India Among 10 Nations Impacted By Terrorism In 2014: Report

By siliconindia | Thursday, 19 November 2015, 11:15 Hrs

It said communist terrorist groups are "by far the most frequent perpetrators" and the main cause of deaths in India.

Two Maoist communist groups claimed responsibility for 172 deaths in 2014, which constitutes 41 per cent of all deaths from terrorism.

Police are overwhelmingly the biggest targets of Maoists, accounting for over half of the deaths.

Kidnapping is also a common tactic of the Maoists where it is often used as a political tool to force the government to release Maoist prisoners.

The majority of Maoist attacks occurred in the provinces of Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, the report said.

The dispute with Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir is the main source of Islamic terrorism.

Islamist terrorists were responsible for 57 deaths in this region, which is 14 per cent of the total deaths in India from terrorism, the report said.

The report noted that the announcement in September 2014 that Al-Qaida was establishing a presence in India has not led to a dramatic increase in terrorism by the group.

It further said that India's north-east region has for the last three decades seen continual ethno-political unrest from ethnic secessionist movements.

It termed the National Democratic Front of Bodoland as the second deadliest group in India in 2014 responsible for killing 80 people in 2014.

Globally, terrorism is highly concentrated in just five countries - Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria - accounting for 78 per cent of all deaths in 2014.

Iraq continues to be the country most impacted by terrorism, with 3,370 attacks killing 9,929 people, the highest number of terrorism incidents and fatalities ever recorded by a single country.

Nigeria recorded the largest increase in deaths from terrorism, rising by over 300% to 7,512 fatalities.

The economic cost of terrorism reached its highest ever level in 2014 at $52.9 billion, an increase of 61 per cent from the previous year's total of $32.9 billion, and a tenfold increase since 2000.

"The significant increase in terrorist activity has meant that its ramifications are being felt more widely throughout the world. What is most striking from our analysis is how the drivers of terrorism differ between more and less developed countries. In the West, socio-economic factors such as youth unemployment and drug crime correlate with terrorism.

"In non-OECD countries, terrorism shows stronger associations with ongoing conflict, corruption and violence," IEP Executive Chairman Steve Killelea said.

"Ten of the eleven countries most affected by terrorism also have the highest rates of refugees and internal displacement. This highlights the strong inter-connectedness between the current refugee crisis, terrorism and conflict."

The flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and Syria since 2011 is the largest influx in modern times.

Current estimates now range from 25,000 to 30,000 fighters, from roughly 100 countries.

Half of the foreign fighters travelling to Iraq and Syria are from neighbouring countries and a quarter from Europe and Turkey.

The flow of foreign fighters does not appear to be diminishing, with over 7,000 arriving in the first six months of 2015, it said.

Source: PTI