Afghanistan: Assault rifles, ammunition found across southern Kandahar province
Jun 26, 2022
Kabul [Afghanistan], June 26 : Aghan's senior police officer Mullah Abdul Ghani Haqbin on Sunday said that more than a dozen assault rifles and ammunition were found by security forces across the southern Kandahar province during a series of operations.
The firearms that were recovered included a total of six stokes of AK-47, 13 pistols, thousands of rounds of bullets and 19 mines of rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), Xinhua reported citing the official.
Haqbin added that three people were arrested by the security forces for keeping arms illegally.
The Taliban-run administration would spare no effort to collect arms from individuals as part of the efforts to ensure law and order in Afghanistan, the senior police officer said.
In August 2021, the US left much of the military equipment and weapons at the disposal of the Afghan forces which eventually fell into the hands of the Taliban.
After capturing Kabul, the Taliban not only took political control of Afghanistan but had also gained control of all the US-made weapons and military equipment that were left behind by the fleeing Afghan forces.
The US-made arms and military accessories are openly traded in shops by Afghan gun dealers. The traffickers are collecting the weapons from the abandoned Afghan army bases, and procuring them from the Afghan government soldiers and Taliban fighters. These weapons are then mostly sold in weapons markets or arms bazaar in tribal areas of the Afghan-Pakistan border, according to a Canada-based think tank, International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) said.
The arms smugglers within Pakistan's borders are having a field day. The weapons from Afghanistan are smuggled into Pakistan in trucks carrying fruits and vegetables. The main points of entry through which the arms are smuggled are Torkham border crossing Torkham (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Chaman (Baluchistan), Ghulam Khan (North Waziristan) and Nawa Pass (Bajaur), it added.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan is the prime source of opium supply to the world drug markets and Pakistan is the transport hub with drug networks operating from the country using its drug routes to reach international markets, according to an article in Islam Khabar.
