly due to increased activities of Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and ISIL.
The trend outlines the decline in the terrorist activities of TTP which is responsible for over half of the deaths from terrorism in Pakistan. The military estimates to kill over 3,500 TTP terrorists besides destroying their hideouts and infrastructure in the country.
Subsequently as a result of comprehensive military operation, Pakistan upgraded its ranking in GTI to #5 in 2016 – for the first time ever. The South Asian country has been ranked as at least 4th worst country for terrorism since 2007 and was ranked 2nd on six occurrences.
After a radical wave of civil war in the last decade – terrorism in Syria paraded a slight improvement in deaths from terrorism in 2016 as the terrorism death toll fell 24% – to 2,102 due to 75% decline in deaths from terrorism attributed to Al-Nusra Front.
Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen are the countries that saw 500 fewer deaths from terrorism year-over-year.
Iraq is the country that has consistently been most impacted by terrorism for last 13 years. In 2016, terrorism in Iraq killed 2,803 more people than 2015 – an increase of 40%. The country witnessed one of the largest deaths increase due to nearly 1,000 attacks carried by Islamic State (Daesh), killing 7,351 people.
Egypt (9x) and Turkey (16x) experienced substantial increase in terrorism whereas for the first time, Turkey has been included in top-10 countries those have been affected by terrorism mainly due to increased activities of Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and ISIL.
India is constantly the surprise inclusion in several global terrorism indices by IEP – has been ranked between 2nd and 6th from 2002 to 2015. Despite the increase in the terrorist attacks (+16%), the GTI score of India has improved for the last two years.
This is because, unlike in other countries where single terrorist group is involved in killings – 39 militant organizations are operating in India predominately left wing extremists (LWE) like Maoists or Naxalites parties promoting the communist ideology ‘due to abject poverty, deprivation, exploitation, displacement of people, and social injustice’.
Maoists or Naxalites are responsible for more than half of the attacks and 88% of the deaths in India. IEP also cites two deadliest Islamic groups – Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HuM) – for fatal militant activities in 2015 in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
In 2016, India experienced some 929 attacks which claimed 340 deaths averaging 0.4 deaths/attack but the number is still significantly lower than the other most terrorism-impacted countries those averaged 2.7 deaths/attack.
On deaths from terrorism chart, deaths in India (340) are even scarcer than the deaths in Democratic Republic of Congo (479) and South Sudan (472) – both excluded from 2017 GTI top-10 most impacted countries from terrorism.
But the number of attacks (929) favored India to limelight – majority of those were least lethal or more discriminate and did not result in any deaths and the report itself clarifies ‘This discrepancy between the number of attacks and deaths reflect how the nature of terrorism in India differs when compared to other countries’.
So India must be excluded from the list of most impacted countries from terrorism since Kashmir struggle for plebiscite under UN resolution and Maoists/Naxalite drive against inequality and injustice are the result of international community total failure to insert its role on dispute resolution and providing basic human rights to asphyxiated people in India.