PAKISTANI security forces in 2024 suffered the highest casualties in nearly a decade while battling insurgency, an Islamabad-based think tank said today.

This comes as militants attacked a security post in the country’s restive north-west, which borders Afghanistan, killing a police officer and a civilian early today.

An officer was also wounded in the attack at the Draban Post in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police official Abdullah Khan said.

No-one claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which often targets security forces across the country, especially in the former tribal regions on the troubled border with Afghanistan.

The Centre for Research and Security Studies said in its report that this year was the deadliest for Pakistani security forces in nine years.

“On average, nearly seven lives were lost daily,” according to the report, which tallied “at least 685 fatalities and 444 terror attacks.” 

It also said: “Equally alarming were the cumulative losses of civilians and security personnel: 1,612 fatalities, accounting for over 63 per cent of the total recorded this year and marking 73 per cent more losses compared with 934 outlaws eliminated.”

There was no immediate comment from the military on the report.