KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Islamic State (ISIS) and its affiliates were the deadliest terrorist organizations in 2024, responsible for the deaths of over 1,800 people across 22 countries, according to a report released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) on Wednesday.
In its Global Terrorism Index 2025, The Sydney-based international think tank revealed that ISIS expanded its operations to 30 countries last year, with its Afghanistan-based branch, Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP), emerging as one of the most active groups globally. ISKP extended its reach beyond Afghanistan, carrying out attacks in Pakistan, Iran, Russia, and Central Asia, the report said.
“ISK carries out more deadly attacks outside of Afghanistan than within, highlighting its growing transnational threat,” the report noted.
The report also found that ISKP has intensified its recruitment efforts, using artificial intelligence to generate multilingual propaganda targeting South and Central Asia.
“ISK’s linguistic reach is particularly notable, with content produced in Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Uzbek, Tajik, English, and more recently, Russian and Turkish,” the report stated. The group also provides remote training in tactics, target selection, and weapons procurement, it added.
According to the report, ISIS and other terrorist groups—including Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and al-Shabaab—were responsible for more than 4,200 deaths in 2024, an 11% increase from the previous year.
Pakistan recorded the second-highest rise in terrorism-related deaths in 2024, after Niger, with fatalities increasing by 45% to 1,081. Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, terrorist incidents in Pakistan have surged fivefold, with TTP being the main driver of casualties.
“Iran and Russia recorded their highest number of terrorism deaths in a decade, driven by significant attacks carried out by ISKP,” the report states, adding that these attacks signal the expansion of ISKP operations beyond its historical strongholds in Afghanistan.
The Taliban has repeatedly claimed that no terrorist groups operate in Afghanistan and that it will not allow Afghan soil to be used for attacks on other countries. However, the report emphasises that groups like ISKP and TTP remain increasingly active in Afghanistan, posing a threat not only to the country but also to the region and beyond.
The Taliban’s assertions that they dismantled ISKP are contradicted by the group’s ongoing high-profile attacks, including last year’s bombing that killed Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, the Taliban’s Minister for Refugees and Repatriation.
Additionally, ISKP has targeted Afghanistan’s ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Shia Hazaras and Sufis, in recent years.
