American weapons taken by Taliban will create havoc in Pak, then in India: Army officials

Large quantities of American weapons seized by the Taliban in Afghanistan might be used for unleashing terror onto the Indian soil, senior military officers suspected on Tuesday. According to the officers, inputs on the ground suggested that American-origin weapons, especially small arms were being sent to Pakistan. After being used by the ISI in Pakistan itself, these weapons may also find their way into the hands of terror groups operating in India, they suggested.

"There are a lot of inputs that suggest that these American-origin weapons especially small arms are being sent to Pakistan. But the way terror groups have been emboldened there by the Taliban victory, there is a possibility of these weapons being used for violence in Pakistan itself," said senior military officers while discussing the Afghan war outcome with news agency ANI. 

It is interesting to note that in the aftermath of the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan, Pakistan had used a large number of Afghan and foreign terrorists for anti-India activities during the initial phase of terrorism in Kashmir. The USA has been providing more than 6.5 lakh small arms including the M-16 and M-4 assault rifles to the Afghan forces in the last 20 years along with a huge cache of bullets. After the Taliban overran Kabul and drove away from the Afghanistan soldiers, it managed to seize a large number of arms and ammunition. A significant number of Sniper rifles have also fallen into the hands of the terrorist group.

Indian Army ready to tackle insurgency

However, senior military officials stated that the Indian Army was ready with a counter-terrorist grid in the Kashmir valley to tackle any such insurgency in the aftermath of the Afghanistan crisis. The counter-infiltration grids are already there in place on both the Line of Control and hinterland in the Kashmir valley, they said. "The Afghans are easy to find in the Kashmir valley and the locals are scared of them due to their atrocities against women and young girls. In most of the cases, the locals themselves approach the security forces to get rid of them," they said.

Earlier Republic TV had reported that the Taliban has supplied military equipment and weapons to Pakistan through the Torkham Border. Afghan military commander Sarfaraz on August 18 said that the Afghan military is under “direct aggression” of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the premier intelligence agency of Pakistan.

(With Agency Inputs)