Effects of suicide bombing on dera ghazi khan criminology essay

Suicide bombers blow themselves up in order to attack people or property. They may attach explosive to their bodies, which permits them to access crowded areas where placing explosive would otherwise be difficult. Other suicide tactics involve using vehicles to create dangerous accident or run into buildings. In Pakistan mostly the teen agers take participation in suicide attack in the recent past. As of July 2007, before the Lal Masjid assault, the volunteers for self-martyrdom tended to be young, ranging from 18 to 24 years (Dawn, 2009). The main objective of the present study is to assess the socio-economic and Psychological effect of suicide bombing on community. The Universe of study will be comprised of the city areas of Dera Ghazi Khan. The sample of present study will comprised of 120 respondents. The data will be collected from two union councils of city Dera Ghazi Khan that will be selected through simple random sampling technique. Multistage sampling technique will be used. At first stage, two union councils will be selected. At the second stage, two colony/Blocks will be selected through simple random sampling technique and the third stage, 60 respondents (30 from each blocks/colony) will be selected randomly and over all 120 respondents will be interviewed. Research tool (Questionnaire) will be constructed to get information according to the objectives of the study. To check the accuracy and suitability of research tool, 10 respondents will be pretested. After making suitable corrections, final data will be gathered. And it will be analyzed by using appropriate statistical techniques (descriptive and inferential). The results will be presented in the form of M.Sc.Thesis.

Need for the project:

Islam and suicide bombing:

The Qur’an mentions “fighting” (military jihad) in some 38 verses. Fourteen of the verses, make glancing reference to “fighting in the way of Allah” (which can mean anything from defensives military operations to a purely personal struggle to improve spiritual conditions). Seven of the verses criticize cowardice in battle. Three verses deal with God’s commands to the (ancient) treacle of Israel to fight against oppressors, two verses deal with the subject of those who break treaties, two refer to losses in battle suffered by unbelievers and two concerns the offering of peace. The remaining verses refer variously to the account of a battle, an attack on Muslims, the experience of fighting, provisions for battle and fighting during Ramadan (Dewdney, 2003)

“And fight in the way of Allah those who fight you. But do not transgress limits. Truly Allah loves not the transgressors.” (Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah 2:190).

What is suicide Terrorism?

Clear operational definitions and well-defined variables are challenge to researcher who studies suicide terrorism. Some conference attendees disagreed on which definitions of suicide terrorism to use. Andrew Silke of the University of East London noted that through out history, acts that some might dismiss as “crazy” or “diabolical” have frequently been employed as rational terrorist tactics. Examples include Cato’s self-inflicted stabbing and Samson’s destruction of the temple where he was held. He noted that groups that have used suicide as a tool include Japanese samurai, English suffragists, IRA hunger-strikers, and Japanese Kamikaze pilots. Silke also raised the questions of how we should consider last-stands battles, such as the Spartans at Thermopylae or Americans at the Alamo. Silke’s historical frame work prompted the panel of experts to debate how best to determine the difference between suicide and “suicidal” (high-risk) acts. Central to the discussion was deciding whether an act that is considered suicidal contributes seminal knowledge to the under standing of suicide terrorism. In other words, should the definitions of suicide terrorism be limited to actions that result only in suicide of should suicidal acts be included as well (Michael, 2006)?

Suicide bombing has justly been centre of tending in recent years. A common perception among public and even scientific community is that suicide bombers are abnormal in some way and must be mentally ill. So for there have been no evidence that people who perpetrate the suicide bombing are with mental illness. (Clovard K, 2007). The black and white and simplistic thinking like ‘I am good and right’ ‘You are bad and wrong’ are the beliefs which may be fundamental these acts. These beliefs distance people from their foes and make it easier for them to kill people with plain little or no sense of compunction or guilt. However these may be over simplifications for a very complex phenomenon. (Merari A, 2007).

Suicide bombers blow themselves up in order to attack people or property. They may seize explosive to their bodies, which allows them to approach crowded areas. Other suicide tactics involve using vehicles to create deadly accidents or run into buildings. Suicide bombers in Afghanistan and Iraq have driven trucks with explosives into buildings to attack them: The 9/11 hijacker flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Suicide attackers know that they will die for their causes, and are therefore believed the most attached of terrorists. However, there is much professional supposition about the motivations and mindset of suicide bombers (Zelman, 2008).

Several news papers reports and information from news channels suggested that the phenomenon of suicide bombing is new in Pakistan. November 6, 2002 marked the occasion when a lady blow herself in front of news paper office in Karachi, injuring 6 people. Since the there have been 40 incidents up till now exacting more than 832 lives and injuring about than 1762. There have been constant rise in the incidents since 2006 with its peak in August 2007. NWFP is the most affected province followed by federally administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Regarding targets of the security personals have been the main target of suicide bombings, followed by other religions sects (Kaplan A, 2007).

Psychology of terrorism and especially suicide bombing has drawn so much attention compared to other threats to life in recent years. This ‘perception’ and attitude aspect to suicide bombing of perpetrators is of great interest to social scientists as well as psychiatrists and psychologists. Therefore psychological explanation of such a behavior could be of interest to many segments of society. Psychological perspectives could explain this extreme behavior of suicide bombing to some extent, though may not be fully applicable to all cases (Kaplan A, 2007).

The curse of terrorism have left negative imprints on the economy of our country and devastated the socio conditions of our society also. A large number of domestic investors have flown away due the prevailing shadows of suicidal attacks and foreign investors also avoid investing their capital in our country. Which is one of the main sources that stabilize our economy? Many bread-winners of families have been victimized by this evil currently prevailing in our country. On socio front, the element of uncertainty have created in the minds of masses while going outside for job or business, no one knows whether he/she will come back home or not. (Jones, 2008).

Purpose of study:

District Dera Ghazi Khan geographically located in a key position and preferring the role of heart. All provinces (Sindh, Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtun khwa and Punjab) are connected here. National trade and social mobility depend on the calm and peaceful environment of this area so the purpose of this study will be to highlight perception of common people of the area about the suicide bombing and also the atmosphere of uncertainty in their social and economic life. In this study, research will concentrate on the perception of people and to examine that how suicide bombing affects their social and economic life. Most previous studies had focused on infrstctural loses of suicide bombing and I will try to high light the social economic and psychological effects of suicide bombing according to the perception of common people.

OBJECTIVES:

1. To find out the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents.

2. To examine the perceptions of people about suicide bombing and its impact on their

Socialization process.

3. To find out the perceived impact of suicide bombing on community psychology and

Economy.

4. To suggest some possible measures for the reduction of suicide bombing.

Review of literature:

Saxton (2002) recommended that the economic cost of terrorism is comparable to a “security” or “terrorism tax” due to the extra cost of security. These diverse costs represent a supply side shock to an economy and can be very large. For example, in Pakistani Army or security forces clash against terrorist in Wana and Swat and much amount spent on this war it is burden on the country.

Abadie and Gardeazabal (2003) the impacts of terrorism on (GDP) Grass Domestic Product per capital in our Country a region that has been weighed down by terrorism. They make an unreal region that consists of a weighted combination of different regions of our country that is planned to act as a “counterfactual”. It is intended to reflect an economic profile of the region before the start of terrorism. The author says that if any country faced terrorism and then people live difficult life.

Palmer (2003) the author explored the general phenomena of terrorism, in a try to inform understanding of terrorist act. He stresses the need for contextualization of acts to terror, their perpetrators their effects on population and individuals, and attention to the psychology of groups. The author covers a brief history of terrorism organizational requirements of terror groups and process of recruiting personnel to them the; the means motives and opportunities terrorist exploit in their work; the need for communication with terror groups; sacrificial death governmental responses to terrorist acts and fear the mental health. The author proposed that terrorist organizations perform some of the functions of a family; that act of terror are propaganda by dead; that terrorism more precisely media treatment of it, breeds formless fears which may directly need to the development of fear-based symptoms and illness with in societies. He noted that terrorism is an enterprise from which many player’s benefits; that terrorism has a shadow in counter-terrorism, which may range from benign to malignant and that psychiatry could, in this context, acknowledge its bias towards individual psychology and rectify its lack of understanding of groups and the behavior of individual within them.

Robert (2003) in his book dying to win; the strategic logic of suicide terrorism controverter many widely held beliefs about suicide terrorism. Based on an analysis of every known case of suicide terrorism from 1980s to 2005 (315 attacks are as part 18 campaigns), he concluded that there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or anyone of the world’s religions Rather, what nearly are suicide terrorist attacks have in common in a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorist consider to be their homeland. The taproot of suicide terrorism is nationalism; he argues it is an extreme strategy for national liberation. Robert work examines group are diverse as the Basque ETA to the srilankan Tamil Tigers. Robert also notably provides further evidences to a growing body of literature that finds that the majority of suicide terrorist do not come from impoverished or uneducated background, but rather have middle class origins and a significant level of education.

Tavares (2003) explained that those who conserve suicide attacks are forced by religious beliefs suggest that the bombers believe that God has sent them on a task. They are motivated mostly by the assure of a happy after life and heavenly reward and the threat of pretty payback their basis is that by blowing themselves up in a crowd of people, they are making themselves martyrs and forge their own entrance to heaven.

Blomberg, Hess and Orphanides (2004) estimated a number of models in a challenge to estimate the economic cost of terrorism. Using panel regressions calculating for country-fixed effects, they find that the living in a society we faces many problems but the terrorism is big threat for our safety and our country. No one knows that if he go to the job and he come back home or not. And with this curse our total economy affected because foreigner investor not comes here for business.

Chen and Siems (2004) determine the impact of terrorism on justice index with an occasion study method. Unusual takings (deviations of situation-event key ethics from the pre-event average) and increasing irregular takings are the needy variables and the number of military and terrorist trial is the events. Using abnormal and collective abnormal returns on the Dow Jones Industrial Average equity index, the authors discover that of the eight terrorist incidents.

Nitsch and Schumacher (2004). He suggested that Religious Terrorism is terrorism fragrant by groups or individual, the drive of which is usually fixed in the trust based tents. Terrorist acts during out the centuries have been performed on religious basis with the wish to either reach or implement a structure of belief, point of view or judgment. Religious terrorism does not in it self essentially define a specific religious stand point or view, but instead usually defines an individual or group view or analysis of that belief system’s teachings.

Piskhiatr and Korsakova (2004) stated that the consequences of terrorist threat and terrorist acts for mental health of the individual, groups of individuals and community in general were analyzed. Mental disorders emerging in the victim of terrorism is described. The problem of terrorist threats use as a psychic weapon is discussed. Tolerance of population to terrorism can be divided into two types that is psycho physiological and socio-psychological. The ways for elevating tolerability to terrorist threat and terrorist acts are suggested. Help in the centers of terrorist acts must be of the complex character, benign provided by different specialists including psychologists and psychiatrists. The importance of state structures and support in this work is emphasized.

Abadie and Gardeazabal (2005) examined the impact of terrorism on foreign direct investment (FDI) which, they make up, may be superior to its impact on economic growth. Different other studies, which use also the number of losses or the number of terrorist attacks as their calculate of terrorism, the authors use an index that is based on “expert ratings of the drive, company, size, competence, and barrier of terrorism at a country level.”

PGAP (2005) this pew global survey concerned over Islamic extremism. According to pew global survey, nearly three-quarters of Moroccans and roughly half of those in Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia see Islamic extremism as a threat to their countries. At the same time, most Muslim publics are expressing less support for terrorism then in the past. Confidence in Osama Bin Laden has declined markedly in some countries and fewer believe suicide bombings that target civilians are justified in the defense of Islam has declined significantly, In Turkey Morocco and Indonesia.15% or fewer act now say such actions justifiable. In Pakistan, only one in four now take that view (25%), a sharp drop from 41% in March 2004.

Hronick (2006) stated that in a study conducted by Muhammad Hafez from university of Missouri-Kansas reported that suicide bombing were often conducted by secular organizations to advance political objectives against a stronger, technologically superior enemy. He noted that these organizations often invoke religion to appeal to individuals in order to convince them that they are fulfilling a commitment to God. He also explained how what he called the “reward of martyrdom” might motive an individual to undertake a suicide attacks and cited terrorists in Palestinian society as an example. There, suicide attackers are regarded by some as heroes, with their names given to babies or streets, and their sacrifices promoted by posters and mass funerals. Among the purported rewards for a martyr in the afterlife was the ability to intercede with God on behalf of friends and family and redemption for not only the individual, but for the society as well. Also, organizations that sponsor terrorism often bestow money and status on the families of suicide terrorists.

Robert and Badar (2006) had explained the rise of suicide bombing since the early 1980’s by focusing on the characteristic of suicide bombers, the cultural matrix which they operate, and the strategic calculations the make to maximize their gains. They offered an alternative approach that emphasizes the interaction between Palestinian suicide bombing and Israeli government actions, analyzing the motivations organizational rationales and precipitants for the 138 suicide bombings that took place in Israel the west bank and Gaza between October 2000 and July 2005. Using several sources including Arabic newspapers they find that much of the impetus for Palestinian suicide bombing can be explained by his desire to retaliate against Israeli killings of Palestinians: and that much of the impetus for Israeli Killings of Palestinians can be explained by the desire to retaliate for suicide bombing. When men are angry they commonly act out of revenge and not ambition. Aristotle, politics oppressed people can not always be expected to behave in a reasonable manner.

Benmelech and Berrbi (2007) showed that they study the relation between human capital of suicide bombers and outcomes of their suicide attacks. They argued that human capital is an important factor in the production of terrorism, and that is if terrorist behave rationally we should observe that more able suicide bombers are assigned to more important targets. The empirical analysis suggests that younger and uneducated suicide bombers were being assigned by their terror organization to more important targets. We found that uneducated and younger suicide bombers are less likely to fail in their missions, and are more likely to cause increased causalities when they attack.

Gill (2007) narrated that understanding suicide bombing entailed studying the phenomenon on three different dimensions: the suicide bomber, terrorist organization and the community from which suicide bombing emerge. Political and social psychology allow us to establish the reciprocal relationships that underpin the exchange between three dimensions. This method increases our theoretical understandings of suicide bombing by moving away from the UN dimensional models that have previously dominated the terrorism literature.

Hassan (2007) Awake till now, it is not possible to decide to what level children are being used for suicide operations in Pakistan and if it was ever a source of income for the TTP (Terikh Tailban Pakistan). Yet, it is known that the phenomenon does s and is also prevalent in nearby Afghanistan. One of the reasons suicide attacks have flourished in the past few years is the visible rapprochement between al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. What affects one country will ultimately affect the other, and in the absence of any sign of social and economic development in the most isolated districts of the country, Pakistani suicide bombers tend not to be by-products of the madras system – the Pakistani society might have to fear the worst regarding its youth.

Unama (2007) presented the main findings Unama’s comprehensive inquiry into the phenomenon of suicide attacks in Afghanistan. This study contextualizes suicide attacks in Afghanistan against its occurrence in other theatres, identifying the ways in which suicide attacks in Afghanistan differ from attacks elsewhere. It details available information about the backgrounds of the attackers and sources of support they enjoy, both in Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan. This report described the human cost borne by it’s largely civilians victims and identifies several policy implications as well as mitigating strategies. While suicide attackers elsewhere in the world tend not to be poor and uneducated, Afghanistan’s attackers appear to be young, uneducated and often drawn from madras across the border in Pakistan. They were also fortunately relatively inept at this tactic, managing to kill only themselves in many instances. Suicide assailants in Afghanistan and their supporters seem to be mobilized by a number of grievances. These include a sense of occupation, anger over civilian casualties and affronts to their national, family, and personal senses of honor and dignity that are perpetrated in the conduct of counterinsurgency operations. Some attackers are also motivated by religious rewards and duties.

Abawi (2008) reported that CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen said the number of suicide bombings in Pakistan has “reached unprecedented levels in the past year”. Previously, Bergen says, such attacks were rare. “The reason for this rise was because Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban had morphed together ideologically and tactically, and both see themselves at war with the Pakistani state,” Bergen says. “Many of the suicide attacks had been aimed at Pakistani politicians, officials and soldiers.” Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf had vowed to fight militancy and religious extremism, going after Taliban and Al Qaeda within the country, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Muhammad Ali Durrani, Some years ago told CNN that the Pakistani military was totally focused in destroying Al Qaeda and the Taliban network and not just one person. Still, the suicide bombers were succeeding targeting political party’s rallies military installations and anyone seen as a threat. Meanwhile, civilians were caught in the crossfire. The bombings, he said, must be stopped. “I hope that we will succeed and, God willing we will try to stop these bloody cowards,” he says. “I don’t think they are Muslim.”

Sayre (2009) analyzed the relationship between Palestinian suicide bombings and economic and political conditions. Labor market conditions can affect the frequency of attacks because when the economy worsens, the opportunity cost of being a terrorist decreases. An alternative explanation is that suicide bombings are responses to changes in the political environment. This paper examined these alternative explanations by estimating court data regression models of the occurrence of Palestinian terrorist attacks from 1993 to 2004. Contrary to the previous literature, this paper found that economic conditions were correlated with suicide terrorism. Specifically, deteriorating local labor market conditions during the al- Aqsa intifada account for nearly half of the increase in suicide bombings during that time.

Procedure:

The main objective of methodology is to explain various tools and techniques employed for a data collection, analysis and interpretation of data related to research problem. According to Nachmias and Nachmias (1992) “the scientific methodology is a system of explicit rules and procedures upon which research is based and against which the claims for knowledge are evaluate.

The purpose of the present study is to assess the socio-economic and psychological effect of suicide bombing on community. The Universe of study will be urban areas of District Dera Ghazi Khan. The sample of present study will comprised of 120 respondents. The data will be collected from two union councils of city Dera Ghazi Khan that will be selected through simple random sampling technique. Multistage sampling technique will be used and at first stage, two union councils will be selected. At the second, stage two colonies/Blocks will be selected through simple random sampling technique and the third stage, 60 respondents (30 from each blocks/ colony) will be selected randomly and over all 120 respondents will be interviewed. A research tool (Questionnaire) will be constructed to get information according to the objectives of the study and to check the accuracy and suitability of research tool, 10 respondents will be pretested. After making suitable correction, final data will be gathered.Collected data will be analyzed by using appropriate statistical technique (descriptive and inferential).

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