ISLAMABAD, Apr 6: Faced with rising armed attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Pakistan has urged the international community to enact strong arms control measures to prevent the outfits from receiving advanced weaponry which they have used to inflict massive casualties on the Pakistani military.
Pakistani diplomat Syed Atif Raza, a counsellor for the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, told an Arria-Formula meeting of the UN Security Council, convened by Sierra Leone that “Terrorist armed groups are in possession of billions worth of illicit arms abandoned in Afghanistan,” according to The Express Tribune.
Speaking in a debate on ‘Small Arms and Light Weapons Management in UN Sanctions Regimes’, the Pakistani delegate said such armaments were being used by the TTP and BLA outfits in violence against civilians and the armed forces of Pakistan.
Calling for concerted efforts by the international community to intercept and stop the clandestine flows of modern and sophisticated weapons being used by the two groups, Raza repeated the usual Pakistani rhetoric of India being the financier of these groups, albeit without directly naming New Delhi.
“We call upon our international partners to recover the vast stockpile of abandoned weapons, prevent their access to armed terrorist groups and take measures to close this thriving black market of illicit arms,” the Pakistan diplomat said.
Saying that the misuse and illicit flow of small arms and light weapons aggravates conflicts, threatens socio-economic progress and subverts peace and security, he said “We know that non-state actors do not have many of the capabilities to manufacture advanced illicit arms, thus raising questions of culpability of certain state actors in these nefarious activities.”
In March, the Pakistan Army and its paramilitary unit in Balochistan, the Frontier Corps, were stunned in a surprise attack by the BLA, when the separatist outfit boarded the Jaffar Express and held civilian hostages, demanding the release of the hundreds of thousands of missing people in the province.
The BLA had engaged in a long gunfight against both units, resulting in casualties on both sides. The Jaffar Train attack had a debilitating effect on the Pakistan Army’s morale.
The TTP attacks have also been relentless, as they have frequently targeted Pakistani troops in KPK province in a series of rapid action strikes and suicide attacks.
(UNI)
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