As of 2025, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) remained active,369 with estimates of the group’s overall size ranging from 200370 to 400 members (not limited to Pakistan).371 While AQIS has reportedly ‘blended itself’ with TTP and increasingly shifted its focus towards Pakistan,372 it did not claim any large-scale attacks in the country in 2025, with no fatalities attributed to the group. According to the think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), its operational capabilities have been disrupted by arrests of alleged members (e.g., in Punjab and Karachi), losses within its leadership ranks, and competition from rivalling groups such as ISKP.373 Nonetheless, member states of the UN Security Council voiced concerns that AQIS’s ambitions and confidence were growing.374
- 369
US, CIA, World Factbook – Terrorist Organizations, n.d., url
- 370
UN Security Council, Letter dated 8 December 2025 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011) addressed to the President of the Security Council [containing Sixteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2763 (2024) concerning the Taliban and other associated individuals and entities constituting a threat to the peace, stability and security of Afghanistan], S/2025/796, 8 December 2025, url, para. 96
- 371
US, CIA, World Factbook – Terrorist Organizations, n.d., url
- 372
UN Security Council, Letter dated 8 December 2025 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011) addressed to the President of the Security Council [containing Sixteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2763 (2024) concerning the Taliban and other associated individuals and entities constituting a threat to the peace, stability and security of Afghanistan], S/2025/796, 8 December 2025, url, para. 96
- 373
PICSS, Pakistan's Comprehensive National Security Profile – Annual Report 2025, 7 January 2026, url, pp. 35-37
- 374
UN Security Council, Letter dated 21 July 2025 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities addressed to the President of the Security Council [containing thirty-sixth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2734 (2024) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities], S/2025/482, 24 July 2025, url, para. 92