Over 4,600 people lost their lives in bombings and other attacks in Pakistan in 2015, a drop of 40 per cent over the previous year, a leading rights group has said.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) yesterday issued its annual report 'State of Human Rights in 2015' detailing the situation of human rights in the country.
The report comes just days after an Easter Sunday suicide bombing in Lahore killed over 70 people.
It said that "anti-state violence dropped below 2008 level" when incidents of terrorism had started escalating.
It noted that there were "31 per cent less suicide attacks" and "40 per cent decrease in death of people due to violence".
But the sharp dip in violence is not reflected in the overall human rights indicators, which remained dismal as ever.
The report said that 1,100 women were killed in honour killing, which is one the greatest challenge faced by the country.
Four journalists were killed during 2015, it said.
The report said Balochistan witnessed the highest militant attacks in 2015 as compared to other parts of the country, but still there was an overall 41 per cent decline in militant activities in Balochistan as compared to the year 2014.
In Khyber-Pakhtukhwa, the decline was 75 per cent.
It noted that a total of 706 militant attacks took place in 2015, in which 1,325 people were killed.
There were 18 suicide attacks reported in Pakistan during 2015.
The report stated that 65 prisoners died in the country's prisons, 419 persons were awarded the death penalty, 327 death penalty convicts were hanged, making Pakistan one of the highest executing states in the world.
HRCP noted 58 incidents of sectarian violence across Pakistan while 22 individuals were booked on the charges of blasphemy including 15 Muslims, four Christians and three Ahmadis.
