The American newspaper The Washington Post has revealed that the deadly attack on the Jaffar Express in Balochistan’s Bolan district on March 11 involved weapons left behind by the U.S. military during its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
To recall, on March 11, the Jaffar Express traveling from Quetta to Peshawar was hijacked by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in the Mach area of Kachhi district. The BLA reportedly took 214 security personnel hostage from the train and later killed them. According to official figures, 26 people, including 18 security personnel, were killed in the attack. The ISPR stated that 33 militants were killed in the retaliatory operation.
In its report, The Washington Post stated that Pakistani authorities provided the serial numbers of three American-made rifles recovered from the attackers. Through U.S. military records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, it was confirmed that at least two of these rifles had been supplied by the U.S. government to the Afghan National Forces.
According to the report, one of the rifles was an M4A1 Carbine with the serial number W1004340, manufactured in 2018 at Colt’s factory in Connecticut. This rifle was reportedly recovered from one of the attackers involved in the Jaffar Express incident.
The paper notes that this weapon is among the billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment left behind in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal. Furthermore, last May, Pakistani authorities gave access to dozens of such weapons recovered from militants killed or captured during various operations.
Following months of investigation, the U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) confirmed that at least 63 weapons shown to The Washington Post were originally supplied to Afghan forces and are now being used in attacks within Pakistan.
