THE ongoing population census, which entered its final phase yesterday, has claimed the lives of several members of the census teams. Yesterday, two enumerators were killed when the passenger van in which they were travelling in Kurram Agency was hit by a landmine explosion. A total of 10 people were killed in the blast. On Monday, in Balochistan’s Gwadar district, one uniformed personnel lost his life and another was injured in an attack while they were on their way to discharge their duty to provide security for a census team. Earlier this month, a suicide bomber in Lahore targeted a hired van carrying security personnel who were going to join a census team. Four soldiers on census duty lost their lives. The incidents are reminiscent of the many militant attacks that polio vaccination teams have been subjected to in the recent past.

The census exercise is a mammoth undertaking with numerous security concerns. One of them is on account of the militant elements still remaining in the country and who are, for obvious reasons, violently opposed to security personnel. The other aspect of security is linked with the political ramifications of the findings of the census. In a country where identity politics based on ethnicity has become particularly strong over the years, there are quarters who suspect that the exercise is a political tool whereby their place in the federation, and their claim on resources, will be diminished. While it is difficult to conclusively determine who were the targets in these attacks, whether the security personnel or the enumerators themselves — indeed the Kurram Agency deaths are possibly the result of the overall fragile security situation in the area, rather than a targeted attack — they do reinforce the perils involved in carrying out the census. As in the case of the polio vaccination teams, security protocols must be ramped up: for instance, they must be provided dedicated transport, and vehicles collecting them for duty should not take the same route day after day.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2017