Pakistan witnessed 34 per cent increase in terrorism in 2025: PIPS Annual Security Report

Militancy intensifies despite record 1,313 militants killed in military operations and clashes with security forces.

Islamabad—Despite record militant deaths, Pakistan saw a sharp escalation in militant violence in 2025, with terrorist attacks rising by 34 per cent and terrorism-related fatalities increasing by 21 per cent year on year.
As many as 699 terrorist attacks were recorded countrywide during the year. This violence claimed at least 1,034 lives and left 1,366 injured, underscoring a rising trajectory of militancy that has persisted since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
The year 2025 saw a record high of 1,313 militants killed in military operations and clashes with security forces, compared to 639 the year before.
These are the findings of the “Pakistan Security Report 2025,” released by Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) on Thursday.
Besides rising border violence and militant resurgence, evolving militant tactics from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Balochistan fuel a widening security challenge, the report says.
The burden of this violence fell disproportionately on the state’s defenders during 2025 as security and law enforcement personnel suffered over 42 per cent of all terrorism-related fatalities, with 437 lives lost, the data shows. The report notes that this stark figure highlights the frontline nature of the conflict and the relentless targeting of army, police and paramilitary forces.
Civilians were also heavily affected, with 354 non-combatants losing their lives. Meanwhile, 243 militants were killed, either in suicide attacks they carried out or during retaliatory fire by security forces following some of the terrorist attacks.
The PIPS report says that the conflict remained intensely regionalized, with over 95 per cent of attacks concentrated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.
In KP, a 40 per cent rise in incidents illustrated the entrenched presence of groups like the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliates. The province experienced the highest number of terrorist incidents in the country in 2025, with 413 attacks. These violent incidents claimed a total of 581 lives and left 698 others injured. KP faced not just more frequent attacks, but more complex ones, including a coordinated wave of assaults across 11 districts on Independence Day—a symbolic challenge to state authority, reads the report.
In Balochistan, the insurgency evolved qualitatively. The province experienced 254 militant attacks in 2025, resulting in 419 deaths and injuries to 607 others. A 26 per cent increase in attacks was accompanied by a shift towards high-impact, coordinated operations. Militant groups like the proscribed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) moved beyond hit-and-run tactics to execute highway blockades, sieges, and hijackings, directly targeting economic infrastructure and state symbols to amplify their political message and disrupt governance.
Sindh province recorded 21 terrorist attacks, including 16 in Karachi, two in Shikarpur and one each in Hyderabad, Jacobabad and Jamshoro. These incidents resulted in 14 fatalities and left 17 others injured.
Punjab witnessed seven terrorist attacks in 2025, a decline from 11 incidents in the previous year. These attacks killed five people including four militants and one policeman, and injured two policemen.
A suicide blast outside the judicial complex housing the Islamabad district and sessions courts killed 12 people. Jamaatul Ahrar, a faction of the TTP, claimed the attack.
In Gilgit-Baltistan, three attacks were reported, including two in Diamir district and one in Gilgit. These incidents killed three security personnel, including two Scouts and one Frontier Corps official, and injured six others.
Of the 699 militant attacks recorded in 2025, a clear majority – 454 incidents – were carried out by religiously motivated groups, reflecting a sharp increase from 335 such attacks in 2024. This terrorist violence was largely driven by the TTP and its allied local Taliban factions, alongside the outlawed Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, Lashkar-e-Islam, and Islamic State–Khorasan (IS-K). Together, these groups were responsible for 679 fatalities, up from 520 the previous year, and left another 881 people injured.
Sectarian violence, while far less frequent, remained a grim constant. As in 2024, 11 sectarian-related attacks were reported in 2025, claiming 16 lives and injuring nine more.
The report underlines that this security crisis is inextricably linked to fraught foreign relations, particularly with Afghanistan. It identifies cross-border militancy as the central point of contention, with Pakistan accusing the Afghan Taliban of providing sanctuary and support to the TTP. This tension erupted into direct military clashes along the Pak-Afghan border in October 2025, pushing bilateral relations to a dangerous low.
Despite multiple rounds of mediated talks in Doha, Istanbul and Riyadh, diplomatic efforts repeatedly stalled. “A fundamental impasse remains: Pakistan’s demand for ‘verifiable action’ against militant sanctuaries clashes with the Afghan Taliban’s reluctance to openly act against them.” This security deadlock is compounded by the humanitarian and political strain of mass Afghan refugee repatriations, which saw over 1.7 million returns and the closure of all formal refugee camps in KP, adds the Pakistan Security Report.
The report recommended ending the parallel and often contradictory approaches between federal and provincial governments to establish a single, depoliticized counterterrorism policy.
It called for transitioning from episodic retaliation to sustained, intelligence-led border security cooperation, leveraging regional diplomacy for support.
It emphasized modernizing police forces with equipment and training to hold ground, while systematically supporting local peace initiatives and jirgas to build community trust and isolate militants.
It proposed developing a distinct counter-insurgency strategy for Balochistan that combines targeted security with genuine political dialogue, economic inclusion, and urgent steps to address longstanding grievances.
The report urged the need to civilianize the National Action Plan under parliamentary oversight, to reform the criminal justice system, and to strengthen counter-narrative campaigns to address extremist ideologies.