Influence of US Weapons on Pakistan’s CT Operations | SOF Information

Within the battle in opposition to terrorism, know-how has develop into each a boon and a bane. Whereas developments in weapons, optics, and tools have supplied safety forces with subtle instruments to fight terrorism, they’ve additionally posted important challenges, notably in international locations like Pakistan.

As we’ve seen within the aftermath of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, an estimated $7.2 Billion value of weapons and army tools modified arms in Afghanistan – materials that had been supplied to the Afghan Nationwide Defence and Safety Forces (ANDSF). This comprised an unlimited cache of small arms, communication gear, armored autos, and extremely superior technical optics and tools.

This arsenal of US weapons has remodeled the safety panorama of counter terrorism operations by Pakistan. Terrorist teams just like the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP), Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), and Baloch Liberation Military (BLA) have beforehand relied upon previous Russian made AK-47s and regionally made weapons. These terrorist teams at the moment are geared up with American made fight helmets, M4 assault rifles, and M-16 machine weapons – custom-made with trendy weapon sights.

Pakistan, located on the crossroads of regional instability, has lengthy been suffering from terrorist organizations in search of to undermine its stability and safety. Following the Afghan withdrawal of U.S. forces, Pakistan is compelled to fight the spilling wave of this terrorism community and the elevated assaults by militant teams, particularly like TTP and ISKP, which might be primarily based in protected havens throughout Afghanistan.

In an assault on the Mianwali Air Base of Pakistan Air Power on September 6, 2023, Pakistan witnessed a brazen assault by Tehreek-e-Taliban terrorists. They used a foreign-made cache of arms, together with RPGs, AK-40, AK-70, M4, and M16 assault rifles. These subtle weapons had been retrieved from the possession of the attackers. As well as, the terrorists had been geared up with evening imaginative and prescient goggles and American manufactured rifles custom-made with thermal sights.

The same arsenal was deployed within the assault that claimed the lives of 12 police personnel from an elite pressure within the Daraban space of Dera Ismail Khan on December 12, 2023, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Three police personnel had been killed, though 5 terrorists had been neutralized by the swift response of safety forces. Once more, M16 assault rifles, AK-74 rifles, and excessive explosive grenades had been present in possession of those terrorists.

The overwhelming use of subtle weapons and tools, modernized small arms, and superior weaponry is profoundly impacting Pakistan’s counterterrorism operations, presenting formidable challenges to its safety forces and undermining efforts to fight terrorism successfully. Addressing these challenges requires a holistic method that leverages technological innovation and provision of a complicated and suitable safety pressure deployed to counter the evolving terror menace.

The evolving panorama of counterterrorism efforts of Pakistan’s safety forces have to be taken into consideration. Submit U.S withdrawal, some weapons of the ANDSF have sadly fell into the arms of terrorist teams like TTP and ISKP, enabling them to hold out cross-border assaults in opposition to Pakistani safety forces and regulation enforcement companies. These unsettling developments have raised considerations and rang alarm bells amongst stakeholders within the area. The involvement of exterior actors in arming the TTP can also be questionable on this context, together with the availability of protected havens for terrorist organizations in Afghanistan. This state of affairs paints a grim image for the safety panorama evolving throughout the area.

The terrorist teams have been exploiting the skillful use of the trendy weapons by posting movies of its fighters attacking the lesser armed safety personnel of Pakistan’s Regulation enforcement companies with ease and inflicting excessive casualties. Over the previous two years an elevated variety of movies have been flooded on the social media handles of the terrorist teams. These movies help in recruitment and instills concern amongst the individuals. Dramatic TTP movies present assaults on Pakistani police and army outposts by militants armed with superior weapons geared up with evening imaginative and prescient and thermal sights – tools supplied prior to now to Afghan particular operations forces. These at the moment are simply accessible within the value vary of $500 to $1000. It’s a brand new arms race, just like late Nineteen Seventies in the course of the Afghan battle, when AK47s flooded the weapons market, and it turned the image of rebel and terror teams ever since. On the time, the AK47 was probably the most extensively manufactured weapon, simple to make use of, deadly, and required low upkeep value.

Taliban at the moment are changing into more and more concerned in promoting these US-made arms which were accessible for rebel teams throughout the globe, spilling to East Asian and Center Jap Terrorist Teams. In response to regional consultants it is going to be very troublesome to comprise the terrorist teams. The threats related to these advance weapons and tools will proceed to hang-out the counter terrorism efforts throughout the area.

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Writer: Muhammad Usman Safdar, M.Phil Scholar, Division of Defence and Strategic Research, Quaid E Azam College, Islamabad.