Afghanistan’s terror-related deaths drop by 58%, but Pakistan sees record increase

Pakistan recorded the second largest increase in terrorism-related deaths worldwide in 2022, with the toll rising by 120 percent to 643 deaths from 292 deaths in 2021, the annual Global Terrorism Index (GTI) reported.

However, Afghanistan remained the country “most impacted” by terrorism for the fourth consecutive year, despite attacks falling by 75 percent and deaths being reduced by 58 percent to 633 in 2022.

“Afghanistan’s drop can largely be attributed to the Taliban (IEA) taking control of the country after the fall of Kabul in August 2021,” the report said.

“As the Taliban are now the state actor in much of Afghanistan, their attacks fall outside the scope of the GTI’s definition of terrorism.”

The report noted that out of all the deaths caused by terrorism worldwide in 2022, about 9 percent occurred in Afghanistan, a decrease from the 20 percent recorded in 2021.

The GTI stated that Islamic State-Khorasan (Daesh) has emerged as “the most active terrorist group” in Afghanistan following the IEA takeover of the country, killing 422 people in 2022 and accounting for almost 67 percent of total terrorism-related deaths for the year.