46% surge in violence in Pakistan in Q3 this year, says a think tank report

Islamabad, Oct 2 (PTI) Pakistan continues to reel under terrorism with overall violence surging by 46 per cent in the third quarter of 2025 with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province continuing to be the worst hit region, a media report said Thursday.

Pakistan reported at least 901 fatalities and 599 injuries, including civilians, security personnel and the terrorists, in a total of 329 incidents of violence, which also included terror attacks and counter-terror operations, The News said quoting the latest statistics issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).

The surge in terror incidents came as at least 11 people were killed in a suicide attack near Quetta's FC headquarters on Tuesday, including two FC martyrs. A day earlier, the security forces killed 13 terrorists in two intelligence-based operations (IBOs).

The CRSS report highlights that by quarter three (Q3), the ongoing year has proven nearly as deadly as all of 2024, with 2,414 fatalities recorded compared to the entire tally of 2024, which reported 2,546 deaths in total.

The ongoing year is well on its way to surpassing last year's death toll, with one quarter (Q4) still remaining, along with “intensification of militant violence and the expanded scale of counter-terrorism operations,” it said.

Out of the total 901 fatalities in Q3, 516 (57 per cent) were those of the outlaws, whereas there were 385 civilian and military deaths. Of that, civilian deaths stood at 219 (24 per cent), whereas 166 (18 per cent) security personnel were killed in different incidents.

Compared to Q2 2025, these figures mark almost 55 per cent more losses among outlaws (516 vs 333), over 43 per cent among civilians (219 vs 153), and nearly 28 per cent among security personnel (166 vs 130).

“The outlaws may have suffered the majority of fatalities recorded in this quarter; however, the civilians were the most targeted group compared to security officials and outlaws, in terms of the number of attacks and injuries suffered, i.e. almost 123 terror attacks, compared to security officials suffering around 106 and outlaws targeted in roughly 100 security operations,” the CRSS report said.

“Although security operations were three times fewer than terrorist attacks, they still resulted in nearly as many fatalities as those caused by militant violence against civilians and security forces,” it added.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan — both of which share a porous border with neighbouring Afghanistan — faced the brunt of the terrorism incidents, accounting for more than 96 per cent of the total violence across the country.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the worst-hit region, suffering nearly 71 per cent (638) of the total violence-linked fatalities, and over 67 per cent (221) of the incidents of violence, followed by Balochistan, with over 25 per cent fatalities (230) and incidents (85).

Comparing the Q3 statistics with Q2 (616 fatalities), the report pointed out that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan reported the highest increase in casualties with a 64 per cent (from 390 to 638 fatalities) and 21 per cent (from 190 to 230) surge, respectively.

Sindh also recorded an upsurge in fatalities by 162 per cent, though the number of fatalities was low; from eight in Q2 to 21 in Q3, it added.

Contrastingly, the CRSS report had previously reported around 32 per cent and 40 per cent less violence recorded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in Q2, respectively, compared to Q1.

Accentuating the precision in the state-led counter-terrorism operations, the report said that the terrorists suffered the least number of injuries, being involved in the least number of incidents (which in their case were security forces operations), and still accounting for the majority of fatalities compared to civilians and security officials. PTI SH NPK NPK