In a stark new report, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) warns that the security and human-rights landscape in Khyber‑Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has fallen into a deeper crisis, with civilian authority steadily eroding and fear taking root among the populace, according to the “The Express Tribune”.
Titled “Caught in the Crossfire,” the fact-finding mission concludes that roughly two thirds of all terrorist attacks documented across Pakistan in 2025 were carried out in KP, overwhelmingly directed at security and law-enforcement personnel.
Much of this violence is concentrated in the newly merged tribal districts – formerly part of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA); where the sense of normal-life continues to fray. Residents describe a landscape punctuated by forced displacement, limited access to justice and constant insecurity.
The HRCP team reports that intelligence-based operations have become routine, frequently executed without civilian oversight and bypassing local police or administrative bodies from core decisions on law and order. These practices, the report warns, are chipping away at the legitimacy of the state in large parts of the province.
Voices from the ground tell of arbitrary detentions, the continuing operation of internment centres authorised under the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, 2019, and the spectre of enforced disappearances. Journalists, tribal elders and human-rights activists report mounting threats, censorship and targeted attacks, all of which deepen the climate of mistrust and fear.
Further complicating matters are unresolved sectarian and tribal tensions in places like Kurram District, prolonged road blockades that have interrupted livelihoods, and opaque governance around mining and development funds – especially in the former tribal belt.
In its closing appeal, HRCP calls for urgent action: the restoration of genuine civilian control, robust oversight of security operations, full investigation of rights-abuses and meaningful reforms to protect ordinary citizens. Without them, the commission warns, KP risks slipping further into a zone where state-protection is ad-hoc and rule-of-law an after-thought.
