Terrorism in Pakistan, according to the Ministry of Interior, poses a significant threat to the people of Pakistan. The current wave of terrorism is believed to have started in 2000 and peaked during 2009. Since then, it has drastically declined as result of military operations conducted by the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the Partition of British India, which occurred as a result ...

. According to South Asian Terrorism Portal Index (SATP), terrorism in Pakistan has declined by 89% in 2017 since 2009. Balochistan alone accounted for 48.29 per cent of Pakistan’s total terrorism-linked fatalities (664 fatalities) in 2021. Since 2001, the Pakistan military has launched a series of military offensives against terrorist groups in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The offensive brought peace in those areas and the rest of the country. Many terrorists belonging to various terrorist groups were killed. However, some militants managed to flee to Afghanistan. From Afghanistan, those militants continue to launch attacks on Pakistan military posts located near the border. In 2017, Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah admitted that Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has a foothold in Afghanistan. In 2019, the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

claimed that about 3,000 to 5,000 terrorists belonging to TTP are in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

. According to a report by

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, 23,372 Pakistani civilians and 8,832 Pakistani security personnel were killed in the

War on Terrorism The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

. Moreover, according to the Government of Pakistan, the direct and indirect economic costs of terrorism from 2000–2010 total $68 billion. In 2018, Pakistani newspaper Dawn News reported that the Pakistani economy suffered a total loss of $126.79 billion since 2001 due to the War on Terror. Pakistan officials often blame India and Afghanistan for supporting terrorism in Pakistan. India has denied Pakistan's allegations. However, Afghanistan has admitted to providing support for terrorist groups such as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). In 2013, the United States conducted a raid on an Afghan convoy that was taking Latif Mehsud to

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...

. Latif was a senior commander of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Afghan

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

's spokesperson, Aimal Faizi, told reporters that the National Directorate of Security (NDS) was working with Latif. Latif was a conduit for funding to TTP. Some of the funding for TTP might have come from NDS. Former NDS head

Asadullah Khalid Asadullah Khalid is a politician in Afghanistan. He served as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), which is the domestic intelligence agency of Afghanistan. Before his appointment as the head of the NDS in September 2012, Khalid s ...

posted a video belonging to TTP on his Twitter account where he claimed that the Badaber Camp attack was tit for tat.

List of terrorist incidents since 2001

Causes

The roots of terrorism in Pakistan can be traced back to 1979 when Soviet Union had occupied Afghanistan. Terrorism in Pakistan originated after Pakistan supported the Afghan

mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term t ...

during the

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Soviet ...

, and the subsequent civil war that erupted in

. The

fighters were trained by Pakistan's military, American CIA and other western intelligence agencies who continued operations in the area after the war officially ended.

India's involvement

In November 2020, the Foreign Office of Pakistan made public a dossier allegedly containing 'irrefutable proofs' of the Indian sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan. It allegedly contained proof of India's financial and material sponsorship of multiple terrorist organisations, including UN-designated terrorist organisations Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Balochistan Liberation Army and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

War on terrorism

Fatalities in Terrorist Violence in Pakistan

The current wave of terrorism peaked during 2009. Since then it has declined as result of selective military operations conducted by the

. According to South Asian Terrorism Portal Index (SATP), terrorism in Pakistan has declined by 89% in 2017 since its peak years in 2009. In 2012, the Pakistani leadership sat down to sort out solutions for dealing with the menace of terrorism and in 2013, political parties unanimously reached a resolution on Monday 9, September 2013, at the All Parties Conference (APC), stating that negotiation with the militants should be pursued as their first option to counter terrorism. With the terrorists attacks continuing in late 2013 the political leadership in Pakistan initiated a military operation against terrorists named

Operation Zarb-e-Azb Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Pashto/ ur, ALA-LC: ) was a joint military offensive conducted by the Pakistan Armed Forces against various militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the ...

; a joint military offensive against various militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jundallah, al-Qaeda, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Haqqani network. The operation was launched by the Pakistan Armed Forces on 15 June 2014 in North Waziristan (part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border) as a renewed effort against militancy in the wake of the 8 June attack on Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, for which the TTP and the IMU claimed responsibility.

has been described as turning point in Pakistan war on terrorism. The operation was successful and Pakistan experienced sharp decline in terrorism since the launch of the operation. According to National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), Pakistan experienced largest number of terrorist attack in 2010. Since 2014, terrorist attacks in Pakistan have significantly declined. Pakistani officials state that the terrorism in Pakistan will decline more once the fencing of Pakistan-Afghanistan border is complete. Pakistani newspaper, Dawn news, reports that Pakistan's economic losses due to war on terrorism declined by 62% from 2014 to 2018. The Pakistani economy suffered $23.77 billion in 2010-11 due to expenses related to war on terrorism. This amount declined to $12 billion in 2011-12. In 2016-17, Pakistan economy suffered $5.47 billion and $2.07 billion on 2017-18. Pakistani government estimates that Pakistan has suffered total losses of $126.79 billion since 9/11 attacks. Afghan

's spokesperson, Aimal Faizi, told reporters that the National Directorate of Security (NDS) was working with Latif. Latif was conduit for funding to TTP. Some of the funding for TTP might have come from NDS. Former NDS head,

, posted a video belonging to TTP on his Twitter account where he claimed that Badaber Camp attack was tit for tat.

References

Bibliography

* Hassan Abbas. ''Pakistan's Drift Into Extremism: Allah, The Army, And America's War On Terror'', M.E. Sharpe, 2004. * Zahid Hussain. ''Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam'', New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.

External links

Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS)Surf Safe Pakistan -Report Terrorist and extremist material Online
Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center
Pakistan Information Security Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terrorism In Pakistan War on terror