NEW DELHI: A report by Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace states that Pakistan has overtaken Afghanistan as the country with the most terrorist attacks and death in South Asia. 

Pakistan has recorded a 120 percent increase in terror-related deaths with Balochistan Liberation Army the fastest-growing terror group, as per the report.

Pakistan recorded the second-largest surge in terror-related deaths worldwide last year, with the toll increasing significantly to 643. The number of deaths in Pakistan represented the largest year-on-year increase in the last decade. At least 55 percent of all terror-related victims were military personnel. It has moved up four places to sixth position on the index due to a sharp surge in fatalities, the report stated.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) was responsible for 36 percent of terror-related deaths in Pakistan, which is a nine-fold increase from the previous year. According to the report, the BLA has overtaken the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) also known as Pakistan Taliban as the deadliest terror group in Pakistan.

The Global Terrorism Index has noted that terrorism remains primarily concentrated along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, with 63 percent of attacks and 74 percent of deaths in the area. According to the report, the increase in terror activities by the TTP and the Islamic State Khorasan has driven the rise in nationwide deaths.

The TTP has been waging terrorist attacks against Pakistani security forces to seek an Islamic Sharia-compliant state like the radical Taliban have established in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban is an offshoot and a close ally of the Afghan Taliban. Its leaders and commanders are based in Afghanistan and allegedly plot cross-border terrorism from there.

Attacks by the Islamic State Khorasan occurred along the Afghanistan border with 13 attacks occurring in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, followed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with eight, and Balochistan with two. ISK’s deadliest attack in Pakistan in 2022 occurred in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa when a suicide bombing killed at least 56 people in an attack on a Shia Mosque during Friday prayers, the report stated.