Unnamed government sources said Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir was leading a joint military and civilian government crackdown on hard-line Islamist groups to facilitate Pakistan's ties with the West, stem blasphemy-related violence, and respond to worsening insurgencies in northwest and southwest Pakistan, Reuters reported on Aug. 6. Reuters added that these efforts have seemingly driven a roughly two-thirds decline in criminal blasphemy cases thus far in 2026 compared with similar periods in recent years, and have purportedly helped limit blasphemy-related violence to one incident in the past 12 months, compared with the handful reported annually between 2021 and 2024.