After joining the “war on terror” following the attacks on the United States in September 2001, Pakistan saw a significant rise in attacks by tribal movements and groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
The security forces have borne much of the brunt of the violence but hundreds of civilians have also been killed.
2007
July 10: More than 100 people are killed as Pakistani security forces storm the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) and a neighbouring religious school in Islamabad. The military operation came at the end of a long siege prompted by students seizing a number of police officers.
The crackdown at the mosque followed an anti-vice campaign by administrators in which students harassed music and video shop owners and abducted a number of women accused of being prostitutes.
The bloody end to the siege undermined the reputation of the security forces and led to an upsurge in attacks.
July 14: At least 23 paramilitary troops die and 27 others are wounded when a suicide bomber rams an explosives-packed car into their convoy in the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan region near the border with Afghanistan.
July 15: Another 49 people are killed and hundreds injured in a suicide attack and a number of car bombings across the North West Frontier Province in an apparent retaliation for the Lal Masjid operation.
More than half the deaths came in a suicide attack on the Dera Ismail Khan police recruitment centre.
July 27: A suspected suicide bomber kills at least 13 people at the Muzaffar hotel in Aabpara, Islamabad, after hundreds of stone-throwing protesters clash with police as the Lal Masjid reopened.
About 140 people in total lose their lives to suicide attacks in the month following the mosque raid.
Two suicide blasts in Rawalpindi injured at least 66 people [EPA]
September 4: At least 25 people are killed and 66 injured in two suicide bomb blasts in high security areas of Rawalpindi during morning rush hour.
The first blast took place near Qasim Market where a defence ministry bus carrying about 38 civilians and uniformed officials was hit, killing 18 people.
Five minutes later, a second blast took place behind the military’s general headquarters killing seven people.
October 18: The convoy of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister and leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, is attacked by a suicide bomber shortly after she returns from self-imposed exile.
Bhutto survives the blast in Karachi, but about 140 people are killed and more than 450 injured.
October 30: A police checkpoint in the high security zone of Rawalpindi, less than one kilometre from Musharraf’s camp office, is hit by a suicide bomber killing seven people, three of them policemen, and injuring 31 others.
November 24: Thirty people are killed in two suicide attacks in Rawalpindi.
In the first incident, a suicide bomber crashed his car into a bus carrying Inter-Services Intelligence officials to work, killing 28 officials and a bystander.
In the second attack another suicide bomber attempted to enter the General Headquarters (GHQ), blowing himself up when he is asked to identify himself.
December 21: A suicide bomb blast targeting Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, head of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, kills at least 57 people and injures more than 100 at Jamia Masjid Sherpao, in Charsadda District.
December 27: Bhutto is killed in a second suicide bombing after a rally in Rawalpindi. More than 20 other people are also killed in the blast.
Another 47 people die in riots following the attack as protesters blame Musharraf’s government for failing to provide adequate security for the opposition leader.
2008
January 10: A suicide bomber walks up to police officers outside the high court in Lahore and detonates his explosives. Nineteen people die, including 16 police and three passers-by.
An explosion at an election rally in Charsaddain northwestern Pakistan leaves at least 25 people dead. The attack is believed to be targeting members of the secular ANP party, the leader of which was assassinated two days earlier.
February 9: An explosion at an election rally in Charsaddain northwestern Pakistan leaves at least 25 people dead. The attack is believed to be targeting members of the secular ANP party, the leader of which was assassinated two days earlier.
February 18: Aaj TV reports that at least 24 people are killed and nearly 200 injured in election-related violence.
February 29: About 38 people are killed and 75 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Mingora in Swat District during the funeral of a senior police officer who had been killed just hours earlier.
March 2: At least 40 people die when a suicide bomber attacks a traditional tribal meeting in the Darra Adam Kheil region, near the city of Peshawar.
March 11: Twin suicide car bomb strikes in Lahore kill 24 people, most of them in an attack on a government security office in the eastern city.
March 15: A bomb is thrown over the wall of an Italian restaurant in Islamabad, a favourite hangout for foreigners.
A Turkish woman is killed and several others, including four FBI agents, are hurt.
The Marriott blast was said to have the ‘hallmarks’ of an al-Qaeda attack [AFP]
May 18: A bomb attack on the Army’s Punjab Regimental Centre market in the city of Mardan kills at least 13 people, including four soldiers.
This was the second attack in Mardan, a month after a car bomb on April 25 killed three and injured 26 people.
June 2: A suicide bomber blows up a car outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad killing at least six people and wounding about 20.
A message purporting to be from al-Qaeda claims responsibility for the blast and suggests it was a response to the re-publication of cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad.
July 6: A suspected suicide blast targets police officers deployed to provide security for a rally marking the one-year anniversary of the Lal Msjid siege.
August 21: At least 59 people are killed by two suicide bombings as they arrive for work at an arms factory in the town of Wah, 30km west of Islamabad.
The Pakistani Taliban claim the attack which takes place just days after Pervez Musharraf steps down as president.
September 3: Snipers fire at Prime Minister Gilani’s motorcade in a failed assassination attempt.
September 20: Over 50 people killed and hundreds injured in suicide bombing at Islamabad’s Marriott hotel. The Taliban denied a role in the blast, but US intelligence said the attack had the “hallmarks” of an al-Qaeda operation.
November 2: At least eight Pakistani soldiers killed in suicide attack in South Waziristan, close to Afghan border, hours before arrival in Pakistan of David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command.
December 5: A car bomb kills 20 people and injures at least 45 others in Peshawar. The attack destroyed a hotel, a mosque and set fire to several shops.
Police officials said that chemicals intended to spread the fire were contained in the bomb.
December 28: At least 30 people are killed in a suicide car bomb blast at a polling station near Buner, a town in the North West Frontier Province during a by-election for a provincial assembly.
2009
February 5: At least 24 people are killed and 50 others injured in a suspected suicide bombing near a Shia mosque in Dera Ghazi Khan, a town in central Pakistan.
February 20: At least 30 people killed and more than 60 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a funeral procession in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in North West Frontier Province.
March 3: At least five policemen killed and six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team injured in attack in eastern city of Lahore.
March 27: At least 48 people killed and scores more injured after a suicide bomber demolished a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers attending Friday prayers in the town of Jamrud near the Afghan border.
March 30: At least 12 policemen killed and 100 others injured in attack on police training academy near the eastern city of Lahore.
April 4: A suicide attack in Islamabad kills eight paramilitary soldiers.
April 5: At least 20 people killed and 50 others injured when a suicide bomber blows himself up outside a Shia mosque in Chakwal, 80km south of Islamabad.
April 15: A suicide car bomber attacks a security post in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 18 people, nine of them police and injuring five others.
The bomber set off his explosives as he pulled up at a checkpoint in Charsadda, near the city of Peshawar.
April 18: A car bomb is detonated at a checkpoint in the northwestern Pakistani town of Hangu’s Doaba area, killing at least 22 people, including five security personnel, and injuring another 15.
May 1: About 100 people are reported dead after four days of fighting between government forces and pro-Taliban fighting in the Buner district, just 100km from the capital.
May 2: At least 16 fighters and two soldiers are killed in fighting after an attempted assault on a checkpoint in Mohmand tribal region.
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