Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday said the country could not have two different policies on counter-terrorism, stating that the federal government had repeatedly sought a consensus-based strategy with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, but the chief minister had not agreed to it.
Accompanied by Federal Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar, he was briefing foreign media representatives on the security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the federal government’s counter-terrorism policy and the newly established consultative council for 12 districts of the province.
Atta Tarar said the federal government’s sole objective in negotiations with the PTI and the provincial government had been to develop a unified strategy against terrorism. The PTI could continue its march and pursue its other political demands, but the federal government wanted all relevant governments to adopt a common approach to combating terrorism.
He said Pakistan could not pursue one policy towards Afghanistan at the federal level and a different approach at the provincial level. While the federal government was pursuing diplomatic engagement with the interim Afghan government to dismantle terrorist safe havens and prevent Afghan territory from being used for attacks inside Pakistan, the provincial government’s approach was different.
The minister maintained that the measures taken in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were legally valid under the Constitution of 1973, saying the relevant constitutional provisions had been incorporated to address such situations.
Citing figures on the security situation, Atta Tarar said terrorist incidents had increased nearly elevenfold over the past six years. A total of 3,774 incidents were reported in 2025, the highest number recorded so far, while 2,857 incidents had occurred by September 2026.
He said 6,924 terrorism cases had been registered over the preceding five years. Referring to casualties, he said 2,775 deaths had been recorded in 2026 and 3,512 in 2025. He further stated that terrorism-related fatalities had increased by 113.7 per cent between March 2024 and September 2026, a period of 31 months, with more than 8,442 deaths recorded during that period.
The minister said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police had suffered particularly heavy losses while fighting terrorism. He cited a 168 per cent increase in attacks targeting police personnel and said 1,532 police personnel had been killed. He also referred to 1,364 major terrorist attacks, adding that police and law enforcement agencies accounted for 62 per cent of the overall losses cited in his briefing.
He said 18 police installations had been targeted over the preceding two years, while the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had increased by 30 per cent.
Tarar criticised the provincial government for failing to equip and train police adequately. He also pointed to the unrestricted movement of explosive materials and the failure to register vehicles and motorcycles, saying an effective registration system would help authorities trace and monitor their movement.
Recalling a recent visit to Kohat, where he met injured people in hospital and visited the families of those killed, he said the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wanted terrorism to end, but the violence had severely affected their lives and livelihoods.
He referred to a video of a child paying tribute to his father at his grave, identifying the deceased as DSP Shinwari. The minister questioned who was responsible for the suffering of such families and attributed the situation to the provincial government’s inaction, incompetence and reluctance to accept responsibility.
Atta Tarar questioned the utilisation of approximately Rs800 billion provided to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government under the National Finance Commission (NFC) framework, asking why the funds had not been used to strengthen the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), install Safe City cameras, establish forensic laboratories, provide modern equipment to police and develop an effective counter-violent-extremism narrative.