ISLAMABAD: Militants used weapons abandoned by US forces in Afghanistan during a deadly train hijacking last month in southwestern Pakistan, a report by international newspaper “The Washington Post” said on Monday. 
Pakistan has voiced its concerns over the presence of advanced US weapons in Afghanistan which Washington has sought to be returned by Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers. Islamabad has urged the United Nations to recover these weapons, warning that militant groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) were gaining access to them.
BLA militants stormed the Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province last month, holding hundreds of passengers hostage. The military said it killed 33 militants in a rescue operation that lasted over 24 hours. It said the hijacking killed 31 soldiers, staff and civilians. 
As per the report, Pakistani officials gave The Post access to dozens of weapons in May that they said were seized from captured or killed militants. After months of inquiries, The Post said the US Army and the Pentagon confirmed that 63 weapons shown to reporters had been provided by the US government to Afghan forces.
“After the March 11 train attack by Baloch militants, which claimed at least 26 lives, Pakistani officials provided serial numbers for three US rifles allegedly used by the attackers,” the report said. “At least two came from US stocks and had been provided to Afghan forces, according to records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of Information Act.”
Of the 63 weapons shown by Pakistani officials, the post said most were M16 rifles, alongside several, more-modern M4 carbine models. It said Pakistani officials also displayed a handful of PVS14 night-vision devices, which are used throughout the American armed forces but could not be independently verified as former US government property.
It said these weapons left behind by American forces found themselves in the hands of militants after being traded along Pakistan’s porous border with Afghanistan at illicit weapons bazaars. 
The Post cited a 2023 report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which estimated in 2023 that when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, over $7 billion in American military equipment was still in the country. 
The report said SIGAR concluded the US military had an uneven record of keeping track of weapons provided to the Afghans, which was exacerbated by its “abrupt and uncoordinated” withdrawal in 2021.
The report said SIGAR estimated more than a quarter-million rifles were left behind by US forces during their withdrawal from Afghanistan, enough to arm the entire US Marine Corps as well as nearly 18,000 night-vision goggles.
 “Just after the Taliban takeover, the latest night-vision devices were sold at a scrap rate,” Raz Muhammad, a Pakistani weapons trader, was quoted by The Post. 
The report quoted a Pakistan Army major, Zaheer Hassan, as saying that insurgents have paired night vision and thermal equipment with small drones to attack troops with more precision.
“The battle has become much more dangerous,” Hassan said, according to The Post. 
Pakistan’s foreign office said this month that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed during a telephonic conversation with Pakistan’s deputy prime minister on the need to resolve the issue of US Military equipment left behind in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has struggled to contain surging militancy in its western regions that border Afghanistan in recent years, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of sheltering and supporting militant groups that launch cross-border attacks. Afghan officials deny involvement and insist that Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.

PESHAWAR: The bodies of two kidnapped constables were recovered from a deserted area in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, a police spokesperson said, as the country struggles to contain surging militancy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. 

Constables Hameed Shah and Ashraf Dotani were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in Wana town in South Waziristan district on Saturday, police spokesperson Habib Islam said. Members of the Dotani tribe chased the gunmen, trading fire with them. Three militants were killed while two, including a local tribesman and a girl, were injured during the clash. 

“The martyred personnel were kidnapped two days ago from their homes in Tui Khula, a locality on the outskirts of Wana, the main town in the district,” Islam told Arab News.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the incident, but suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) outfit or the Pakistani Taliban. The TTP has carried out some of the deadliest attacks against Pakistani law enforcers since 2007. 

The banned unit has increased its attacks on Pakistani law enforcers since November 2022, when a fragile truce between the state and the TTP broke down. Pakistan blames neighboring Afghanistan for providing sanctuary to TTP militants, a charge Kabul vehemently denies. 

In a separate incident, seven laborers were injured in the northwestern Tank district on Monday when a bomb blast targeted the under construction building of a prominent rescue emergency service, police said. 

Tank police spokesperson Younas Khan said the explosion struck an under-construction Rescue 1122 building located in Wazirabad area in Tank.

Rescue 1122 teams responded quickly, shifting the injured to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital for medical treatment, Khan said. Following the incident, a large contingent of police and security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to trace those responsible for the blast, he said.