EASO COI Report. Security situation

English

This report is an update to the previous EASO COI Report Pakistan – Security Situation published in October 2020.

The reference period for the events described in this report is from 1 August 2020 until 31 July 2021. However, to allow a better comparison with 2020, for data on violent incidents and civilian casualties, the timeframe is between 1 January 2020 until 31 December 2020 and 1 January 2021 until 31 July 2021.

This report provides information on elements and indicators that may help in assessing the need for international protection. In the first part a general description is given on the security situation in Pakistan. The second part explains the security situation per province in more detail. The provincial chapters in this report have the following structure: a general description of the province contains information on the geography and population; the conflict background takes a longer term look at the security situation in a province, including the armed actors active in the province. A section on recent trends in the security situation describes the nature of the violence, targets, locations, and casualties within the timeframe from 1 August 2020 – 31 July 2021. Finally, conflict-induced displacements are described in a separate section. Recent security incidents described in sub-sections should be read as illustrations of trends in the security situation and not as an exhaustive list of incidents. Both the general and regional descriptions provide information from various sources on the relevant elements and indicators. Information on an indicator as such should never be taken as conclusive, but as indicative for the assessment of protection needs, and should be read in conjunction with other indicators and information on the region.

The COI report was drafted by a Country of Origin Information (COI) specialist from Cedoca, the Belgian COI unit of the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Person.

The following departments and organisations have reviewed the report:

- ACCORD - Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation

- BAMF - Germany - Federal Office for Migration and Refugees

- The Netherlands, Office for Country Information and Language Analysis, Ministry of Justice

The drafting of this report was finalised on 13 August 2021. Some additional information was added during the finalisation of this report in response to feedback received during the quality control process, until 17 September 2021.

This report is produced in line with the EASO COI Report Methodology (2019) and the EASO COI Writing and Referencing Style Guide (2019).

Policy

The security and human rights situation in Pakistan is problematic. Many citizens of Pakistan are being exposed to ethno-political or sectarian violence and the Pakistani authorities are often unable or unwilling to offer protection. The violence in Pakistan can be mainly attributed to terrorist organisations that are active in the country. These organisations primarily target members of the security services and the army, members of religious minorities and the police. In addition, Pakistan sometimes sees large-scale attacks aiming to cause a maximum number of casualties within a specific community. Religious minorities, primarily Shi’a Muslims, are generally targeted. However, such attacks are rather the exception than the rule. The security situation in the country is further influenced by flares of violence between extremist elements and government troops in the north-west of the country as well as by the nationalist uprising in Baluchistan.

Land: 
Pakistan

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