On Monday, Pakistan’s prime minister claimed that militants in his country had acquired American military gear abandoned in the chaos of the country’s exit from Afghanistan. Rifles with laser and infrared sighting systems, among other high-tech equipment, have reportedly been used by the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, in the increasingly violent clashes with Pakistan’s security forces in recent months.
Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar told reporters on Monday in Islamabad that the recent occurrence was “emerging as a new challenge.”
Pakistani security forces would continue to “guard our home, children, mosques, and places of worship,” as Kakar promised, and he emphasized the need for a “planned approach” to cope with the threat posed by abandoned US military equipment. Kakar was alluding to the danger unused US military hardware poses to Pakistan.
The Pakistani Taliban are not directly affiliated with the Afghan Taliban but are firm friends.
Officials from Pakistan’s security agencies believe the terrorist group bought or was given the weapons by its Afghan allies.
A government official in Pakistan told the Associated Press that the Pakistani Taliban terrorists have been able to launch more far-reaching attacks on security forces because of the weapons they have recently obtained.
According to the Inspector General of the Defense Department, there was more than $7 billion in U.S. military equipment in the hands of the Western-backed Afghan government when it fell in August 2021 due to the Biden administration’s departure from the nation. Humvees and mine-resistant MRAPs were among the vehicles and weapons featured.
The Taliban retook Afghanistan and discovered some 316,260 small guns in the stockpile of the Kabul administration. Rifles, sniper rifles, handguns, machine guns, RPG launchers, and howitzers were all examples of small weaponry. Communications, explosives detection, night vision, and other surveillance technology were also present.
Islamabad has also expressed concern about claims that senior Taliban figures in Afghanistan have been shielding Pakistani Taliban militants from Pakistani authorities by housing them in Afghan territory across the border.
