New Delhi: Pakistan witnessed its deadliest year in over a decade in 2025, with combat-related deaths surging 74 per cent over the previous year, the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) has found in a new report.
The Islamabad-based think-tank’s report, released on 7 January, said that Pakistan saw a “pronounced escalation” in both the “scale and lethality” of violence last year, with a total of 3,413 conflict-related deaths recorded in 2025, compared to 1,950 in the previous year.
It said 667 security personnel were reported dead, a 26 per cent increase from the previous year, and the highest annual figure recorded since 2011.
Civilian deaths also saw the highest annual toll since 2015, with 580 deaths logged in 2025. Additionally, 28 members of pro-government peace committees were reported dead.
Militants accounted for 2,138 of the total 3,413 deaths, making up more than half of the reported fatalities. The report attributes the 124 per cent rise in militant deaths to “expanded counterterrorism operations” by the Pakistani military against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has intensified attacks on Pakistan’s security forces in recent years.
“The militant landscape in 2025 was marked by fragmentation, competition, and tactical innovation,” the report said. “Militant attacks climbed to their highest annual total since 2014, and the use of suicide bombings and small drones showed a clear upward trend.”
Pakistan ranked second in the Global Terrorism Index 2025, with the number of deaths from terrorist attacks rising by 45 per cent from the previous year.
The report highlighted the scale of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, with at least 1,066 militant attacks in 2025 and 26 suicide attacks, a 53 per cent increase over the previous year.
Most of the violence, the report says, remained concentrated in the restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including its tribal districts, and the resource-rich province of Balochistan. Both provinces share a border with Afghanistan, currently under the control of the Afghan Taliban.
Balochistan also recorded the highest overall casualties, reflecting the operational intensity and evolving tactics of Baloch separatist groups, according to the report.
Enhanced operational capabilities of the militants, owing to the availability of American military equipment left behind in the hasty American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, also contributed to the upsurge in violence.
“Militants also expanded the use of commercial quadcopter drones, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal districts, signalling a shift toward low-cost, standoff capabilities that complicate traditional security responses and disproportionately endanger civilians,” the report said.
Islamabad and Rawalpindi have demanded that Kabul stop providing sanctuary to the TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) and other militants to carry out attacks and activities inimical to the interests of Pakistan from its soil. The Taliban in Afghanistan denies the claim.
The report comes a month after Pakistan’s military spokesman, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said security forces carried out 67,023 intelligence-based operations in 2025, which neutralised 1,873 militants, including 136 Afghan nationals.
Commenting on the state of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and accusing the establishment in Kabul of fostering militancy across the border, Chaudhry said, “Blood and business cannot go together.”
Following violence on the border in October, Pakistan closed border crossings for trade and the movement of people. Kabul also accused Islamabad of carrying out strikes inside its territory, further escalating tensions.
However, the two countries on Monday agreed to establish a joint committee to hold negotiations for reopening the border for trade.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Sushovan Chakraborty is an intern with ThePrint.