COMMON ANALYSIS
Last update: October 2026
Pakistan’s paramilitary forces consist mainly of the Frontier Corps (FC) and the Rangers. Both are formally affiliated with the Ministry of Interior but also form part of the army’s reserve forces and are overseen by army officers.
The FC primarily operates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, where it patrols border areas, secures checkpoints, crossing points and trade routes, and supports civilian authorities in internal security operations. It has also been linked to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, particularly in Balochistan. The Rangers are tasked with maintaining law and order in urban centres and border areas and are also deployed for counterterrorism operations and security during major public events. The rangers took part in the violent suppression of protests in the Pakistan Administered Kashmir in May 2024.
Pro-government militias, often described as ‘peace militias’ in KP or ‘death squads’ in Balochistan, reportedly operate with support from security forces, including the FC. They have been accused of targeting suspected Baloch nationalists and of carrying out extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearance, abduction, arbitrary detention, landmine attacks and forced land occupation, often with impunity.