Pakistan has called on the United Nations Security Council to investigate how the Pakistani Taliban acquired supplies of modern weaponry for launching attacks against Pakistani military installations and individuals during the past year.
Pakistan made these demands during a session of the Security Council focused on the risks posed by the smuggling of small arms and light weapons.
Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations, Muhammad Osman Jadun, requested the Security Council to investigate how the Pakistani Taliban obtained illegal supplies of weapons, which they have used in attacks against Pakistani security forces.
Jadun stated that terrorist groups like the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban) purchase weapons from illegal arms markets or from organizations seeking to destabilize a specific region or country, adding that Pakistan would continue working with the international community to identify those responsible for supporting and funding such operations from abroad.
Pakistan has already indicated that the Pakistani Taliban has been using American weapons, left behind by US forces before their departure from Afghanistan, in attacks against Pakistani security forces.
The Pakistani Taliban has used American long-range rifles, automatic weapons, night vision devices, and thermal infrared equipment during its raids on two Pakistani military checkpoints in the Chitral region.
According to Colonel Saad Muhammad, an officer who has held key positions related to the Pakistani Army’s military strategy that these devices significantly increase Taliban’s ability to operate day and night.
Colonel Saad Muhammad also added the Pakistani Taliban used American weapons in Chitral.
For a long time, international military experts have credited small arms, such as automatic rifles and long-range rifles, with the ability to control territories, whether the small arms are in the hands of a conventional regular army or an advanced-stage insurgency militia—the result is the same: territorial control. A
visitor to Kabul these days will notice the absence of “Taliban’s signature” Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, and will instead observe Taliban fighters in the streets of the Afghan capital carrying American automatic rifles.
In Pakistan, the Pakistani Taliban regularly and routinely employs American small arms in its attacks on Pakistani security forces. Pakistani military experts have pointed out that American weapon systems have significantly boosted the Pakistani Taliban’s ability to target Pakistani security forces in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
After the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban gained access to a large cache of American weapons, facilitated by the Afghan Taliban. These weapons were either sold to the Pakistani Taliban by the Afghan Taliban or provided as support by the Afghan Taliban.
