Weapons left behind by US in Afghanistan end up in Pakistan
After the Taliban (a movement outlawed in Russia) took control in Afghanistan in 2021, US-provided weapons from government stocks, mostly assault rifles, guns, and grenade launchers, poured through what the newspaper called Pakistan’s porous border with Afghanistan
Significant amounts of state-of-the-art weapons abandoned after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 have been discovered in Pakistan, where they ended up in the hands of Islamists and Baloch Freedom fighters, The Washington Post (WaPo) reported in an analysis.
The above was well anticipated by India and these things have been factored in its Security calculations.
According to the newspaper, as the United States withdrew its troops and suddenly abandoned Afghanistan Government to its fate, it left behind $7 billion worth of the latest American-made weapons, including more than 250,000 assault rifles, 18,000 night-vision goggles, millions of rounds of ammunition, and defence systems.
A senior Pentagon official told the newspaper the United States refuses to accept responsibility for the abandoned weapons, for “once transferred to the Afghan government, they were the Afghan government’s property and its responsibility.
“After the Taliban took control in Afghanistan in 2021, US-provided weapons from government stocks, mostly assault rifles, guns, and grenade launchers, poured through what the newspaper called Pakistan’s porous border with Afghanistan.
Now, these arms are being used by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and other jihadists, as well as by Beloch Freedom fighters in south-western Pakistan, sources in the Pakistani government told the WaPo.
Pakistan risks “falling back into that terrible period between 2009 and 2014, when the country was a major magnet for terrorism,” the newspaper quoted Michael Kugelman, a South Asia security analyst, as saying.
Against this backdrop, the WaPo wrote, Pakistani officials are placing their hopes on the Trump administration to do something and halt the flow of illicit arms.
However USA should not fall for the Pakistani ruse and start supplying weapons to Pakistan to fight the jihadists. In case it does so then it’s relationship with India is going to sour definitely.
