US Arms Fallout Fuels Terrorism in Pakistan

The Fallout of US Withdrawal, Weapons in the Hands of Terrorists

The US withdrawal in Afghanistan, in August 2021, caused a large-scale strategic failure in South Asia. The United States abandoned over $7.2 billion worth of refined weapons and equipment’s as well as vehicles that were meant to be used to stabilize Afghanistan but today have contributed to increasing instabilities in the region. The arms (M4A1, M16) used on the frontline as well as the night-vision goggles and grenade launchers, were now in the hands of the Taliban and their supporters. What is ironic is the fact that weapons provided to the Afghan forces to combat extremism are currently used by the extremists to kill innocent people in Pakistan.

Washington Post provided an investigation and discovered that 63 weapons which were exported by the US were stolen by TTP. They used to be handed over to Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Serial numbers revealed that one of the M4A1 rifles that were made in Connecticut in 2018 that was destined to the Afghan army units was subsequently discovered with terrorists who attacked a passenger train in Balochistan in 2025. Those findings indicate that the US military assistance can turn into terrorists in their hands.

The battlefield is now heavily tipped towards the terrorists as the security forces in Pakistan have to deal with terrorists wielding M4s, M16s, and thermal sights, which were made by the US. The weapons that were previously utilized to combat terrorism today are the same weapons that are being used to perpetrate corruption and bloodshed on the earth.

One, striking example underscores the magnitude of proliferation that is a night-vision device worth $2,000 in the US was sold for as little as $300 in Darra Adamkhel’s black market shortly after the Taliban takeover.

It is estimated that the US left behind over 250,000 rifles and 18,000 night-vision devices, which would be sufficient to equip the entire US Marine Corps or arm every terrorist in the western front of Pakistan. The humanitarian cost of this negligence is taken by Pakistan. Soldiers, civilians and the police in Pakistan now have a foe that is better equipped than ever before.

Taliban’s Role and Regional Threat of Weapon Proliferation

To make the situation worse the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has now access to weapons that can strike Pakistani aircraft and military installations. He cautioned that such weapons would be employed to defend the Afghan sovereignty in case of alleged Pakistani attacks. However, this assertion relates to the hypocrisy of the Taliban. The arms they are boasting about are not theirs. They are American and NATO weapons that they took following the defeat of Kabul in 2021.

The Taliban picked up a massive collection of weapons 22,000 Humvees, 64,000 machine guns, 358,000 rifles, 1,000 armored vehicles and 167 planes. The Taliban regime instead of storing these weapons in safe places allowed them to find their way into the black markets and into the possession of transnational terrorist organizations particularly the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Counterterror operations in Kurram, Bannu and Waziristan revealed weapons whose serial numbers were identical to the NATO guns, which have confirmed that the stockpiles of the Taliban are the primary source of weapons to the TTP. According to UN reports, members of the Taliban play an active role in delivering those weapons to Terrorists who are located in Pakistan.

In 2023, Foreign Policy magazine revealed that the Taliban authorities were directly engaged in smuggling weapons, which demonstrates a regime that sells the ideology of jihad as a commodity. This is hypocritical, as the Taliban name themselves protect the sovereignty of Afghanistan, and weapons they deliver regularly find their way into Pakistan, slaughtering Muslims and jeopardizing peace in the territory.

Pakistan has provided actual evidence at the United Nations concerning the sources of such weapons and their application in cross border attacks. Although the world is worried, the Taliban still refuse to accept the blame terming the proliferation of arms as spoils of war. Such denial is just an indication of their unwillingness to see severe consequences of their actions.

The case is a dangerous and direct threat. Regional terrorism is now fueled by more than 7.2 billion worth of US and NATO weapons. Over 316,000 lost weapons are in circulation in Afghanistan with many of them penetrating into Pakistan and this has increased the instability in the region. These weapons cease to be the symbols of defense and the weapons of corruption, chaos and even death of the same Muslims they were intended to defend.

Uncontrolled proliferation of this kind will not be a Pakistan-Afghanistan problem after all. The laxity of the Taliban has transformed Afghanistan into the new black market arsenal of the world and posed as a security threat to South and Central Asia.

What started as an American error in 2021 has now turned into a regional disaster one that Pakistan still lives with, paying the price of the blood, of a war it had no part in, but can no longer disregard.