For third year in a row, Pakistan tops list of highest risk of mass killings

Washington, Dec 03: Pakistan has for the third time in a row topped the list of nations at the highest risk of experiencing mass killings, the latest report by the US think-tank Early Warning Project says.

Including increasing violence by the Tehreek-e-Taliban, Pakistan faces multiple security and human rights challenges the project said in its 28 page report. Notably this report comes at a time with the Tehreek-e-Taliban called off its ceasefire with the Pakistan government this week. The Early Warning Project is a joint initiative of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College.

"The Early Warning Project judged there was an ongoing mass killing perpetrated by the Taliban Movement of Pakistan and associated militias as of the end of 2021; this risk assessment relates to the possibility of a new and distinct nonstate-led or state-led episode beginning, not to the ongoing episode continuing or increasing," the report said.

The other Asian nation in the top ten list is Myanmar at second spot. The terror group had called off the ceasefire that was agreed upon in June. It ordered its fighters to stage attacks across the country. "As military operations are ongoing against mujahideen in different areas [...] so it is imperative for you to carry out attacks wherever you can in the entire country," the banned terror group said in a statement.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban's violent campaign is picking up pace in the past couple of months. The most significant attacks have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's (KP) Lakki Marwat last month, in which six policemen were killed. The outfit which is an off-shot of the Afghan Taliban is listed as a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States and the United Nations. It has between 4,000 to 6,500 fighters in Afghanistan and is spread beyond the tribal belt to Pakistan cities, UN estimates say.