Pakistan’s leading welfare organization, the Edhi Foundation, said 2008 was a year of suicides and suicidal attacks during which terrorist attacks increased by 50 per cent over 2007.

The foundation’s annual report said 3,325 people committed suicide in Pakistan during 2008. As well, 51 terrorist attacks were recorded, including suicide attacks across the country.

"We haven’t compiled the reasons for these suicides but the main reason is unemployment and poverty, leading to hunger and forcing people to commit suicide," Edhi Foundation chairman Abdul Sattar Edhi told IANS.

Edhi said in many cases, suicide attackers agree to blow themselves up because of poverty. "They are trapped by the terrorists because of their hunger and severe poverty," said Edhi whose foundation has a pan-Pakistan presence and is among the world’s largest privately-run welfare networks.

He said this is a time when Pakistan and other developing countries should make their countries welfare states. "This only can guarantee peace and harmony."

He added that instead of spending huge amounts on defence, governments should commit themselves to ending poverty, creating job opportunities and increasing education.

Edhi said most of the religious leaders live on money from wealthy people and this is the reason that they don’t care about the poor people or their welfare.

Edhi has often been criticized by religious elements for his strong secular views and even called an "agent of Jews and anti-Islam lobbies".

He believes that through concerted efforts for equal distribution of wealth and by providing people with equal opportunities, suicide attacks can be reduced.

The report said that suicides are on the increase in cities and villages and a number of dead bodies are buried without any report to the police.

It said that in Karachi 380 people committed suicide, while in interior Sindh 377 people killed themselves.

The Edhi Foundation has 250 emergency field offices with a network of road and air ambulances and also runs 13 homes for orphans.

The foundation has also started a service named "Edhi Cradles" where people can leave their infants, who are either raised at Edhi homes or are adopted.