Over 7,500 deaths were recorded in Pakistan last year due to terrorism, militant attacks, drone strikes, sectarian violence, targeted killings and security operations, according to a report.

The largest contributor for the total 7,655 deaths in 2014, compared to 5,687 similar fatalities in 2013, was security operations which saw a three fold increase.

While the fatalities from the militant attacks, terrorism and targeted killings decreased by 15 per cent, there was a 35 per cent increase in the overall deaths during the year, the Dawn reported on Saturday.

“The major increase in violence was observed in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), where fatalities more than doubled from 1,457 in 2013 to 3,399 in 2014,” said Mohammad Nafees Farooqi, senior research fellow at Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), while presenting the figures.

“The major reason for the increase in deaths in Fata is the military-led operation Zarb-i-Azb in the North Waziristan Agency,” he said at the launching ceremony of a “Conflict/ violence report for the year 2014”.

“The second largest increase was in Punjab where deaths from violence rose by 158 per cent from 120 in 2013 to 309 in 2014. A part of this increased figure may be attributed to the November 1, 2014 bombing at the Wagah border which left 60 people dead,” Farooqi said.

The report states that 186 politicians, including party workers, 52 individuals with religious organisational affiliations and nine members of the journalist fraternity were also killed in 2014

Gilgit-Baltistan saw the largest decrease in violence -related casualties from 20 in 2013 to just three in 2014, the report said.

Deaths from violence accelerated towards the end of the year compared to year 2013. The last three months of the year were especially bloody with an alarming 258 per cent increase compared to 2013.

While Karachi had the highest fatalities of 2,029, North Waziristan Agency and Khyber Agency witnessed 1,825 and 1,187 deaths respectively.

The largest number of deaths in 2014 were of militants (3,460) and criminals (595), the report said.

A total of 3,380 of the deaths occurred because of security operations, said Zeeshan Salahuddin, the director communications and strategy CRSS.

“As many as 2,125 people lost their lives in targeted killings, 982 in militant attacks, 516 in terror incidents and 209 in drone attacks,” he said.