By Asif Mahmood

Pakistan is fighting a war against terrorism, yet its true gravity is still not understood by our own society. A reading of the Global Terrorism Index 2026 makes it clear just how serious the situation has become. At the social level, a necessary sensitivity toward this menace has not been allowed to develop. Instead, certain voices continue to create confusion through ifs and buts. Whether the terrorists come from Balochistan or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, whether they wear a religious or a secular mask, they find sympathizers and apologists at every level. Each time society begins to unite in clarity after suffering at their hands, these elements step in and muddy the waters. In practice, they act as facilitators. Some glorify terrorism in the name of religion, others enable it under the banner of nationalism, and some weaponize human rights to target the state itself.
The reality is painful. Terrorism has inflicted greater losses on Pakistan than all of its wars combined. More civilians have been martyred in terrorist attacks than in every war the country has fought. The same is true for soldiers and officers. The damage to infrastructure at the hands of terrorists exceeds the cumulative losses of conventional wars. These are not abstract numbers. They reflect a national trauma. Yet even now, there are those who try to rationalize these crimes, soften their severity, or offer justifications. At this point, the state has to make hard decisions. There is much talk of Pakistan becoming a hard state. If that is the direction, then the time to act is now. When losses of this scale have been suffered, inaction is no longer an option.
The Global Terrorism Index 2026 lays it out plainly. Pakistan now ranks first on the index. The meaning is simple: Pakistan is the country most affected by terrorism. In 2025, terrorism-related deaths rose to 1,139, a six percent increase from the previous year. A total of 1,045 incidents were recorded. Think about it: over a thousand attacks in a single year.
Since 2009, 67 percent of all attacks in Pakistan have been carried out by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, making it five times more active than the next major group, the Balochistan Liberation Army. In 2025 alone, terrorist incidents increased by 24 percent, rising from 481 in 2024 to 595. Most of these attacks took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly along the Afghan border. Despite this, the response of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government remains hesitant, still reluctant to fully own state action in this domain.
The report makes one thing clear: the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan has directly affected Pakistan’s security. It has given the TTP space to expand both its reach and its operations, leading to a sharp rise in violence. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan remain the worst affected regions, accounting for 74 percent of attacks and 67 percent of deaths in 2025.
The global picture is equally alarming. Seventy percent of terrorism-related deaths worldwide are concentrated in just five countries: Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That Pakistan, the world’s only Muslim nuclear power, now stands alongside these conflict-ridden states is a sobering reality. In such a situation, the question is unavoidable: if the state does not act decisively against terrorism, what will it do?
If a similar situation had confronted any other nuclear power, the response would likely have been swift and overwhelming. Pakistan, however, has absorbed blow after blow while trying to maintain restraint. That restraint has been read as weakness. Now there are signs of a shift. This cannot continue. Peace cannot survive if it is sabotaged from the other side. As these lines are written, a temporary ceasefire has already lapsed. The hope remains that peace will prevail, that Pakistan and Afghanistan can move toward stability, and that their border can become a gateway for economic activity rather than conflict. The region deserves trade, not gunfire. It deserves opportunity, not fear. But peace is now a two-way street. Pakistan has made it clear that it will not allow proxies, acting on behalf of hostile powers, to undermine its security while it watches in silence. There are clear signs that Pakistan’s patience has run its course. If peace is to hold, it must be mutual.
If such figures had emerged for any other country, those enabling terrorism through clever arguments and deliberate confusion would have already found the ground narrowing beneath their feet. The same must now happen in Pakistan. The facilitation of terrorism is no less dangerous than terrorism itself.