Terror violence surges 25% in 11 months of 2025

During the first eleven months of 2025, Pakistan witnessed an over 25% surge in overall violence in its security landscape, recording at least 3187 violence-linked fatalities (compared to the entire tally of 2024, i.e., 2546), and 1,981 injuries — among civilians, security personnel, and outlaws, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).

The casualties resulted from as many as 1188 incidents of violence, including terrorist attacks and counterterrorism operations. The violence was overwhelmingly concentrated in the country's northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan, where both these regions, together, accounted for over 96% of all fatalities and 92% of all incidents of violence recorded through January to November 2025.

K-P was the worst-hit region, suffering nearly 68% (2165) of the total violence-linked fatalities, and over 62% (732) of the incidents of violence, followed by Balochistan, accounting for over 28% of the total fatalities (896) and over 30% of the incidents (366) of violence.

The remaining regions — Sindh, Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) — collectively experienced 90 incidents, with 126 lives lost, constituting just 4% of all fatalities.

The scale of the violence marks a sharp increase from the previous year. The 3187 fatalities recorded in just eleven months of 2025 are 25% higher than the total fatalities for the entire year of 2024.

On average, this equated to approximately 15 casualties per day throughout the reporting period. A comparative analysis of fatalities reveals distinct operational dynamics between terrorism and state-led counter-terrorism efforts.

The security forces' operations proved particularly impactful during the first eleven months of 2025, resulting in 1795 militant fatalities — approximately 30% more than the 1392 lives lost in terrorist attacks.

This indicates that, overall, security forces maintained significant offensive momentum against armed groups.

However, the provincial breakdown reveals a stark contrast: In K-P, security forces dominated the operational landscape. Fatalities inflicted during security operations (1,370) exceeded those from terrorist attacks (795) by 72%, underscoring aggressive and large-scale counter-terrorism campaigns as the primary driver of casualties in the province.

In Balochistan, the dynamic is reversed. Terrorist attacks were responsible for 517 fatalities among security forces personnel and civilians, outnumbering the 379 fatalities from security operations by 36%.

This suggests militant groups in the province have retained a higher degree of offensive initiative, posing a persistent and formidable challenge to security forces.

This divergence underscores that while national data reflects an assertive counter-terrorism posture, the situation in Balochistan remains especially volatile, with militant activity inflicting greater losses — an alarming indicator of sustained insurgent pressure in the region.

While fatalities from terror attacks were numerically lower than those from security operations.