January 20 – Pakistan
Islamic extremists attack Bacha Khan University in Charsadda near Peshawar in north-western Pakistan, killing 19 people and injuring 17. The four attackers are killed by the local security forces. The Taliban takes responsibility for the attacks in retaliation of attacks against the group. There are various different militant groups in Pakistan and violent attacks have been on the rise since 2015.
March 27 – Pakistan
A suicide bomber attacks a crowded park in the Pakistani city of Lahore, killing 72 people and injuring more than 340. The bomber targets Christians who celebrate the Easter holiday; however, the majority of victims are Muslim. At least 29 of those killed are children. The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban, takes responsibility for the attack. Christians, who make up less than 2 percent of Pakistan’s population, are frequently targeted by extremist groups. Pakistan’s government condemns the attack and announces three days of mourning. United Nations Secretary-General General Ban Ki-moon also condemns the attack and calls for Pakistan to make a bigger effort to protect religious minorities. (March 29): Pakistan’s security forces conduct sweeping counter-terror raids in Punjab in response to the bombing. They arrest more than 200 suspects and confiscate weapons and ammunition.
April 20 – Pakistan
In a Pakistani city of Karachi, gunmen kill several policemen in a drive-by shooting targeting polio vaccination station. Islamist militants oppose vaccination programs calling them a Western conspiracy to sterilize Pakistani children. Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that can causes paralysis and sometimes death. Polio has been eradicated in most countries, but in 2015 it was still endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2014, Pakistan recorded over 300 new polio cases, the highest number since 1999.
May 25 – Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s fundamentalist Islamic group, Taliban, appoints Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada its new leader after Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone attack. Akhundzada is a religious scholar, who in the 1990s was the head of the Taliban’s Islamic courts. As a hardliner, Akhundzada is expected to continue the current policies of the Taliban.
July 1 – Bangladesh
Five militants attack a bakery in an affluent area of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, and take several dozen hostages. After hours of standoff, the Bangladesh Armed Forces launch a counter-attack, killing all five terrorists. However, 24 people are killed, 18 of them foreign tourists. The Bangladeshi government says that all assailants were Bangladeshi citizens and blames the attack on home-grown extremists, but the so-called Islamic State (IS) takes responsibility for the raid. In the last few years, Bangladesh has experienced a surge in terrorist attacks, but the Dhaka café incident is considered the worst one in Bangladesh’s history. The security forces are under intense criticism for failing to prevent these recent targeted killings.
September 2 – India
India’s main trade unions organize a 24-hour-general strike in protest of the government‘s economic reforms that include increased privatization and easing regulations for businesses. The government says this will create more jobs, but trade unions accuse the government of ignoring workers’ rights. The protesters demand more government protection, such as monthly minimum wage for unskilled workers, social security for every worker, including those in informal economy, and universal healthcare. An estimated 180 million people take part in the strike with some calling it the largest strike in human history.[1]
September 5 – Sri Lanka
The World Health Organization (WHO) declares Sri Lanka free of malaria. It has been three years since the last case of malaria in one of the world’s most-malaria affected countries. After years of setbacks, Sri Lanka adopted a new strategy in the 1990s, which simultaneously targeted the mosquito and the parasite. It also launched a campaign of surveillance, community engagement and health education. The Sri Lankan health ministry set up mobile malaria clinics in high transmission areas, as well as at airports and ferry landings where migrants arrived, offering free diagnosis and treatment to everyone.
“In focus: elimination” map shows progress in eliminating malaria in the world. Click view full map (right side – middle of the page)
October 6 – Pakistan
Pakistani parliament passes a law that closes a loophole that allowed those behind so called “honor killings” to go free if pardoned by a victim’s relative. The tightening of the law means the killer will face a mandatory life sentence. “Honor killings” usually involve a woman being killed by a relative who believes that she has brought shame upon the family or community. These “shameful behaviors” include alleged marital infidelity, refusal to accept an arranged marriage, demanding a divorce, and being raped. According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in just 2015, 1096 women were killed in such “honor killings”.[2]
Renewed focus on “honor-killings” in Pakistan (video 2:53 min).
Sources
[1] Bengali, Shashank. “Why millions of Indian workers just staged one of the biggest labor strikes in history.” Los Angeles Times. 3 September 2016. Web. 3 February 2017.
[2] Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “HRCP Annual Report 2015.” 31 Mach 2016. Web. 24 January 2017. http://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/?s=+Annual+Report+2016+.