This study investigates the drivers of armed violence across the districts of Pakistan. The study uses the Opportunity and Grievance framework to examine the drivers of violence. „Opportunity‟ here refers to, the opportunity to gain from violence and grievance refers to indulging in violence to seek redress of some grievance, which may be against an individual, a group, some authority or the society at large. Armed violence is taken as the number of violent attacks. Drivers of violence at the aggregate level (total violent attacks) and at the disaggregated level i.e. sectarian violence, ethno-political violence and terrorism have been examined.A series of regressions have been estimated for each type of violence,using both the opportunity and grievance models as well as a hybrid model containing variables from both. The violence, when considered in aggregate, is explained by such factors that reflect opportunity as well as grievance. Disaggregated examination shows that both the models also explainterrorism and insurgency. The opportunity model to some extent explains the sectarian violence however the grievance model appears rather irrelevant in this case. Neither the opportunity nor the grievance model can explain the occurrence of ethno-political violence Supervisor:- Dr. Idrees Khawaja