The year 2026 has not started well for Pakistan in terms of internal security. There appears to be no let-up in the incidents of terrorism. The Global Terrorism Index and other conflict monitors indicate an alarming rise in fatalities, attacks, and militant capacity. Pakistan's earlier gains against terrorism seem to be reversing.
Terrorism Hotspots: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan
The challenges of terrorism in Pakistan are mostly concentrated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The former faces the ever-emerging threat of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), and affiliated groups. The latter continues to grapple with separatist militancy led by organizations such as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
The Nexus with Afghan Taliban
Of note in this power game is a new dimension marked by the nexus between these terrorist outfits and the Afghan Taliban. Undoubtedly, Afghanistan is considered one of the major sanctuaries and operational spaces for the TTP. The return of the Afghan Taliban to power in August 2021 has not only disturbed the regional security environment and emboldened several militant networks but also negatively impacted the socio-economic structure of the aforementioned provinces. Safe havens enable planning, training, and ideological embedding. Cross-border movement, easy retreats, and the availability of sophisticated weapons have added fuel to fire.
Internal Roots of Extremism
However, the more fundamental question remains: who cultivated the seeds of extremist thinking in the first place? Would it be too simplistic to attribute the whole problem to Afghanistan? There are no two opinions that the nucleus of the organizational structures is located across the border, but it is also a bitter truth that the mindset that nourishes militancy is an internal issue. Extremist ideas have been cultivated either tacitly or implicitly, and at times due to basic fault lines of governance, poverty, alienation, and misuse of religion for political and strategic purposes.
Even now, hate clips circulating on social media platforms are deeply disturbing. They reflect a thought process deeply rooted in hatred against those who hold a different opinion on matters of belief, sect, ethnicity, or politics. Social media platforms are regularly used for transmitting content full of ridicule, aggression, demonization, and intolerance. Instead of encouraging rationality, social media has become a stage amplifying anger and extremity.
Digital Radicalization
In this age of information technology, digital radicalization is dangerous for impressionable minds, in particular. Digital platforms are transnational; therefore, such elements transmit their sensational content using them as a medium, and these actors exploit emotions and identity-based grievances. It is hard for a society to gain progress when dissent is treated as enmity and difference as disloyalty. Democratic culture nurtures tolerance, patience, dialogue, and respect for human dignity.
Recruitment of Youth
According to my own information, even in rural areas of Peshawar—such as Mattani, Passani, Adezai, and Hassan Khel—recruitment of boys as young as 14 years is taking place. Some of them suddenly disappear from their houses and later surface in the ranks of militant organizations. This is certainly an alarming situation for policymakers, parents, teachers, religious scholars, and law-enforcement agencies. Unless this new recruitment stops, the problem will persist.
Balochistan: A New Chapter
The trouble in Balochistan is equally worrisome. The recent reported introduction of a female commander, Shehnaz Baloch, in the ranks of the BLA opens a new chapter in the province's insurgency landscape. Women's involvement in Baloch militant activity is not a new phenomenon, as observed in the Karachi University attack by Shari Baloch and other reported incidents. However, the public projection of a woman as a commander demonstrates a recurring propaganda and recruitment strategy.
Balochistan's conflict is rooted in history. There are other factors also, like globalization versus localism (sub-nationalism). Balochistan is rich in natural resources but low on the human development index as well as economic development—one of the major causes of political alienation. Questions of imposed leadership, autonomy, absence of due process of law, control of resources from the Centre, rampant corruption, and governance failures have also germinated grievances over decades.
Need for Comprehensive Strategy
While violence against any person, security forces, and foreign workers is condemnable and must be curbed, the political and socio-economic grievances igniting the conflict cannot be ignored either. The same applies to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Mere use of force there may not be enough to bring the situation to normal. Long-range firepower may disrupt militant formations, but it may not be useful in dismantling the social fabric, ideological moorings, and recruitment process that sustain extremism.
Remedial Measures
Tackling this multidimensional challenge requires a comprehensive strategy encompassing governance reforms, education, employment, justice, local policing, intelligence-driven operations, and community engagement—all firmly anchored in the rule of law, the foundational bedrock of good governance. As part of remedial measures:
- First, there is the need to honestly reassess the past policies that allowed extremist narratives to grow.
- Second, border management with Afghanistan needs to be strengthened with simultaneous diplomatic engagement.
- Third, police and civilian intelligence structures have to be modernized, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
- Fourth, recruitment of young boys into militant outfits must be traced and curbed as a national emergency.
- Fifth, social media platforms must be monitored for incitement and recruitment, while protecting legitimate freedom of expression.
Equally important is the promotion of rationalism in schools, colleges, universities, mosques, media, and civil society—enabling an environment of tolerance, constitutionalism, multiculturalism, and critical thinking. Terrorism is a governance problem; therefore, understanding its drivers and triggers is a must. The challenge can be surmounted through a coherent, lawful, and people-centric strategy.
