An investigation report released today suggests that U.S.-made weapons may have been employed in the recent deadly attack on Pakistan’s Jaffar Express train, perpetrated by banned militant group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). The attack, which occurred earlier this month in Bolan district in Balochistan and claimed multiple passengers and security personnel lives, also leaving many others injured and hospitalised.
As per preliminary forensic analysis and weapons recovered at the scene, initial forensic analysis and weapons recovered indicate the use of American-origin firearms and explosives. Security officials on condition of anonymity confirmed this by verifying serial numbers and weapon markings which matched arms provided to U.S. allies in Afghanistan over the last two decades.
Pakistani authorities have expressed serious alarm at this discovery, as it raises serious concerns regarding the flow of Western weapons into insurgent groups operating within its borders. Experts suspect that after U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, large caches of weapons may have been left behind that may have made their way across porous border regions into Pakistan and into insurgent hands there.
“This is a deeply alarming development,” noted a senior security analyst based in Islamabad, “and their use by BLA signals an expansion in their operational capability.
The BLA, an organization seeking independence for Baloch region in Pakistan and United States has taken responsibility for the attack, using advanced weapons in its attack. Prior to now it had targeted infrastructure projects and security forces in Baloch region but this new tactic marks an alarming shift.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reportedly raised this matter through diplomatic channels, calling for greater international collaboration to trace and prevent proliferation of such arms by terrorist groups that pose a risk not just to Pakistan but regional stability as a whole. “Terrorist groups pose an existential threat,” noted Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry in their statements on this matter.
As the investigation unfolds, Pakistani officials have requested global partners, particularly the U.S., assist them in tracking and securizing weapons from conflict zones to protect them against misuse by extremist groups in future.