Kalashnikov seller, buyer caught

Gunrunner from Darra and buyer in the city hooked up on social media

KARACHI:

The Sindh Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) in an intelligence based operation arrested two individuals within the jurisdiction of the Brigade police station, an illegal arms supplier and a buyer.

The CTD also seized a Kalashnikov and bullets from the suspects as they were closing the illegal deal.

According to a CTD spokesperson on Monday, the supplier, identified as Muhammad Afzal, was an inter-provincial arms dealer who had transported the weapons from Peshawar.

The buyer, Muhammad Ahmed Awan, had selected a Kalashnikov via Facebook and WhatsApp and paid for it using EasyPaisa.

Muhammad Afzal was working for an arms dealer named Islam Shah based in Darra Adam Khel of the Khyber district. The arrests were made as Afzal was handing over the arms to Awan, who had ordered the Kalashnikov with bullets for Rs130,000. Muhammad Afzal had previously been arrested by the Model Colony police station for arms smuggling and was out on bail. Further investigations are ongoing. The Darra Adam Khel, a famous arms manufacturing hub for over a 150 years, was earlier a tribal area but later came under the K-P government rule.

The gunsmiths of Darra have gained legal status and are a regulated small scale industry, but many still prefer ages old clandestine trade of gunrunning.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2024.