Islamabad [Pakistan], March 22 (ANI): Pakistan has been ranked primary on the International Terrorism Index for the primary time, following a 6 per cent enhance in terrorism-related fatalities throughout 2025. In accordance with the International Terrorism Index 2026, printed by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the nation recorded 1,139 deaths final yr, highlighting a deteriorating safety panorama.
The excellent report, which assesses the influence of terrorism throughout 163 international locations, famous that Pakistan’s ‘strained’ relations with its neighbours, significantly Afghanistan, alongside escalating violence from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Military (BLA), have created ‘vital safety’ dangers.
The findings reveal that ‘deaths from terrorism in Pakistan are actually at its highest stage since 2013, with the nation recording 1,139 terrorism deaths and 1,045 incidents in 2025.’ The TTP has solidified its place because the ‘deadliest’ terror group throughout the nation and the third deadliest on a worldwide scale.
The IEP information exhibits that ‘TTP assaults represent over 67pc of whole assaults in Pakistan since 2009, and it’s chargeable for 5 occasions as many assaults in Pakistan because the second most energetic group, the BLA.’ Notably, the TTP was the one organisation among the many world’s 4 deadliest teams to see a rise in its operational exercise over the previous yr.
The group’s lethality surged in 2025, with incidents rising by 24 per cent to 595 assaults. These strikes have been concentrated primarily inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa close to the Afghan border, leading to 637 deaths, the very best determine since 2011. The report recognized the group’s most important operation in 2025 as ‘an armed assault focusing on navy forces, ensuing within the dying of 21 folks.’
In accordance with the IEP, the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban in Kabul has ‘profoundly impacted Pakistan’s safety and stability.’ The report asserts that this geopolitical shift ‘supplied the TTP with the means and motivation to considerably broaden their geographic attain and operational effectivity, leading to a substantial rise in violent extremism within the area.’
Whereas the full variety of assaults noticed a slight decline, 2025 marked the ‘sixth consecutive yr’ of rising terrorism deaths in Pakistan. Moreover, the nation skilled an enormous spike in hostage-taking, with the variety of victims leaping from 101 in 2024 to 655 in 2025. This surge was largely pushed by the Jaffar Categorical assault, the place 442 people have been taken hostage.
The inner safety vacuum is most evident in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which collectively accounted for ‘over 74pc of terrorist assaults and 67pc of deaths in Pakistan in 2025.’ On the worldwide stage, Pakistan now sits alongside Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, and the Democratic Republic of Congo as one in every of 5 nations the place almost 70 per cent of all world terrorism deaths happen.
This newest rating follows a second-place end in 2025, confirming a gradual and violent decline within the nation’s stability. (ANI)
