The US-based defence think-tank IHS Jane’s has termed Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, as one of the most active non-state armed groups in 2013. In its latest Global Terrorism and Insurgency Attack Index in February, it revealed the top 10 non-state armed groups in 2013.
“In 2009, a worldwide total of 7,217 attacks were recorded from open sources. In 2013, that number increased by more than 150% to 18,524,” said Matthew Henman, manager of IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre (JTIC), which carried out the study.
A total of 492 attacks were reported in Bangladesh in 2013, while it was only 28 in the previous year.
It said the epicenter of activities was in the Middle East, with significant pockets of violence radiating out to neighbouring regions in Africa and South Asia. The six most active Middle Eastern states – Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Lebanon – accounted for 52% of all global attacks in 2013 and 71% of all fatalities.
The six Middle East states and South Asia’s Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Bangladesh – numbers three, four, five and seven on the IHS list of most active states in 2013 – constituted 73% of all attacks and 86% of all fatalities incurred in 2013.
