ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: Pakistan has been placed at second position out of 158 countries in the ‘Global Index on Terrorism 2012’ which shows that the country is bearing the highest impact of terrorism after Iraq which has topped the index.

Ranked 9.05, Pakistan saw killings of 1,468 people, injuries to 2,459 and damage to 458 properties from 910 acts of terrorism in different parts of the country, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) released on Tuesday.

Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the GTI is the first index to rank countries on the impact of terrorism and analyses the associated economic and social dimensions. The index is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database, collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, based at the University of Maryland.

Iraq rose to the top ranking of 9.56 as it witnessed 1,228 incidents of terrorism with 1,798 fatalities, 4,905 injuries and loss of 660 properties.

Ranked third, Afghanistan faced 364 incidents of terrorism with the killing of 1,293 people, injuries to 1,892 and loss of 131 properties.

India was placed at fourth position with 529 acts of terrorism involving killing of 402 people, injuries to 667 and loss of 131 properties.

The number of killings in Pakistan has risen over the last decade, from 96 deaths in 2002 to 1,468 last year. Almost two thirds of terrorist attacks were in the form of bombings and explosions followed by firing incidents.

A majority of attacks took place in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta with a significant increase in such incidents in Bajaur, Dera Bugti, and Mohmand Agency.

This indicates significant and widespread terrorist activities across the country.

According to the report, Pakistan has extremely high levels of corruption and performs badly in the ‘Acceptance of the Rights of Others’ indicator.

The country is below the world average on all eight ‘Pillars of Peace’ indicators: well-functioning government, sound business environment, equitable distribution of resources, good relations with neighbours, free flow of information, acceptance of the rights of others, high levels of education and low levels of corruption. Pakistan ranks fourth last in the Positive Peace index.

FALL IN NUMBER OF DEATHS: The report says that the number of terrorist incidents has increased across the world every year since 9/11. However, the number of terrorism fatalities has fallen by 25 per cent since 2007, which coincides with the end of the Iraq war. Despite this Iraq is still the country suffering the most in 2011.

During the last decade, Middle East and North Africa have seen the highest number of fatalities due to terrorism, closely followed by Asia Pacific.

The index scores 158 countries over the last 10 years by aggregating a series of indicators, including the number of terrorist incidents, fatalities, injuries and property damage.

The GTI analyses several other factors and has found inter-group cohesion, human rights, group grievances, corruption and governance to be associated with terrorism.

Surprisingly, low-income countries are less affected by terrorism than lower middle-income countries, indicating that poverty is not necessarily a main cause of terrorism.

Common people and property are the most common targets of terrorism as military has been targeted in only 4 per cent of the attacks.

The US, Algeria and Colombia had the biggest improvements over the last ten years.