A top police officer alleged on Thursday that militants in Pakistan’s troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are using modern weapons left behind by the United States following its withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.
Nearly 20 years after it invaded Afghanistan in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US finished withdrawing its troops from that nation in August 2021.
Moazzam Jah Ansari, the inspector general of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told a press conference that advanced weaponry that the US will leave behind in Afghanistan after they withdraw in 2021 are being used for terrorism in the province, according to Samaa TV.
“These militants picked up the sophisticated weaponry left by the Americans and waged a war against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police,” Ansari was quoted as saying.
His remark coincides with an increase in armed attackers’ attacks on security forces.
According to a congressionally ordered analysis from the US Department of Defense, around USD 7 billion of military equipment that the US gave to the Afghan government over a 16-year period was still in Afghanistan after the US ended its withdrawal from the nation in August.
According to the study, the Inspector General claimed that many militants who were imprisoned in Afghanistan were released when the Afghan Taliban assumed control of the country.
Ansari vowed to rid the region bordering war-torn Afghanistan of the threat of terrorism.
Yesterday, militants opened fire on a police vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing at least six police officers.
