Please define "safe".

For example, traffic from a European´s point of view, is quite bad in Iran, even more so in Pakistan, but probably nowhere as bad as in India. In fact traffic would be my greatest safety concern, and on that, Iran & Pakistan are relatively ´safe´ compared to India.

That said, there are some areas in both Iran & Pakistan, that are a bit dodgy, and also some areas, where normal tourists should not (and cannot) go.

Regular people in both countries are usually just wonderful, and their friendliness is something, that you may at first find hard to believe after all the crap you´ve read in the media (well, maybe it´s not all crap, but mostly concentrated about politics and governments).

For example, in Iran we got invited to stay at a local family home, by people who we did not know beforehand, and they treated us like old friends. We got to meet their friends and friends families, too. Really a humbling experience, and it changed my view of Iran forever. It really makes me sad and angry, that those friendly people suffer because of some crazy leaders.

Many people have done Turkey to India, and some have also gone around the north side of Afghanistan, but that, as you know, involves a short bit of China, which is very time-consuming and possibly expensive to arrange. Also some of the Central Asian countries seem to have a lot of "red tape", so all in all, I´d estimate Turkey to India to be easier of the two. And unless you do it in midwinter, you can do Karakoram Highway (the Pakistani side of it) without needing to cross into China. But also keep in mind, that winter can be very severe in eastern Turkey and northern parts of Iran, too. And even more so on the north side of Afghanistan.

Nobody can quarantee your safety, and travelling overland will always be more risky than for example flying.... but unless you do something stupid yourself, from Turkey to India, the chances of having any security-related issues (other than what you´ll encounter in traffic – every day!) are quite small. But depending on your nationality, getting visas for either Iran or Pakistan can be a bit of a challenge these days.

Here´s our experiences (from 4 years back, so keep in mind it´s partly outdated):
MOTO1 - Matkalla