India 6th among 162 nations hit by terrorism; Boko Haram, ISIS responsible for over 50% of deaths

New York: India is among the 10 countries most impacted by terrorism in 2014, according to a new report which said that ISIS and Boko Haram are now jointly responsible for more than half of all global fatalities from terrorist attacks.

According to the third edition of the Global Terrorism Index 2015 (GTI), India ranked 6th out of 162 nations most affected by terrorism in 2014.

India witnessed a slight increase in terror-related deaths, up by 1.2 per cent in 2014 to reach a total of 416, the highest number of terrorist incidents and deaths since 2010.

There were 763 incidents which represents a 20 per cent increase from 2013, the report by Washington-based Institute for Economics and Peace said.

In India, the two deadliest Islamic terrorist groups in 2014 were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen. The Pakistan-based LeT was responsible for 24 deaths in 2014, while Hizbul Mujahideen was responsible for 11 deaths in 2014, down from 30 deaths in the previous year.

In 2013 Hizbul Mujahideen was the only group in India to use suicide tactics, but in 2014 there were no suicide attacks in India, the report added.

It said that the number of lives lost to terrorism around the world increased by 80 per cent in 2014, reaching the highest level ever recorded at 32,658 as compared to 18,111 in 2013.

Pakistan was ranked fourth of the list while the US was ranked 35th among the nations most impacted by terrorism. The report added that just two terrorist groups, ISIS and Boko Haram, are now jointly responsible for 51 per cent of all global fatalities from claimed terrorist attacks.

"Boko Haram, which pledged its allegiance to ISIL as the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) in March 2015, has become the world's deadliest terrorist group, causing 6,644 deaths compared to ISIL's 6,073," it said.

India has featured 14 times in the 10 countries most affected by terrorism for the 2000-2014 period. While India continues to be among the 10 countries most impacted by terrorism, 2014 was the first time since 2000 that India did not feature among the ten countries with highest fatalities from terrorism.

"However this is due to the growth of terrorism in other countries more than to an improvement in India," the report said adding that majority of terrorist attacks in India have low casualties.

In 2014 around 70 per cent of attacks in India were non-lethal. Of the 50 different terrorist groups that engaged in a terrorist act in 2014, 28 groups did not kill anyone, it said.