Terror returned to Punjab after a gap of two years when suspected Pakistani terrorists stormed a police station in Gurdaspur district on Monday and opened fire on police personnel, before they were gunned down.
When operations ended, the death toll was 10: four policemen, including Gurdaspur superintendent of police Baljit Singh, three civilians and three militants.
But this is the first time in over 15 years that the death toll in terror attacks in a year reached double figures. Last time it happened was in 2000, when 18 people died in terror-related incidents.
Punjab has a history of severe terrorist violence, especially during the height of pro-Khalistan militancy in the late eighties and early nineties. Out of the 21,641 deaths, 11786 were civilians, 1754 were security personnel and 8101 were terrorists, according to South Asia Terrorism portal.
Here is a detailed year-wise breakup of terrorism related deaths in Punjab over the past 25 years.
The graph shows a spike in the death toll from 1986-1992, after Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple, and the anti-Sikh riots that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination.
{{/usCountry}}The graph shows a spike in the death toll from 1986-1992, after Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple, and the anti-Sikh riots that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination.
{{/usCountry}}After the state returned to normalcy in 1994, the number of terror-related deaths dipped, going over 50 a year(1997) only once after that.