ISLAMABAD: Deaths linked to violence in the country decreased significantly in 2016, dropping 45 percent compared with the previous year, according to a report released. Some 2,610 people lost their lives due to violence during the period compared with 4,647 in 2015, said a research by Islamabad-based think tank, the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). “There was nearly a 45 percent reduction in the number of violence-related fatalities in 2016, which continued the trend of reduction from 2014,” the report said. “In fact, since 2014, there has been an overall reduction of nearly 66 percent.”
According to the CRSS report, two provinces Punjab and Balochistan had a marginal increase in violence during 2016.Balochistan suffered the most fatalities as violence-related deaths rose from 719 in 2015 to 798 last year, an upsurge of nearly 10 percent, followed by Punjab, which lost 424 people during 2016 the highest number of fatalities in the province during the last four years. ‘APP’