RASC News Agency: Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations has urged the international community to take decisive action to halt the illicit transfer of arms from Afghanistan to militant organizations operating within Pakistan, including Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch Liberation Movement. Speaking at a United Nations Security Council session held in Sierra Leone, Atif Raza, Advisor to Pakistan’s UN Mission, warned that terrorist groups based in Afghanistan have access to billions of dollars’ worth of abandoned, illegal weapons. He stressed that these arms are increasingly being funneled into the hands of extremist factions in Pakistan, enabling deadly attacks against civilians and the country’s armed forces.
Raza further alleged that some of these groups receive external support and funding from Pakistan’s adversaries, particularly India. He called for robust international cooperation to retrieve the abandoned weaponry and prevent further proliferation to extremist networks. Additionally, he urged global stakeholders to take concrete measures to dismantle the black market arms trade fueling regional instability. Simultaneously, the Small Arms Survey, a research organization monitoring global arms trafficking, reported that weapons smuggling from Afghanistan’s eastern provinces into Pakistan’s tribal regions persists, often with the tacit consent of local Taliban officials. The report noted that many of these arms ultimately find their way into the arsenals of terrorist groups operating within Pakistan.
Earlier this year, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Shafqat Ali Khan, also raised alarms regarding the presence of advanced U.S.-origin weaponry in Afghanistan, asserting that such arms are being actively used by groups like the TTP to execute terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.
