Evolving Competitive Militant Landscape of Pakistan and its Implications

The Pakistani policymakers and academia did not envisage an escalation of attacks in Pakistan after the ascendancy of the Afghan Taliban in August 2021.1 In fact, many commentators and analysts in Pakistan viewed the rise of the Taliban after the Doha greement as a harbinger of a new era in South Asia. However, despite the pledges made by the Taliban and the interim government in Afghanistan, Pakistan has been getting mired in violence. For a fourth consecutive year, Pakistan has seen a surge in violence after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. According to ‘Pakistan Security Report 2024’, a total of 521 terrorist attacks took place in Pakistan in 2024—including nine suicide bombings—which killed 852 people and injured 1,124, amounting to a 70 per cent increase in the number of attacks from the previous year.