SIGAR report

For years, Pakistan has maintained that the unchecked flow of US-origin military equipment from post-withdrawal Afghanistan has emboldened the banned TTP and intensified cross-border terrorism. Now, Washington's own oversight body has put that claim beyond dispute. A report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) confirms that billions of dollars worth of American-supplied weapons and military hardware left behind in 2021 have now become the backbone of the Taliban's security apparatus.

Parallel findings by the UN and a detailed investigation by The Washington Post show that these weapons have already filtered into TTP hands. Serial numbers of at least 63 seized weapons used against Pakistani security forces trace directly back to US supplies originally meant for the Afghan National Defence Forces. Over two decades, Congress poured $144.7 billion into Afghanistan with the ambition of "building a stable democracy". Yet, according to the SIGAR report, the US ultimately "delivered neither". The fallout of this collapse is being felt most acutely across Pakistan's western border. A UN panel estimates that the TTP today commands around 6,000 fighters spread across multiple Afghan provinces, sharing training facilities with Al-Qaeda and benefitting from the hospitality of Kabul's de facto rulers. SIGAR attributes part of this dangerous spillover to the abrupt loss of visibility after the Taliban takeover, with the Pentagon acknowledging that about $7.1 billion worth of equipment was simply abandoned as American forces exited.

For Pakistan, these findings offer vindication, but no comfort. The militant threats confronting the state today stem directly from policy measures and shenanigans beyond its borders. With the facts now irrefutable, what Islamabad needs now is clear acknowledgement supported by meaningful international action that recognises the gravity of this assessment.