Global Terrorism Index 2023

Context: The tenth Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report 2023 was released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

Key Highlights

Most Affected Country	Afghanistan remains the country most impacted by terrorism for the fourth consecutive year, despite a decline in death numbers. The decline was mainly due to exclusion of acts of state repression and violence by state actors, which is basically committed by the Taliban.
Status of India	India is ranked 13th on the index, marking a marginal decrease from the previous year. Despite being among the 25 worst-hit nations on the index, Indian respondents do not consider war and terrorism as the biggest threat to their daily safety.
Global Status	Globally, deaths from terrorism fell by nine per cent, marking a 38 per cent decrease from its peak in 2015. The fall in deaths was mainly due to a reduction in the number of incidents in Afghanistan. Deaths from terrorism would have increased if Afghanistan was removed from the index.
Worst-Hit Regions	South Asia remains to be the region with the worst average GTI score. There was a decline of 30 per cent when compared to the previous year, mainly due to improvement in Afghanistan. Pakistan witnessed an increase in terror-related deaths, recording a 120 per cent increase from the previous year.
Deadliest Terror Groups	Islamic State (IS) and its affiliate groups, al-Shabaab, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) were the deadliest terror groups. However, terrorism-related deaths attributed to Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISK), Islamic State – Sinai Province (ISS) and Islamic State West Africa (ISWA) declined.