Features | Security | South Asia

Pakistan’s Artificial Intelligence Warfare

Faced with multipronged challenges, the country has gradually incorporated AI into its security strategy.

A GIDS Shahpar I UAV.

For the first time in its volatile history, Pakistan topped the Global Terrorism Index this year, recording 1,045 terror incidents and 1,139 related deaths in 2025. The fatalities have risen further in 2026, with the third quarter of the ongoing year showing an 83 percent hike in terrorism-linked deaths as compared to the second quarter. 

This surge comes amid external security woes. Last year, Pakistan and India came the closest that they have to a full-fledged war since the turn of the century, and reportedly to the brink of nuclear war. Pakistan is also engaged in persistent cross-border clashes with Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the ongoing Iran-U.S. war is reconfiguring militancy in Balochistan, after Islamabad and Tehran exchanged drone and missile strikes on each other’s territories in 2024. 

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For the first time in its volatile history, Pakistan topped the Global Terrorism Index this year, recording 1,045 terror incidents and 1,139 related deaths in 2025. The fatalities have risen further in 2026, with the third quarter of the ongoing year showing an 83 percent hike in terrorism-linked deaths as compared to the second quarter. 

This surge comes amid external security woes. Last year, Pakistan and India came the closest that they have to a full-fledged war since the turn of the century, and reportedly to the brink of nuclear war. Pakistan is also engaged in persistent cross-border clashes with Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the ongoing Iran-U.S. war is........

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