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725 killed in 63 terrorist attacks

* Media reports much higher toll
* Security agencies targeted frequently in increased number of suicide attacks

By Tahir Niaz

ISLAMABAD: Some 725 Pakistanis - 149 Law Enforcing Agencies (LEAs) officials and 576 civilians - were killed in 63 terrorist attacks, averaging 61 killings per month, in 2008.

According to official data available with Daily Times, most people were killed in suicide attacks, which Muttaheda Ulema Council has declared forbidden (haram) in Pakistan.

Media have reported much more killings than the government sources. The suicide attack on Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on September 20 was one of the worst, killing over 40 people and grabbing attention of national and international media.

In the year’s first suicide attack on police outside the Lahore High Court (LHC) on January 10, 16 police officials and four civilians were killed. In the year’s last suicide attack on a polling station in Buner on December 28, 34 people, including four children were killed.

Chronology: Jan 10, 16 police officials and four civilians were killed in a suicide attack outside the LHC, Lahore.

Jan 14, a bomb killed 10 people in a crowded market in Karachi.

Feb 9, a suicide bomber killed 25 people in an election rally in Charsadda. On February 16, a suicide car bomber struck at a PPP rally in Parachinar, killing 37 people.

Feb 22, a roadside bomb hit a wedding party in Swat, killing at least 14 people.

Feb 25, a suicide bomber killed Army Surgeon General Mushtaq Baig and seven others in Rawalpindi.

Feb 29, a suicide bomber killed 44 people in Mingora, a valley in Swat, in the funeral of three policemen, killed in a roadside bomb blast earlier in the day.

March 2, a suicide bomber killed 43 people in a meeting of anti-militancy tribal elders in Darra Adam Khel.

March 4, two suicide bombers attacked Pakistan Naval War College in Lahore, killing five people and wounding 19.

March 10, suicide attackers killed 26 people and partly demolished Federal Investigation Agency office in Lahore in two hits.

March 15, a bomb blast at an Italian restaurant in Islamabad killed a Turkish woman and wounded 10 others, including four FBI agents.

May 19, a suicide bomber killed 13 people at an army bakery in Mardan. No terrorist attack was reported in June.

July 2, a suicide car bomb outside the Danish Embassy in Islamabad killed eight people.

July 6, a suicide bomber killed 15 people in an attack on police in Islamabad close to Lal Masjid.

Aug 12, a roadside bomb ripped through a Pakistan Air Force bus in Peshawar, killing 13 people.

Aug 19, a suicide bomber killed 23 people at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan. On August 21, two suicide attacks killed at least 57 people outside Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POFs), Wah.

Aug 28, a bomb attack targeting policemen killed 10 people in Bannu.

Sept 6, a suicide bomber killed 33 people at a security checkpoint near Peshawar.

Sept 11, suspected militants hurled grenades and fired into a mosque in Peshawar killing at least 20 worshippers.

Sept 20, the day when President Asif Ali Zardari addressed a joint session of the Parliament, a suicide attacker rammed a explosive-laden dumper into Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, killing at least 40 people.

Sept 22, at least nine securitymen were killed in a suicide car-bomb attack on a security check post in Swat.

Sept 24, a female student was killed in a suicide blast at a FC convoy in Quetta Cantonment.

Oct 6, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of people in Bakhar at the outhouse of Rashid Akbar Niwani, a Shia MNA from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, killing 25 people.

Oct 10, at least 40 people were killed and around 90 wounded when a suicide bomber targeted an anti-Taliban jirga in Orakzai Agency.

Oct 19, four people were killed when a remote-controlled bomb exploded in the main bazaar of Dera Bugti.

Oct 26, at least 11 people, seven of them Frontier Corps personnel and three Khasadars, were killed and five others injured in a suicide attack in Mohmand Agency.

Nov 4, at least seven people, including three security officials, were killed in a suicide attack on a security force check post in Hangu.

Nov 11, a suicide bomber blew himself up at Qayyum Stadium in Peshawar, killing four people.

Nov 12, five people were killed as a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-filled bus into the gates of a school in Charsadda district.

Nov 17, at least three troops were killed when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a security check post in Swat’s Khawazakhela area.

Nov 20, a suicide bomber killed at least nine people in a mosque in Mamoond tehsil of Bajaur Agency.

Dec 3, three security forces personnel and two civilians were killed after a Mohmand Rifles convoy was bombed near Shabqadar in Charsadda district.

Dec 5, a car bomb explosion outside an Imambargah near Peshawar’s historic Qisakhwani Bazaar killed at least 22 people. The same day, at least six people were killed when an explosives-laden vehicle was blown up in Kalaia area of Lower Orakzai.

Dec 14, at least two people were killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast in Dera Bugti district.

Dec 28, 34 people were killed in Buner in a suicide attack.

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