Rising militancy, border clashes expose Pakistan’s fragile security situation

Islamabad, May 23 (SocialNews.XYZ) Pakistan continues to grapple with a deteriorating security situation amid the revival of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a deepening Baloch insurgency, and mounting tensions with Afghanistan.

With a surge in militant violence, escalating cross-border confrontations and the increasing operational capabilities of armed groups, the country is expected to face instability and violence in the coming period.

Citing partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), Eurasia Review reported that Pakistan has recorded 57 terrorism-related incidents of violence within just 17 days in May, resulting in 200 fatalities, including security forces, militants and civilians.

As per the findings, it added that Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has borne the brunt of TTP resurgence, recorded the highest fatalities last year since 2009. The province recorded 2,359 deaths in 545 incidents of killing in 2025 compared to 1,363 such fatalities in 487 incidents in 2024, marking a 73.07 per cent surge in overall fatalities.

Following Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan recorded the second-highest number of militancy-related fatalities in Pakistan. The province reported 1,534 deaths in 482 incidents of violence in 2025, against 774 fatalities in 250 incidents in 2024, registering a sharp 98.19 per cent increase.

"The deteriorating security situation in Balochistan and the escalating attacks on security forces are substantially a consequence of the continuing frustration among Baloch nationalist groups over the systematic extermination of ethnic Baloch through enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings by Pakistan security agencies and their proxies – the 'death squads' (state-backed armed militia) – in addition to the persistent neglect of the basic needs of the population," the report mentioned.

According to the report, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region has witnessed two recurring forms of violent incidents - attacks by infiltrating militants on Pakistani security forces' checkposts and camps as well as exchanges of fire between the security forces of both sides over border fencing and construction of security infrastructure.

Against the backdrop of increasingly strained ties with neighbouring countries, particularly Afghanistan, and escalating attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), Pakistan ranked first on the Global Terrorism Index in 2025 for the first time this year which was published by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

The report noted that terrorism-related deaths in Pakistan reached their highest level since 2013, with the country recording 1,139 fatalities and 1,045 incidents in 2023.

Source: IANS