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Since closing down its border with Afghanistan, Pakistan has recorded a significant drop in cross-border terrorist attacks and deaths related to violence. Pakistan shut its border on October 11 last year after clashes with Afghanistan, which were prompted by the allegations that Kabul was not doing enough to stop the use of its soil by terrorists. Dawn reported from the data collected by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), a local think-tank, that terrorist attacks went down by almost 17 per cent in December, preceded by 9 per cent decline in November, while terrorism-linked fatalities among civilians and security officials also fell in the last quarter of 2025, by nearly 4 per cent and 19 per cent each in November and December. However, the data of CRSS showed that with an almost 34 per cent surge in overall violence, the year 2025 went by as the most violent year for Pakistan in a decade. The comparative data for 2024 and 2025 reveals a sharp escalation in terror
In a concerning shift in tactics, Pakistan's intelligence agency and terror groups are trying to ramp up recruitment efforts in Jammu and Kashmir through digital platforms, as direct interactions become increasingly difficult due to heightened security measures, officials said on Sunday. These groups are now primarily using social media platforms and messaging apps such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram to target vulnerable youth, according to an official. They are using fake profiles and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to evade detection. Once identified, these individuals are drawn into private groups where they are exposed to manipulative content, including fabricated videos depicting atrocities allegedly committed by security forces, the officials said. This strategy is employed by handlers linked to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to incite hatred and foster a narrative conducive to recruitment. In a troubling development, the ..
At least one person was killed and 21, including 13 security personnel, injured in a suicide bombing by a TTP-splinter group targeting a security forces convoy in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. An explosives-laden tri-wheeler hit the security forces convoy on its way to Bannu from the North Waziristan district near the Azad Mandi in Bannu Cantonment on Sunday, police said. The bombing killed a pedestrian and injured 13 security personnel and eight civilians. Those injured were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital, Bannu. The condition of three security personnel is stated to be critical, according to the police. The Hafiz Gul Bahadur group of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. This comes after Pakistan's security forces killed eight terrorists during an intelligence-based operation in the province on Sunday, according to the military's media wing.
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said on Wednesday that terror attacks in Pakistan rose 60 per cent and suicide bombings by 500 per cent after the Taliban came to power in neighbouring Afghanistan, lamenting at Kabul's failure to stop the use of its soil for terrorism. The hardline Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 bringing to an end the government in Kabul when the army, trained and equipped by the US and allies, melted away with a speed that surprised even the rebels. "After the establishment of the interim Afghan government in August 2021, we had a strong hope that there would be long-term peace in Afghanistan. [] Strict action would be taken against Pakistan-opposing groups, especially the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and they would absolutely not be allowed to use Afghan soil against Pakistan," Kakar said at a press conference in Islamabad. "But unfortunately, after the establishment of the interim Afghan govt, there has been a 60 per cent ...
The chief of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has said that his group is still open to a ceasefire agreement with the Pakistan government, according to media reports. In November last year, the TTP called off an indefinite ceasefire agreed with the government in June 2022 and ordered its militants to carry out attacks on the security forces. The TTP, which is believed to have close links to al-Qaeda, has threatened to target top leaders of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's PML-N and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's PPP if the ruling coalition continued to implement strict measures against the militants. However, the dreaded outfit insisted that it has not scrapped the ceasefire agreement with the government. We held talks with Pakistan mediated by Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan. We are still open to the ceasefire agreement, the Dawn newspaper quoted TTP chief Mufti Noor Wali Mehsood as saying in a video on Saturday. Mehsood's change in stance comes amid reports