title: Epidemiological patterns of suicide terrorism in the civilian Pakistani population.
abstract: In this study, we assessed the epidemiological patterns of suicide terrorism in the civilian population of Pakistan. Information about suicide terrorism-related events, deaths and injuries was extracted from the South-Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP) for the period from 2002 to October 2009. Of 198 events, civilians were involved in 194 events. Civilians accounted for 74.1% (N = 2017) of those who died and 93.8% (N = 6129) of those who were injured. In nine districts, mortality rates were more than one death per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The yearly trend showed a shift of attack targets from foreigners and sectarian targets in 2002-2005 to security forces or general public in 2006-2009. Attacks on public installations (mosques) or political gatherings resulted in a significantly greater (P ≤ 0.02) number of deaths (22 vs. 8) and injuries (59 vs. 24) per event compared with security installations. These results show that prevention might focus on political negotiation with armed groups and that appropriate measures should be taken to protect mosques and political gatherings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. junaid.bhatti@isped.u-bordeaux2.fr
authors.forename: Junaid Ahmad
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bhatti
authors.forename: Amber
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mehmood
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shahid
authors.forename: Sajjad Akbar
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Bhatti
authors.forename: Umbreen
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Akhtar
authors.forename: Junaid Abdul
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Razzak
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D023481:Terrorism / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality