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Business News/ News / World/  Boko Haram, not ISIS, the deadliest terror group: report
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Boko Haram, not ISIS, the deadliest terror group: report

According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, deaths attributed to Boko Haram increased by 317% in 2014 to 6,644. ISIS, in comparison, caused 6,073 deaths in the same year

Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. Together, Boko Haram and Isis were responsible for 51% of all deaths from terrorism in 2014. AFPPremium
Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. Together, Boko Haram and Isis were responsible for 51% of all deaths from terrorism in 2014. AFP

Even as the world debates an effective, counter-terror strategy to nullify the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), a report released this week by the Australian think tank, Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP), says Nigeria-based Boko Haram is the deadliest terror group in the world.

According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, deaths attributed to Boko Haram increased by 317% in 2014 to 6,644. The group, according to the index, was responsible for 453 incidents. Isis, in comparison, caused 6,073 deaths in the same year. It was involved in 1,071 incidents, including 705 bombing attacks. Together, Boko Haram and Isis were responsible for 51% of all deaths from terrorism in 2014.

Acts of terrorism, on the whole, saw an 80% increase in 2014, to “its highest recorded level". “The largest ever year-on-year increase in deaths from terrorism was recorded in 2014, rising from 18,111 in 2013 to 32,685 in 2014." This represents a nine-fold increase in the number of people who have died from terrorist activity since 2000.

Terrorist activity, according to the index, is highly concentrated in five countries—Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria—accounting for 57% of all attacks and 78% of all deaths in 2014. Iraq and Nigeria combined, the report said, accounted for 53% of all terror-related deaths.

With 9,929 deaths, Iraq was the worst victim of terrorism in 2014, reporting a 55% increase from 2013. “There were three times as many deaths in Iraq in 2014 than the entire world in the year 2000," the report added. However, Nigeria saw its death toll from terror rise by a whopping 300%. It reported 7,512 fatalities in 2014, primarily attributed to two of the deadliest terror groups as per the index—Boko Haram and the Fulani Militants (ranked fourth).

Naxals and North-East rebels India’s deadliest

India, ranked sixth in the index, reported a marginal increase in terror-related deaths in 2014. There were 763 terrorism-related incidents in India, a 20% increase from 2013, resulting in 416 deaths. This, the report says, is the highest number of terrorist incidents and deaths since 2010.

The biggest perpetrators of terrorism in India were the Naxals, also known as Maoists. They accounted for 41% of all deaths from terrorism in India, with two groups (names not mentioned) claiming responsibility for 172 deaths. The states which saw most of the Maoist attacks were Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Pakistan-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), which operate in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), were responsible for 57 deaths in the region and 14% of all terror-related deaths in India. While the LeT was responsible for 24 deaths in the region, 11 deaths were attributed to the Hizbul. In the previous year, Hizbul accounted for 30 deaths. The report also says that in 2014, “there were no suicide attacks in India", a tactic commonly used by the Hizbul.

The worrying India-specific trend comes from the North-East, which has seen several secessionist movements take up arms against the Indian state. Assam alone recorded 106 deaths in 2014, which is 25% of the national figure. The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), the report says, saw the “biggest year on year change for terrorist groups". The group, which was responsible for seven deaths in 2013, killed as many as 80 in 2014, making it the second-deadliest terror group in India. “Other separatist groups include the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and the National Liberation Council of Taniland (NLCT), both of which were responsible for ten deaths in 2014," the report added.

The year when terror went truly global

One of the biggest takeaways from the index is a steep rise in the number of countries suffering from terrorist activities. “There was a 120% increase in the number of countries that suffered more than 500 deaths—11 countries in 2014, up from five countries in 2013." In 2014, six countries—Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Somalia, South Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen—experienced “highest levels of terrorism in their history". In fact, the report says that from 2000 until 2013, Cameroon had recorded no deaths from terrorism and Ukraine only three . However, in 2014, Cameroon and Ukraine recorded 530 and 665 deaths, respectively. While Cameroon’s increase was largely due to the Boko Haram expanding its activities in its territory, Ukraine’s tally rose due to the Russia-backed rebels Donetsk People’s Republic launching a surface-to-air missile to bring down MH17, the Malaysian Airlines passenger aircraft on way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The report also said that in 2014, there were 17 countries that recorded over 250 deaths, up from nine in 2013.

Not much support for Isis among countries with significant Muslim population

The Isis has received extremely negative views from countries having a significant Muslim population, according to a new Pew Research Center report that collected data from 11 countries.

The countries included Lebanon, Nigeria, Jordan, Indonesia, Israel and Malaysia, and all of them voted unfavourably for the militant Islamic group. The only exception to this was Pakistan, where a majority of those surveyed offered no firm view on Isis. A majority of Pakistanis (62%) had no opinion on the extremist group, while only 28% Pakistanis had an unfavourable view of Isis.

The data showed that negative views of Isis cut across religious and ethnic population in all the countries surveyed, and not more than 15% of the population in any of the countries showed favourable attitudes towards Isis.

Lebanon tops the list on the unfavourable index with 99% of the respondents having a very unfavourable opinion, followed by Israelis (97%) and Jordanians (94%).

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Published: 19 Nov 2015, 04:21 PM IST
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