A yearly report released by Islamabad-based Pakistani think tank named the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) has shown that the year 2024 proved to be the deadliest for Pakistan’s security forces and civilians in a decade. There were 444 armed attacks resulting in the deaths of 685 security personnel. Overall, 2,546 people lost their lives across Pakistan due to violence, including civilians, security forces, and alleged terrorists, marking a 66% increase compared to a year earlier in 2023.
In 2024, an alarming disparity was observed between the fatalities of civilians and security personnel as compared to those suffered by those outlawed by the Pakistan government. As against 934 outlaws eliminated, the civilians and security personnel suffered much higher 1,612 fatalities, which accounts for nearly 73% more losses compared to outlaws. Besides, the terror attacks on security officials and civilians outnumbered the security operations conducted against the outlaws, by nearly four times i.e. 909 terror attacks vs 257 security operations.
On an average, nearly seven lives were lost daily, with November emerging as the deadliest month across all metrics, compared to all other months of the year.
In November 2024, there were the highest number of attacks (125), fatalities (450) and injuries (625) recorded compared to all other months of the year. A suicide attack by a Baloch bomber on Quetta railway station targeting Pakistan Army personnel was the most serious attack of the year. The violence took the heaviest toll on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) which topped in human losses with 1,616 fatalities, followed by Balochistan with 782 fatalities.
Incidentally, it needs to be mentioned here that in the restive KP province, Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been wrecking havoc. Officially, all media has been asked by the Federal government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to desist from naming TTP as such. By an executive fiat, the TTP cadres are now renamed as Khwarij and their original name cannot be mentioned in newspapers, TV channels or any Social Media (SM) platforms.
Giving details regarding the overall toll in 2024, the CRSS report says that Pakistan suffered 2,546 violence-linked fatalities and 2,267 injuries among civilians, security personnel, and outlaws. This tally of casualties stemmed from 1,166 incidents of terror attacks and counter-terror operations, marking a grim year for country’s security landscape.
At the level of provinces, the deadliest were Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan. KP and Balochistan accounted for 94 per cent of all fatalities and 89 per cent of all incidents across the country. KP suffered most of fatalities (over 63 per cent) recorded in 2024, followed by Balochistan (31 per cent), the highest surge in violence, compared to last year, however, was recorded in the latter province (90 per cent), followed by the former (65 per cent), and it disregards 260 per cent surge in Islamabad as the number of fatalities remains very low in comparison (26).
According to the data collected over the last 10 years, there was a sharp downward trend from 2015 to 2020, with fatalities declining each year by around 33 per cent on average. This six-year long declining trend in Pakistan’s security landscape was followed by resurgence in 2021.
The highest number of violence and counter-violence-linked fatalities were recorded in KP’s newly merged districts bordering Afghanistan such as Kurram, North Waziristan, Khyber; other districts in KP with significant fatalities included Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, and Lakki Marwat. In reality, at the ground level, the writ of the Federal or the provincial governments does not run in most of these areas. These districts were followed by Balochistan’s districts of Quetta, Kech, Kalat and Musakhail. The fatalities in these most severely affected districts of Balochistan in 2024 alone were nearly equal to their combined total recorded over the previous three years (2021–2023), while a similar trend was observed in the hardest-hit districts of KP.
The report further highlights that sectarian violence also added to the year’s tally, claiming 182 lives and injuring 234 individuals. Shia communities bore the brunt, with 79 fatalities, followed by incidents involving both Shia and Sunni groups, which accounted for 79 deaths.
