Two reports, one in The Washington Post and the other in BBC, are both quite worrying. The BBC report says that “half a million weapons obtained by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been lost, sold or smuggled to militant groups... with the UN believing that some have fallen into the hands of al-Qaeda affiliates.” According to the BBC, the Afghan Taliban took control of around one million weapons and pieces of military equipment — mostly funded by the United States of America — when it regained control of Afghanistan in 2021.
The Post’s report was quite alarming too. It said that the terrorists who attacked and hijacked the Jaffar Express in Balochistan last month used weapons left behind when the US forces withdrew from Afghanistan. The Jaffar Express attack was carried out by the Baloch Liberation Army. The Post’s report further revealed that “US assault rifles, machine guns and night-vision goggles, originally meant to help stabilise Afghanistan, are now being used by the [Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan] and other groups to” carry out attacks. The two reports are damning for the Afghan Taliban, which has have denied them in public. But the BBC reported that at the closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee in Doha late last year, the Afghan Taliban admitted that at least half of the equipment the US left behind is now “unaccounted” for.
Recent reports also claim that a proposed trilateral commission is being formed by the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan to take stock of the weapons left behind by the US after the fall of Kabul and carry out an audit. Such an audit is important because many experts have warned about how these weapons falling in the hands of terrorists can create an imbalance in the world as many governments in the world do not have access to hi-tech US weapons that these terrorists now reportedly possess.
Pakistan has been raising this issue ever since the fall of Kabul and the increased terrorist attacks in this country. It had provided evidence on how the TTP and its affiliates like the BLA have been using US weapons. The US is now apparently concerned — rightly so — about how its weapons are being spread across the world and used in terrorist attacks. This must be stopped or it will lead to dangerous consequences.
Speaking of terrorism, last week in Karachi, a man belonging to the minority Ahmadi community, Laeeq Ahmed Cheema, was lynched after a mob stormed an Ahmadi place of worship. On Tuesday, an anti-terrorism court sent 14 suspects to prison on judicial remand in the lynching case. Many other suspects are still at large. As per the initial investigation, the arrested suspects disclosed their affiliation to the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, a religio-political party. This is not surprising given the party’s track record — from staging a dharna against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government back in 2017 to inciting violence against the then chief justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, last year after a Supreme Court verdict granted bail to an Ahmadi man, Mubarak Sani, the TLP’s list of offences is long.
The Sani case was first misreported by the media. The opponents of the former chief justice picked it up and a malicious campaign was started on social media. Later, it was inevitably weaponised by the likes of TLP. Such parties are initially appeased by the State and they later end up attacking the State’s very own fabric. The persecution of Ahmadis has been ongoing for decades now and there seems to be no end in sight. Every other day, there is news of Ahmadis being targeted. The National Action Plan that was drawn up after the horrible Army Public School tragedy promised that religious persecution and hate speech will not be tolerated. But neither stopped and they will not unless there is a policy of zero-tolerance for extremism. This is a message that must be given by our judicial system, by our politicians and by our State without any ifs and buts.
Mehmal Sarfraz is a journalist based in Lahore; mehmal.s@gmail.com