Islamabad, Jan 1 (NationPress) The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has voiced serious concerns regarding the security and law and order conditions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province throughout 2025. The area is alarmingly unstable, experiencing frequent militant attacks.

Referencing the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, the HRCP in its recent report titled 'Caught in the Crossfire: Civilians, Security and the Crisis of Justice in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Merged Districts' highlighted that at least 82 militant attacks occurred nationwide in July 2025 alone, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including its former tribal districts, accounting for nearly two-thirds of this total.

Furthermore, 45 militant attacks were recorded in the province in September 2025, resulting in the deaths of 54 individuals and injuring 49 others.

Among these incidents in September, the merged districts of the province “accounted for 20 militant attacks, claiming 21 lives,” which included six Pakistani security personnel, three militants, and 12 civilians, with seven others injured.

The HRCP reported that Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the President of the Awami National Party (ANP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, characterized the security landscape as significantly more perilous than commonly believed. He noted that multiple militant organizations are active not only in the merged districts but also in settled areas of the province, with the terrorist group Daesh reportedly operating in the vicinity.

Similarly, the provincial president of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Sikandar Sherpao, stated that “around 550 incidents of violence have transpired since January 2025, primarily in the merged districts.” The HRCP noted Sherpao’s remark that while “actual militant actors” exist in the area, they are now joined by “copycat groups and hardened criminal networks, intensifying law-and-order challenges.”

Sherpao also pointed out that the conditions in Waziristan and the Bajaur region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are particularly dire, asserting that the influence of the terror organization Daesh or Islamic State Khorasan Province is “expanding to the extent that civil servants and police personnel feel forced to seek refuge by late afternoon.”

The HRCP mission further emphasized that the ongoing practice of enforced disappearances remains a pressing issue.

“The testimonies collected by the mission suggest that individuals accused of ‘anti-state’ activities are often not presented before the courts in alignment with constitutional guarantees. The mission observes that the reported political victimization of rights-based movements such as the PTM (including arbitrary restrictions on members’ freedom of movement and assembly) and progressive parties like the ANP is harmful to democratic processes,” stated the rights body.

The HRCP also raised alarms regarding reports of “censorship, intimidation, and targeted assaults against journalists, particularly those reporting on enforced disappearances and militant violence” in the province.