In the first eleven months of 2025, Pakistan saw an overall increase of more than 25 percent in violence across its security landscape, recording at least 3,187 violence-related deaths (compared to all of 2024’s 2,546) and 1,981 injuries – among civilians, security personnel and outlaws, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).
The casualties were the result of 1,188 incidents of violence, including terrorist attacks and counterterrorism operations. The violence was mostly concentrated in the northwest of the country, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, where these two regions, together, accounted for more than 96% of all deaths and 92% of all incidents of violence recorded between January and November 2025.
KP was the worst affected region, accounting for almost 68% (2,165) of the total violence-related deaths and over 62% (732) of the violence incidents, followed by Balochistan, which accounted for over 28% of the total deaths (896) and over 30% of the violence incidents (366).
The remaining regions – Sindh, Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) – collectively saw 90 incidents, with 126 deaths, or just 4% of all deaths.
The scale of the violence marks a sharp increase compared to the previous year. The 3,187 deaths recorded in just eleven months in 2025 are 25% higher than the total number of deaths for all of 2024.
On average, this equates to around 15 victims per day throughout the reporting period. A comparative analysis of deaths reveals distinct operational dynamics between terrorism and state-led counterterrorism efforts.
Security force operations proved particularly effective in the first eleven months of 2025, resulting in the deaths of 1,795 militants, approximately 30% more than the 1,392 lives lost in terrorist attacks.
This indicates that, overall, security forces have maintained significant offensive momentum against armed groups.
However, the provincial distribution reveals a stark contrast: in KP, security forces dominated the operational landscape. The number of deaths inflicted during security operations (1,370) exceeded that of terrorist attacks (795) by 72 percent, highlighting that aggressive and large-scale counterterrorism campaigns are the leading cause of casualties in the province.
In Balochistan, the dynamic is reversed. Terrorist attacks killed 517 security force personnel and civilians, exceeding the 379 deaths from security operations by 36 percent.
This suggests that militant groups in the province have retained a higher degree of offensive initiative, posing a persistent and formidable challenge to security forces.
This discrepancy highlights that while national data reflects a strong counterterrorism posture, the situation in Balochistan remains particularly volatile, with militant activities inflicting higher casualties – an alarming indicator of sustained insurgent pressure in the region.
While deaths from terrorist attacks were numerically lower than those from security operations.
