Pakistan has landed at the very top of the Global Terrorism Index 2026, marking the first time in the report’s history that the country has taken the number one spot on the list of nations most affected by terrorism. The ranking, released by the Institute for Economics and Peace, paints a grim picture of a country that has struggled with militancy for decades and is now facing its worst wave of terror related deaths in over a decade.
Reacting to the report, Pakistan’s former US envoy Husain Haqqani did not hold back. He shared a graphic showing Pakistan at the top of the index on social media platform X and offered a blunt comparison, saying that when you keep a snake in your backyard, sooner or later it bites the people of the house too. He added that Pakistan had started arming extremist jihadist groups nearly five decades ago, and now the country finds itself at the top of the list of nations suffering the most from terrorist attacks.
Over eleven hundred lives lost in a single year
According to the index, 2025 saw 1,139 people killed in terrorist attacks across Pakistan, with 1,045 separate incidents recorded through the year. This is the highest terrorism related death toll the country has seen since 2013.
With a score of 8.574, Pakistan claimed the top position on the index. The country had appeared among the ten worst affected nations in every previous edition of the report, but 2025 was the first time it actually rose to the very top.
The report also noted that terrorism deaths in Pakistan rose by nearly 6 percent compared to the year before, marking the sixth consecutive year of rising fatalities. Interestingly, the total number of attacks actually dropped slightly, falling from 1,098 in 2024 to 1,045 in 2025. Kidnapping incidents, however, saw a dramatic spike, jumping from 101 cases in 2024 to a staggering 655 in 2025.
Most attacks concentrated in two provinces
The report found that the bulk of terrorist activity remains concentrated along Pakistan’s western border regions. More than 74 percent of all terrorist attacks in 2025 and 67 percent of terrorism related deaths occurred in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
Analysts point to the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021 as a major factor behind rising militancy along the Pakistan Afghanistan border. Combined with strained relations with neighboring countries and continued violence from groups like Tehrik i Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), the security situation has grown increasingly complicated.
TTP behind more than half of all terrorism deaths
The report identified TTP as the group responsible for the largest share of terrorism deaths in Pakistan, marking the fifth straight year it has held the title of the country’s deadliest militant organization. The group was blamed for 56 percent of all terrorism deaths in Pakistan in 2025, carrying out 595 attacks that killed 637 people, a 13 percent rise from the year before.
Globally, TTP was ranked as the third deadliest terrorist organization of 2025. Notably, it was the only group among the world’s four deadliest organizations whose attack related death toll actually increased during the year.
The single deadliest attack of the year in Pakistan came from the BLA, which seized control of a passenger train near Quetta railway station after bombing the railway tracks, taking 442 people hostage. The standoff left 21 hostages, four military personnel and 33 attackers dead. The report also flagged a growing trend of BLA attacks targeting Chinese nationals and infrastructure linked to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
A brighter picture for the rest of the world
While Pakistan’s numbers went in the wrong direction, the global trend told a different story. Worldwide terrorism deaths fell by 28 percent in 2025, dropping to 5,582, while the number of attacks globally fell by around 22 percent to 2,944.
The report found that terrorism conditions improved in 81 countries around the world, while they worsened in just 19. Still, nearly 70 percent of all terrorism deaths worldwide were concentrated in just five countries, Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pakistan alone accounted for roughly 20 percent of all terrorism deaths recorded globally in 2025.