Pakistan witnesses alarming spike in violence in 2025: Report

Islamabad, Oct 8 (IANS) Pakistan has witnessed an over 46 per cent surge in violence during the third quarter of 2025, with at least 901 fatalities and 599 injuries – including civilians, security personnel, and outlaws – resulting from 329 incidents of violence, including terror attacks and counter-terror operations, a report by Islamabad-based think tank Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) has revealed.

In its report, the CRSS noted that the year 2025 is on course to surpass last year’s toll, citing an intensification of militant violence and the expanded scale of counter-terrorism operations. It warned that if the current trend continues, 2025 could mark one of the deadliest years in a decade.

The report highlighted that in just three quarters, 2025 has proven nearly as deadly as all of 2024, with 2414 fatalities recorded compared to the 2546 total deaths reported last year, and an entire quarter remaining.

"A year-on-year comparison reinforces this shift. Between January and September 2024 (Q1-Q3), Pakistan recorded 1,527 fatalities. The toll of 2414 fatalities for the same period in 2025 marks a 58 per cent rise in violence. However, the source of fatalities has shifted; in 2024, security operations caused 505 deaths (33 per cent of the total), while terror attacks claimed 1022. In 2025, security operations accounted for 1265 deaths – over half of the total fatalities," the CRSS report detailed.

"Accounting for over 96 per cent of the country’s violence in this quarter, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan stood out as the most volatile provinces. KP 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 of fatalities (230) and incidents (85). The number of fatalities, injuries, and incidents recorded in all other regions remained relatively low,” it added.

According to the report, while the outlaws may have suffered the majority of fatalities recorded in the second quarter, the civilians were the most targetted group compared to security officials and outlaws, in terms of the number of attacks and injuries sustained. Civilians were hit in nearly 123 terror attacks, followed by security officials suffering in around 106 incidents and outlaws targetted in roughly 100 security operations. Moreover, civilians suffered 355 injuries compared to 209 among security officials and 35 among outlaws.

--IANS

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