So-called paramilitary-style punishment attacks in the North have reached their highest level since records began.
Figures released by the Police Service of Northern Ireland show there were 331 such assaults and shootings in 2001; an increase of over 25 per cent on the 2000 figure. On average a "punishment attack" took place almost every day.
In December, a Dublin man, 27-year-old Mr Derek Leneghan, bled to death after he was shot in the legs in what is believed to have been an INLA punishment attack. Although republicans were responsible for this death, loyalists were believed to be responsible for almost two-thirds of the attacks overall and were blamed for 121 shootings and 91 beatings. Republicans are thought to have shot 66 people and assaulted 53.
Punishment attacks take place for a number of reasons. They are often carried out on those accused by paramilitaries or others of "anti-social activity" such as "joyriding" and robbery or drug dealing. At other times the victim may be a criminal or drug dealer who did not pay protection money to a paramilitary group.
For most of the Troubles the most common form of attack was shooting but in 1995, assaults, which often involved objects such as breeze blocks, hammers and baseball bats, became the preferred mode. It was not until 2000 that shootings again overtook assaults as the most common form of attack.
Last year's figures continued this trend with 187 shootings taking place compared with 144 assaults. Although the number of assaults only increased by 12, the number of shootings leapt by 51, an increase of almost 40 per cent. A police spokesman said the service could not explain why there had been such a large increase in the use of firearms in attacks.
In May, it seemed as if the number of punishment shootings would be the highest on record but 1975 remains, by two incidents, the year most shootings occurred.
This might not have been the case were it not for the events of September 11th, after which attacks attributed to the Provisional IRA dwindled to almost nothing for the rest of the year.
The SDLP's North Belfast assemblyman, Mr Alban Maginness, said he believed the drop-off illustrated that they were centrally managed and had become an embarrassment to Sinn Féin in the new political climate after the terrorist attacks on America.
"They were controlled because they wanted to support Sinn Féin and to take the pressure off the republican movement; post September 11th it does not go down well to have such attacks," he said.
Although there have been punishment attacks by republicans since then, it is believed that these have been carried out by members of the dissident "Real IRA" and Continuity IRA groups as well as the INLA.
Cllr Eoin O'Broin of Sinn Féin said that while he did not doubt the statistics, "any attribution of blame has always been speculative" and rejected Mr Maginness's claims. He said his party was against punishment beatings but blamed a vacuum caused by the lack of a police force acceptable to republicans for providing the environment in which they took place.
Within loyalism the majority of attacks are said to be the work of the UDA, by far the largest and most active paramilitary group.
Mr John White, chairman of the now defunct UDP, the party which had links to the UDA, said he could not say which groups were responsible for the most attacks.
Mr White said he believed the large number of attacks in loyalist areas was due to increased lawlessness there, especially on interfaces with nationalist areas.
He said that with an increase in robberies and "joyriding", people wanted "some form of retribution and some times the paramilitaries can deal with it a lot quicker than the police can".
Meanwhile, two men were being treated in hospital yesterday after two separate paramilitary-style shooting incidents in Belfast.
In the first incident, a 32-year-old man was shot in the leg in south Belfast at about 6 p.m. on Wednesday. The attack took place on the loyalist Belvoir estate.
A man in his 40s was also shot in the legs in the north of the city. The victim was shot in the North Queen's Street area at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday.