Given that they have been used by terrorists, Afghanistan’s remaining weapons need attention from the whole world: Pakistan

As the US hastily withdrew from war-torn Afghanistan, Pakistan on Friday called attention to the threat presented by the weapons the US left behind and claimed that terrorists had acquired them.

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office, made this statement at the weekly briefing, just two days after Afghan militants stormed a military position and murdered four Pakistani troops.

She said that the problem of terrorist attacks coming from Afghanistan had been brought up with the Afghan interim administration. “We do not blame anyone but weapons left in Afghanistan require global attention since they have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups now,” she said.

She said that Pakistan was committed to eradicating terrorism from the nation and expressed worry to the interim Afghan authorities on recent terrorist occurrences near the border.

John Kirby, the White House’s coordinator for strategic communication on the National Security Council, disagreed with the idea that the US had left behind approximately USD 7 billion worth of weapons and equipment in Afghanistan, which militant groups were now allegedly using against Pakistan, according to the Dawn newspaper.

“American soldiers did not leave behind any equipment. When we ended our evacuation operations, there was a little quantity of equipment and a few planes at the airport, but they were all rendered useless as we departed,” he stated.

In actuality, he said, “the only things we had left that the Taliban might exploit were certain airport maintenance capabilities: tow vehicles and trucks with ladders on them, as well as some firefighting gear.

Kirby clarified that before the US pullout, the Afghan National Security Forces received the equipment that some had said the Americans had left behind.

He said, “They (government Afghan troops) abandoned that equipment, not the US, as the Taliban moved on Kabul and other locations around the nation.

The Doha Agreement, which was signed by the US and the Taliban in February 2020, called for the US to remove all of its troops from Afghanistan by May 2021.

As a result of fighting between the security forces of the two nations, the crucial Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan has been blocked since Wednesday, putting the local populace in a difficult situation.