https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated December 1, 2023
Terrorist and Other Militant Groups in Pakistan
U.S. officials have identified Pakistan as a base of
operations and/or target for numerous armed, nonstate
militant groups, some of which have existed since the
1980s. Notable terrorist and other groups operating in
and/or launching attacks on Pakistan are of five broad, but
not exclusive types: (1) globally oriented; (2) Afghanistan-
oriented; (3) India- and Kashmir-oriented; (4) domestically
oriented; and (5) sectarian (anti-Shia). Twelve of the 15
groups listed below are designated as Foreign Terrorist
Organizations (FTOs) under U.S. law and most, but not all,
are animated by Islamist extremist ideology. Pakistan has
suffered considerably from domestic terrorism since 2003,
and related fatalities peaked in 2009. Many observers
predicted a resurgence of regional terrorism and militancy
in the wake of the Afghan Taliban’s 2021 takeover, and
data show this has occurred: After five consecutive years of
declining fatality rates down to 365 in 2019, the number of
terrorism deaths in Pakistan is up every year since,
quadrupling to at least 1,438 in 2023 (see Figure 1). In
November 2023, Pakistan’s prime minister claimed that,
since August 2021, there has been a 60% rise in militant
attacks in Pakistan and a 500% rise in suicide bombings in
which more than 2,200 Pakistanis were killed.
Figure 1. Terrorism-Related Fatalities in Pakistan and
Rate of Change over Time, 2001-2023
Source: South Asia Terrorism Portal (New Delhi). Data through
November 2023.
According to the U.S. State Department’s Country Reports
on Terrorism 2022 (released in November 2023), “In 2022,
Pakistan took steps to counter terrorism financing and
restrain some India-focused terrorist groups.” However, it
“has yet to complete its pledge to dismantle all terrorist
organizations without delay or discrimination.” The report
notes Pakistan’s successful May 2022 prosecution and
sentencing of a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba leader (see below),
as well as counterterrorism operations conducted by
military, paramilitary, and civilian security forces. It reports
that some madrassas (religious schools) continue to teach
extremism. Although Pakistan’s 2014 National Action Plan
to counter terrorism seeks to ensure that no armed militias
are allowed to function in the country, several United
Nations- and U.S.-designated terrorist groups continue to
operate from Pakistani soil.
Figure 2. Map of Pakistan
Sources: CRS. Boundaries from U.S. Department of State and ESRI.
In 2018, the Paris-based intergovernmental Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) returned Pakistan to its “gray
list” of countries found to have “strategic deficiencies” in
countering money laundering and terrorist financing. In late
2022, FATF assessed that Pakistan had addressed technical
deficiencies and completed all action items, and it removed
the country from the gray list. Also in 2018, the U.S.
President designated Pakistan a “Country of Particular
Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act of
1998. It has been redesignated annually four times.
Globally Oriented Militants
Al Qaeda (AQ) “core” was formed in 1988 in Afghanistan
by Osama bin Laden and designated as an FTO in 1999.
U.S.-led forces expelled AQ from Afghanistan after its
September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. AQ
subsequently operated primarily from the former Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA, now incorporated into
Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province; see Figure 2).
U.S. special forces killed Bin Laden in a May 2011 raid in
Pakistan; he was succeeded by Ayman al-Zawahiri, himself
killed by a U.S.-launched airstrike on Afghanistan in July
2022. A successor has yet to be named. AQ core has been
seriously degraded, but maintains ties to numerous other
Pakistan-based FTOs.
Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) was
established in 2014 under the leadership of Asim Umar—a
Indian national subsequently killed in a joint U.S.-Afghan
