Terrorism today is increasingly defined by geography and the authority gaps of borderlands. Pakistan now stands at the epicentre of a localised explosion of violence that defies the broader global trend of declining terror lethality. This surge is not an internal malfunction; it is a direct byproduct of the post-2021 regional shift. Pakistan’s status as the primary victim of cross-border instability is no longer a matter of debate or political rhetoric; it is a verified global reality. It is a documented reality of a nation absorbing the brunt of a regional crisis. The release of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2026 by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) has formally shifted the global narrative, placing Pakistan as the most impacted country by terrorism in the world.

The opening of this year’s Global Terrorism Index presents a stark contradiction to global trends. While deaths from terrorism worldwide fell by 28% in 2025, Pakistan moved in the opposite direction. The country recorded 1,139 deaths across 1,045 incidents in 2025, the highest levels........

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