At least 588 lives lost in terror attacks since January, Senate told

Mateen Haider Published October 6, 2015

The Ministry of Defence in its written response to another query stated that ten military courts are functioning across the country and the establishment of eleventh court is under process. ─ APP/File

ISLAMABAD: At least 588 Pakistanis lost their lives in terror-related related incidents between January to August this year, Interior Ministry informed the Senate on Tuesday.

In response to questions raised by a number of members of the Upper House of Parliament, the Interior Ministry in its written reply stated that about 588 Pakistanis were killed while 10,007 were injured in 821 incidents of terrorism, which occurred between January to August this year.

The data provided does not include the victims of PAF base attack incident, which took place in September.

Responding to another query the Ministry of Defence stated that ten military courts are functioning across the country and the establishment of eleventh court is under process.

In a written reply to a question asked by Senator Azam Khan Swati, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif informed the House that the names and related information about the judges appointed in the courts might not be disclosed keeping in view safety and security of the court.

He said that this provision existed in the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Ordinances 2015 which had already been passed by the Senate on August 11.

Sharing the data regarding the convicts executed as a part of the National Action Plan (NAP), the Ministry informed the house that the total number of prisoners on death row in the country is 6,016 but only those condemned prisoners were executed whose mercy pleas had been rejected.

The executions were carried out after completion of due legal procedure.

In response to a query, Minister of State for Interior Baligh-ur-Rehman informed the House told the Upper House of Parliament that the total number of foreigners residing in the country is 491,905, according to data collected from the year 2007 till September this year.

He said a robust mechanism is in place for transparency in execution and implementation of NAP.

The government had announced the National Action Plan to fight terrorism and militancy in response to the Dec 16 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar,

The 20 point anti-terror plan calls for eliminating armed militias,countering hate speech and extremist literature, maintain a dedicated counter-terrorism force, stop religious persecution of minorities, annihilate terrorists' communication network and financial bases among other initiatives to eliminate terrorism in all forms.

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