‘Pakistan terror groups using US weapons smuggled from Afghanistan’

Tensions have remained high between the two neighbors over the security situation at their joint borders ever since the Taliban came to power in Kabul in August 2021, with Islamabad accusing Afghanistan’s new rulers of not doing enough to ensure security at the borders.

In the past year, Islamabad has also raised its concerns with the Taliban over the use of American weapons by terrorist groups operating in Pakistan but has been met with what it calls the Taliban’s negligence, according to an IRNA report citing Pakistani media on Monday.

In the meantime, Pakistani military sources say several plans to smuggle US weapons from Afghanistan into Pakistan have been foiled in recent months, with the latest such incident taking place last week when Pakistani security guards discovered American weapons and ammunitions in a truck carrying vegetables at the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani media, citing security sources, say separatist terror groups that attacked two army posts in the country’s southwestern province of Balochistan last February used American weapons.

One of the terror groups in the spotlight is the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which security officials in Islamabad say has used modern American-made weapons in all of its attacks against Pakistani security forces from July until mid-December this year.

Islamabad officials have rejected the Taliban’s statements that they do not allow terrorists to use the territory of Afghanistan against Pakistan. They have also accused the Afghan rulers of playing a part in arming Pakistani Taliban and allowing other terror groups to use Afghanistan as a safe haven.

The Afghan Taliban have repeatedly dismissed those accusations.

Last week, the Afghan Taliban expressed regret over a bombing that left 23 security forces in northwest Pakistan, stating that the attack had not been launched from Afghan territory. And in November, the Taliban said that Pakistan should resolve its internal problems on its own, and Afghanistan is not responsible for the security of Pakistan.

4194**9417