In recent debates on Pakistan’s counterterrorism strategy, the situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is often reduced to a question of ‘political differences’. This framing dangerously misses the reality. The real problem is Islamabad’s policy of disengagement and exclusion. What actually failed is not provincial consensus but a doctrine that has left citizens exposed, communities abandoned and Pakistan weaker.
The federal government has consistently labelled KP’s demand for stakeholder inclusion as attempts for appeasement. This is a grave misunderstanding of both counterterrorism strategy and history. In Iraq’s Anbar Awakening, it was only when Sunni tribes were engaged that Al Qaeda’s grip was broken. Exclusion fueled chaos whereas inclusion restored stability. Similarly, in Sri Lanka, the refusal to engage Tamil civilians only led to prolonged bloodshed. In Pakistan, military operations in Swat and ex-Fata drove militants out temporarily, but without community engagement, they returned. Stakeholder inclusion is not an option, it is the only strategy with a chance of success when it comes to domestic insecurity. Exclusion breeds alienation which further fuels militancy. The people of KP are not bystanders to the security threats. Instead they are its frontline and their involvement is indispensable.
Islamabad’s narrative of coordination is actually dictation without stakeholders inclusion. For years now, the federal government has treated KP’s leadership not as partners but as subordinates. Security meetings are called without the KP chief minister, decisions are announced without consulting the provincial government and resources are withheld in the name of fiscal ‘discipline’.
The result is a visible disconnect between policy and reality. Those who do not bury their martyrs every week cannot understand what the people of this province have been enduring. Sidelining provincial leadership and imposing unrealistic policies is not a procedural issue but a stubborn attempt to implement policies with the only potential to backfire. Every act of exclusion widens the trust deficit, fuels resentment and weakens the very counterterrorism strategy Islamabad claims to lead. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is on the frontline. To exclude its voice is to sabotage national security from within.
The cost of this rigid force-only doctrine has been staggering. In 2023, KP witnessed 563 terrorism incidents. Dera Ismail Khan alone witnessed 132 incidents, Khyber 103, Peshawar 89 and North Waziristan 86. In 2024, violence escalated further, leading to 702 terrorism related incidents and claiming 1,363 lives, the highest toll since 2009. Behind these statistics are human tragedies. In 2025, over 600 incidents were reported till August which include suicide bombings, IEDs, grenade attacks and ambushes. Major attacks include the Mir Ali suicide car bombing, the Darul Uloom Haqqania blast and a controversial Katlang drone strike in March that caused civilian casualties. In September alone, intense clashes in Bajaur, South Waziristan, Lower Dir, Bannu and Lakki Marwat left dozens of soldiers and militants dead.
Intelligence-based targetted operations like Operation Sarbakaf in Bajaur still continue. In North Waziristan, curfews and targeted killings still haunt daily life. Militants regroup because disengagement leaves communities vulnerable and unsupported. Each coffin lowered into the ground is proof that Islamabad’s doctrine has failed.
If disengagement has failed us, Islamabad’s refugee policy has further stained Pakistan’s moral standing. Pakistan hosts millions of Afghan refugees, many of whom are born on this soil with nowhere else to go. Yet, federal policy has chosen collective punishment through mass repatriation, branding refugees as ‘security risks’. For decades, Pakistan earned global respect for sheltering millions of Afghans. That legacy is now being destroyed by Islamabad’s flawed policies. Amnesty International has condemned this policy as opaque and lacking transparency, warning that “the plan’s details have not been made public, creating confusion and fear among refugees and leaving hundreds of thousands in a legal limbo”. Amnesty warns that this is a violation of the principle of non-refoulement, the fundamental prohibition against sending people back to places where they face persecution or danger.
The cruelty reached its peak in recent weeks. In late August, a powerful earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 2,200 people, injuring 3,600 and destroying 5,400 homes. And yet, Islamabad is forcing thousands back across the border. Families are being sent into provinces flattened by tremors, with no homes, no hospitals and no schools.
The failure has not been confined within Pakistan’s borders. Since the US withdrawal in August 2021, Islamabad had a narrow window to shape a constructive relationship with Kabul. Instead, it chose paralysis. For nearly three years, Pakistan did not even appoint a full ambassador to Afghanistan. In that vacuum, regional actors stepped in and Pakistan lost both leverage and credibility. No country exploited this more than India. New Delhi reopened its Kabul mission, restarted development projects and expanded its intelligence presence. Meanwhile, Pakistan, the immediate neighbour and the most affected by Afghan instability simply watched from the sidelines.
This approach has led to devastating consequences. The TTP, emboldened by Taliban patronage, regrouped and intensified attacks across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Cross-border hideouts have played the role of a catalyst facilitating militants to launch ambushes, bombings and targeted killings with ease. By failing to establish a strong diplomatic channel with Kabul, Islamabad ceded ground to actors hostile to its interests. Resultantly, it strengthened the very insurgency tearing KP apart. Diplomacy is the first firewall against terrorism. Islamabad dismantled its own firewall and now the flames have engulfed its frontier.
Counterterrorism is not just about eliminating militants. Eliminating the conditions that allow militancy to thrive are equally important, if not more. A child who goes to school is one less child vulnerable to radicalisation. A trader who crosses a border safely is one less man recruited into smuggling networks. A family with healthcare and livelihood is one less family susceptible to militant propaganda. Yet Khyber Pakhtunkhwa continues to be treated as a battlefield rather than a province of citizens. Investment projects stall, unemployment rises and alienation deepens. Without a development-security nexus, military operations alone will never deliver peace.
Islamabad’s current approach rests on three collapsing pillars: disengagement – record levels of violence despite repeated operations; exclusion – sidelining provincial leadership and alienating communities; and expelling refugees during a humanitarian disaster, damaging Pakistan’s values and international standing. This is not strategy. It is a doctrine of failure.
Pakistan must choose between denial and reality. If the state continues down the path of disengagement, the next decade will continue to be full of funerals, shattered trade and lost generations. The way forward is clear: inclusion of stakeholders, not as appeasement, but as the foundation of security; protection of refugees, not as charity, but as a moral and strategic imperative; and development-led stability, because schools, jobs and healthcare are more powerful than bullets in defeating extremism.
The writer is the information adviser to the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
