A study of assorted data on suicide bombings in Pakistan

Abstract

Suicide terrorism is one of the most dreadful challenges for Pakistan as the country has been the primary and most frequent target of suicide terrorism in the world during recent years. Pakistan had two major sources of data on suicide bombings and related terrorism activities, the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies and the Pakistan Body Count; however, these sources lacked comprehensive databases on these incidents and related news. The most reliable sources of information have been international data providers such as the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, the Global Terrorism Database Portal, and others. Recently, the Pakistan Body Count launched an improved version of its database with several new variables, updated information records, and error corrections. This study analyzes the datasets available from international organizations, the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, and the Pakistan Body Count and the variables recorded in them. It explains the benefits of the Pakistan Body Count data over other similar efforts, elaborates on the data collection methodology, provides a glimpse of possible analytics that can be performed using the updated dataset, and identifies areas of further improvement for this database.

Keywords

Datasets data collection suicide bombing datasets data collection of suicide bombing in Pakistan dataset of suicide bombing in Pakistan

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism (CPOST). Suicide Attack Database, UChicago CPOST, http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php. (accessed 4 May 2015).

Global Terrorism Database. START, http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/(accessed 3 May 2015).

Codebook: Inclusion Criteria and Variables. Global Terrorism Database, Study of terrorism and responses to terrorism, http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/downloads/Codebook.pdf (accessed 20 May 2015).

RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents (RDWTI). RAND Corporation, http://www.rand.org/nsrd/projects/terrorism-incidents.html (accessed on 10 May 2015).

South Asia Terrorism Portal. http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/satp/index.html (accessed 10 May 2015).

Institute for Conflict Management. http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/icm/index.html (accessed 21 May 2015).

International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events (ITERATE). Duke University Library, http://library.duke.edu/data/collections/iterate (accessed 24 May 2015).

Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies. Pak Institute of Peace Studies, Independent think-tank in Pakistan, http://san-pips.com/ (accessed 11 June 2015).

Pakistan Body Count. http://pakistanbodycount.org/ (accessed 14 June 2015).

10.

FBI. Bomb Data Center. Improvised explosive devices used in suicide bombing incidents. Public Intelligence, 2002.

11.

Preparation of a Suicide Bomber. The mechanics of living bombs. War Online. http://www.waronline.org/en/terror/suicide.htm (accessed 27 June 2015).

12.

Leger

Johnson

Stanglin

Boston bombs were pressure cookers filled with metal. USA Today, 2013. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/16/boston-marathon-explosions/2086853/ (2013, accessed 1 July 2015).