The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2012 has ranked India as the fourth most ‘terror affected’ country in the world in a list of 158 nations. Compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the GTI has put Iraq in the number one spot, followed by Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to the GTI, the areas which bore the brunt of terrorism in 2011 were the Middle East, India, Pakistan and Russia. There were 4,564 terror incidents, 7,437 fatalities and 13,961 injuries resulting from the terror strikes globally, which is 25 per cent less than the number of fatalities recorded in 2007.
From 2002 to 2011, North America witnessed the least number of terror strikes. In marked contrast, however, the number of terror strikes across the world had increased every year since the 9/11 attacks in the US. A decade on since the 9/11 attacks,fatalities resulting from the terror attacks had increased by 195 per cent, incidents of terror by 460 per cent and injuries by 224 per cent, the GTI said. It further stated that there are only 31 countries which have not witnessed a terrorist attack between 2002 and 2011.
Meanwhile, former Intelligence Bureau(IB) chief Ajit Doval said the GTI’s findings, which put the country among the four nations worst-hit by terrorism, should be looked into. But since the country remains susceptible and vulnerable to terrorism, there was a need to take strong steps at the legislative level to strengthen the laws related to tackling terrorism.
The GTI ranks the countries based on the number of terror incidents, number of fatalities resulting from terrorism, total number of injuries sustained in terror strikes and estimated damage to property as a result of the terror attacks.