Pakistan: Rising conflicts in resource-rich KP and Balochistan undermines development

Islamabad, Jan 10 (LatestNewsX) Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province – a hub for hydropower, cross‑border energy corridors and emerging critical mineral prospects – and Balochistan – home to large‑scale copper‑gold, coal, and coastal energy infrastructure – are facing persistent violence that threatens the very backbone of Pakistan’s resource‑driven growth, a report said on Saturday.

Citing Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), it noted a striking contradiction — while cross-border attacks declined following the October 2025 Durand Line crossing – Pakistan experienced the deadliest year in a decade in 2025, with violence overwhelmingly concentrated in KP and Balochistan.

“Overall violence surged by nearly 34 per cent year‑on‑year, with fatalities rising from 2,555 in 2024 to 3,417 in 2025, extending a five‑year upward trend that began with the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Each year since 2021 has seen double‑digit increases in violence, including spikes of roughly 56 per cent in 2023, nearly 67 per cent in 2024, and a further 34 per cent in 2025, confirming that the country is in a sustained escalation phase rather than experiencing episodic volatility. For investors, this pattern signals structural deterioration in the security environment rather than a short‑term shock that can be ‘managed around’ through risk premia or enhanced site security,” a report in the Afghan Diaspora Network detailed.

“This deterioration is geographically concentrated in precisely those provinces that anchor Pakistan’s energy and mineral potential. KP and Balochistan together accounted for more than 96 per cent of all fatalities and nearly 93 per cent of violent incidents nationwide in 2025. KP was the worst‑hit, with fatalities jumping 44 per cent from 1,620 in 2024 to 2,331 in 2025, while Balochistan’s deaths rose from 787 to 956, an increase of nearly 22 per cent over the same period,” it stated.

According to the report, the composition of violence and the choice of targets offer little assurance to commercial actors. In 2025, it said, security forces were the main targets of militant groups, resulting in 374 deaths among Pakistani army and Frontier Corps personnel, including 22 officers, while police recorded 216 deaths.

The report stressed that the Tehreek‑e‑Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was responsible for the largest number of attacks against Pakistani security personnel, followed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), and the terror group Daesh’s regional affiliate.

“These are the same actors that have long targeted strategic infrastructure, Chinese‑linked projects, and symbols of the state, and their operational resilience despite high militant fatalities suggests an ecosystem capable of shifting from purely security‑force targets to high‑value economic assets whenever tactically advantageous,” it noted.

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