Pakistan is considered by many to be one of the world’s most dangerous places. Thirteen years ago, Newsweek controversially declared it the most dangerous nation in the world, while the United States Bureau of Consular Affairs still begins their webpage on Pakistan with the following: “reconsider travel to Pakistan due to terrorism.” And yet, this month, the Condé Nast Traveller named Pakistan the Best Travel Destination for 2020 .

Objectively speaking, Pakistan is quite scenic. It has hilly mountainous regions, soaring cliffsides, and white-sand beaches. The country is part of the Himalayas, and subsequently has some of the tallest peaks in the world, while its cities are filled with old Hindu temples, mosques, and bazaars. But political conflict taints this image.

The situation escalated when in 2007, then President Pervez Musharraf ordered the siege of the Taliban’s nerve centre in Islamabad, the Lal Masjid. According to Aqdas Afzal, an assistant professor in economics and public policy based in Karachi, this enraged many Islamic factions and eventually drove them to join hands with the Taliban in Afghanistan, basically forming the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan to get revenge against the Pakistani state.

As their influence grew, so did the violence. Terrorists killed not only each other and security forces, but also civilian masses in ceaseless insurgencies, tribal wars, and terrorist plots. The government seemed powerless. Many worried that Pakistan would eventually follow in the footsteps of Afghanistan, where the Taliban has controlled large parts of the country for two decades and has been at war for most of that time.

In the late 00s and early 2010s tribal militias and terrorist organisations like the Taliban and al-Qaeda found a footing in Pakistan, as disdain for the central government and American influence grew . With a government that was unable to provide basic services for its people , especially in rural areas, these organisations garnered support by filling the social and economic vacuums that the government left open. They preyed on the frustrations of many young men who, unable to find work, were angry with the country’s growing inequality.

Many believe that the government struggled to contain terrorism because the then ruling Pakistan Peoples Party put a hold on imposing the death penalty. This supposedly emboldened the terrorists who knew that no matter what they did, the punishment would not be as harsh as death.

“A general sense of horror and gloom descended on the city, and you could see it in peoples’ faces,” Afzal said. “The security situation was just completely out of control, and that continued for years.”

During those years, daily life in Pakistan was put on hold. There were little to no activities taking place in public spaces, in a country where public concerts, funfairs, and cricket matches in the streets used to be weekly occurrences.

“Peshawar was being hit every single day. While I was fortunate enough to never witness the carnage of a bomb explosion myself, I did hear and feel two or three of them. That shockwave is one of the most frightening things you can imagine.”

“And from that point on, things just went south,” he told VICE.

“Fighters were killed, and leadership was neutralised,” said Afzal. “The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan were completely wiped out by the Pakistan Armed Forces and other law enforcement agencies.”

That all changed in 2014 when Pakistan’s military launched two major operations — the Zarb-e-Azb and Khyber Operations — aimed at dismantling extremist activity in the country’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Pakistanis reached their tipping point later that year when six gunmen affiliated with the Taliban slaughtered 149 people, including 132 schoolchildren, at the Army Public School in the city of Peshawar.

One Pakistani student who wished to remain anonymous told VICE that he believed, “the attack changed the Pakistani people’s mindset from ‘it is unfortunate, but it has to be done’ to ‘kill all the terrorists right now, and show no mercy.’”

The attack led to a surge in public and political support for the military, then led by General Raheel Sharif, which amped up all its operations that year. This would eventually result in the deaths of more than 4,000 terrorists between 2014 and 2016.

As a result, deaths caused by terrorism dramatically decreased. From 12,000 deaths in 2009 (32 per day), the number declined by 87 percent by 2017 and continues to do so. In 2019, fewer than 300 people were killed in terrorist attacks nationwide.

But Afzal does not think Pakistan’s transformation can be credited to a single person.

“I want to thank the common people of this country who bore the plight of this campaign of terror, and who came out on the other side victorious,” he said.