Terrorism in Pakistan

Terrorism in Pakistan

Terrorism has been a big problem for people in Pakistan. It began around the year 2000 and caused many serious incidents. Even though the number of attacks went down between 2015 and 2019, they went up again from 2020 to 2022.

Since 2001, the Pakistan military has worked against groups that support harmful activities. These actions helped bring peace to many areas, but some fighters ran away to neighboring Afghanistan. From there, they kept attacking Pakistani military positions near the border. Reports say that thousands of these fighters are still in Afghanistan.

The fight against harmful activities has affected many lives and the country’s economy. Most of these incidents happened in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Efforts to stop terrorism and prevent extreme ideas have helped lower the numbers over time.

List of terrorist incidents since 2001

Main article: List of terrorist incidents in Pakistan since 2001

This section talks about important events that happened in Pakistan since 2001. These events show that it has been hard to keep everyone safe in the country. Some years had fewer problems, and others had more.

Causes

The difficult situations in Pakistan started in 1979 when the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan. After Pakistan helped Afghan fighters during the war, some of these fighters kept doing things that caused trouble.

In 2023, difficult situations in Pakistan got worse after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban took control of Afghanistan and let some people out of jails who did not like Pakistan.

Afghanistan was seen as a place where groups that opposed Pakistan could move freely along the border.

In 2017, a man named Kulbhushan Jadhav from India was arrested by Pakistan. Pakistan said he was doing secret things against them, but India said he was taken from Iran and held without help from India’s government. This got attention from the world when the International Court of Justice helped to stop very bad things from happening to him.

War on terrorism

Main articles: Pakistan in the war on terror and Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

See also: Insurgency in Balochistan

Around 2009, Pakistan faced many difficult and unsafe situations. Things began to improve because of careful actions by the Pakistan Army. By 2017, these situations were much less common than in 2009.

In 2013, leaders in Pakistan tried talking to groups that caused trouble before using force. But because these groups kept causing problems, Pakistan started a big operation called Operation Zarb-e-Azb in 2014. This operation targeted groups that caused trouble. It began near the border with Afghanistan. This operation helped make Pakistan safer, and attacks from these groups became much less common after it started.

Leaders in Pakistan believe that better protection of the border with Afghanistan will help improve the situation even more. The cost to Pakistan’s economy from these difficult times has also gone down since 2014. Many people in Pakistan have worked together to call for peace and safety.