The report attributed a 124% increase in militant deaths to intensified counterterrorism operations against the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which operates independently of Afghanistan’s Taliban
Pakistan recorded its deadliest year in over a decade in 2025, with combat-related deaths rising 74%, according to The Associated Press, citing an independent think tank on Thursday.
The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) said 3,413 people were killed last year, up from 1,950 in 2024, with militants accounting for more than half of the fatalities.
The report attributed a 124% increase in militant deaths to intensified counterterrorism operations against the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which operates independently of Afghanistan’s Taliban.
The TTP has stepped up attacks on Pakistan’s security forces in recent years.
Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have escalated since October after border clashes killed dozens and injured hundreds.
Islamabad frequently accuses Kabul of overlooking cross-border attacks by Pakistani militants, a claim denied by the Afghan Taliban government.
Separately, a roadside bomb in Sibi district, Balochistan, killed a passerby and injured five others on Thursday, AP quoted a local police chief Ghulam Ali as saying. No group claimed responsibility, though authorities suspect separatist militants, who have been linked to similar attacks in the past.
Abdullah Khan, managing director of PICSS, said the high death toll was driven in part by a rise in suicide bombings and the militants’ use of US military equipment left behind during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which later reached the Pakistani Taliban, and other groups, increasing their operational capabilities.
The 2025 fatalities also included 667 security personnel, a 26% increase from the previous year, “the highest annual figure since 2011,” Khan told AP.
He also said 580 civilian deaths were recorded, “the highest annual toll since 2015.”
In addition, 28 members of pro-government peace committees were reported dead.
The Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) recorded at least 1,066 militant attacks in 2025, with suicide attacks rising 53% to 26 incidents, and said security forces arrested around 500 militants last year, up from 272 in 2024.
Multiple militant groups, including the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, the report added.
The report comes weeks after Pakistan’s military spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry, said security forces conducted 67,023 intelligence-based operations in 2025, killing 1,873 militants, including 136 Afghan nationals.
The surge in violence along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border follows the October 9 explosions in Kabul, which the Afghan Taliban blamed on Pakistan.
A Qatar-mediated ceasefire has largely held since, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement in November after three rounds of talks in Istanbul. All border crossings have remained closed since October, disrupting trade and the movement of people.
On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said reopening the border crossings depends on written assurances from Kabul that Afghan territory will not be used for attacks in Pakistan. He added that UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Afghanistan were stranded on the Pakistani side because the gates on the Afghan side remained closed.
“A country in need of humanitarian assistance is unwilling to receive it. This is unprecedented — a country facing a humanitarian crisis is blocking humanitarian supplies,” Andrabi said, though there was no immediate response from Kabul.
In December, Pakistan’s newly appointed armed forces chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, urged Afghanistan’s Taliban government to choose between maintaining ties with Islamabad or supporting the Pakistani Taliban.
With inputs from agencies
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