India, Pakistan, among world’s terror hotspots: Study

London, Dec 4 (IANS) A study, which observed that terror attacks quadrupled since the 2003 Iraq invasion, has named India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen as the world’s terrorism hotspots.

The Global Terrorism Index study by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) rated the terror threat for each country based in the number of terror incidents, deaths, injuries and properties damaged, Daily Express reported.

The study, which looks at terrorism worldwide since 2002, says that in Europe the deadliest attacks have tended to be carried out by Islamic fundamentalists.

These include the 2004 Madrid bomb attacks which killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 and the 2005 London Tube and bus bombings which killed 52 besides the four bombers and wounded over 700 people.

Worldwide there were 7,473 deaths from terrorism last year – down 25 percent compared to 2007 but up 460 percent compared to before the Sep 11, 2001 attacks.

In Europe most of the terrorism is domestic. It casts doubt on the success of the US War on Terror, backed by Britain.

IEP executive chairman Steve Killelea said: “The War on Terror has had mixed results. Al Qaeda in 2011 accounted for only one in 5,000 terrorist incidents but splinter groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular are still highly active and are two of the more lethal terrorist groups in then world.

“A lot more care needs to be taken by western governments when considering military intervention or regime change.”

The study also found western Europeans were 19 times more likely to die in a terrorist attack than the north Americans.

IANS 2012-12-04 21:52:19