By Amjad Qaimkhani
WASHINGTON: American media reports acknowledged that weapons abandoned in Afghanistan following the United States’ withdrawal were being used by militant groups to carry out attacks inside Pakistan, adding fresh weight to long-standing concerns raised by Islamabad about regional security.
A report published by CNN said that US-supplied arms left behind in Afghanistan had become a serious obstacle to counter-terrorism efforts, enabling militant organizations to carry out more lethal and sophisticated attacks.
According to the report, fighters belonging to groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) were increasingly using US-manufactured rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles and other advanced military equipment.
The availability of these weapons, the report noted, had not only enhanced the firepower of militant groups but had also contributed to an increase in the scale, coordination and intensity of attacks, particularly in Pakistan’s western and southwestern regions.
John Sopko, the head of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), was quoted as saying that roughly 300,000 US weapons were left behind during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Many of these arms, he said, had since found their way into militant networks and were now surfacing in areas such as southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, where they were being used in attacks against security forces and civilians.
Pakistani authorities have repeatedly warned that Afghan territory was being used as a staging ground for cross-border attacks, urging both the Afghan authorities and the international community to address the issue.
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