Pakistan recorded its deadliest year of violence in a decade, with gunfights, airstrikes and suicide bombings marking much of 2025, as relations with neighboring Afghanistan deteriorated.
The number of deaths from insurgent attacks climbed to 3,967 nationwide, the highest since 2015, according to the latest data from the South Asian Terrorism Portal. At least 1,070 violent incidents ranging from bomb blasts to gun battles occurred in the year through Dec. 27, in which civilians, soldiers and militants were killed. The report does not breakdown attacks by group, though officials and analysts have repeatedly pointed to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which is aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan, as a key driver of the surge in violence.
Pakistan blames the Taliban-led government in Kabul for harboring and supporting the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, which it says was behind a string of high-profile attacks this year, including a suicide bombing that killed seven Pakistani soldiers at a military compound in North Waziristan in the fall. Days later Kabul accused Islamabad of carrying out airstrikes inside northeastern Afghanistan and killing several civilians, a claim Pakistan denied.
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