There were no security-related deaths in Northern Ireland in a calendar year for the first time since police records began in 1969, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has said.
However, the force’s annual security statistics for 2023 show a rise in paramilitary activity including shootings, bombings and assaults.
Amnesty International said the statistics represent a huge number of lives ruined and communities living in fear due to terrorist activity.
Recording deaths directly attributed to terrorism or security force activity, the PSNI bulletin said: “There were no security-related deaths during the last 12-month period, compared to one during the previous 12 months.
“This is the first calendar year since records began in 1969 that there has not been a security-related death.”
The bulletin said there were 33 shooting incidents during 2023, compared with 29 in the previous 12 months.
The statistics include the shooting of senior PSNI detective John Caldwell by dissident republicans in Co Tyrone in February 2023.
There were 12 shooting incidents in Belfast, nine in Londonderry and Strabane and seven in Ards and North Down.
The PSNI bulletin said there were eight bombing incidents in 2023, compared with five in 2022.
It said there were 31 casualties of paramilitary-style assaults in 2023, compared to 25 the previous year. Belfast had the greatest number of assaults with 12, followed by Mid and East Antrim with seven.
All 31 victims of paramilitary-style assaults during the 12-month period were aged 18 or above.
There were 19 casualties of paramilitary-style shootings during 2023, compared with eight in 2022.
The statistics show that the PSNI found 20 firearms during 2023 and recovered 3.22kg of explosives and 1,013 rounds of ammunition.
There were 104 security-related arrests under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in 2023, compared with 110 during the previous 12 months.
There were 21 people charged with terrorism offences.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland director, said: “These latest police figures show a worrying increase in paramilitary activity including shootings, bombings and assaults.
“Every single statistic represents a violation of people’s right to live lives free from violence.
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“So-called paramilitary-style beatings and shootings seem to have become accepted as a fact of life here, but they are nothing less than a brutal abuse of human rights which can never be acceptable.
“What the figures don’t show is the huge number of lives ruined and communities living in fear across Northern Ireland. Nor do they take account of the increasing number of racist and sectarian attacks carried out by these violent groups.
“These attacks must stop and those responsible must be held to account before the law.”
