Wild West-type town in eastern Pakistan churns out cheap copies of arms for insurgents who fight NATO forces
SONYA FATAH
DARRA ADAM KHEIL, PAKISTAN — Mohammed Tariq sits cross-legged on the raised wooden platform inside his arms store, cradling a gleaming new Kalashnikov. Rows of glistening semi-automatic firearms stand against the wall behind him.
He flips open the 2005 edition of Handguns. “See this?” he says, opening the book to a random page and pointing to an image of a handgun. “We’ve copied this perfectly. Have lunch with a retired brigadier or a retired colonel. You’ll find out everything.”
Tariq is no ordinary shopkeeper and Darra Adam Kheil, a one-strip town framed by the craggy, barren facade of the Kohat range in the lawless tribal belt of eastern Pakistan, is no ordinary place.
Studded with hashish bars, the town of 15,000 is the headquarters of the region’s illegal firearms market.
Here, small, storefront operations churn out knockoff versions of weapons at cut-rate prices, providing a key source of hardware for the Taliban, who are locked in an increasingly deadly battle with North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces across the border in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, most of whom are Pashtun and native to the region, were once completely dependent on Darra for their weaponry.
And while the militant Islamist group has developed other sources of supply, the town remains the cheapest, easiest place for foot soldiers to equip themselves before joining the insurgency.
While gun running has a long tradition in the region, the arms bazaar is a legacy of the proxy Cold War showdown between the mujahedeen and the Soviet Union.
The United States poured weapons into Pakistan during the Afghan war to arm the mujahedeen and stave off the Russians. Arms dealers, buyers and sellers cropped up overnight, stockpiling weapons in large arms reservoirs across Peshawar, the nearby provincial capital.
After the Russians retreated, no effort was made to reclaim the weapons, and arms manufacturing multiplied. In 2001, thanks to the proliferation of this homegrown arms market, it was estimated that there were 1.9 million licensed weapons in the North-West Frontier Province and a much larger number of unlicensed ones.
After the Russians retreated, no effort was made to reclaim the weapons, and arms manufacturing multiplied. In 2001, thanks to the proliferation of this homegrown arms market, it was estimated that there were 1.9 million licensed weapons in the North-West Frontier Province and a much larger number of unlicensed ones.
Darra has evolved into a firearms market, supplying arms to retired military officials, major security companies and the Taliban. The town’s gunsmiths have followed their grandfathers and fathers into the profession and despite several attempts to draw the most skilled into legitimate weaponry outfits elsewhere, the town continues to be a major production centre for illegal weapons.
The town is littered with small stores with names like Asia Arms Store and Haji Abdullah Jan & Sons Arms Store. In the alleyways that lead off the main street, hundreds of young gunsmiths bend over machines in an assortment of mini-factories that cater to the arms sellers.
It’s from Darra that the avid local hunter gets his rifle and where local tribesmen outfit themselves with the latest in semi-automatics. All varieties of firearms are available. Since the Afghan war, the weapon of choice has been the AK-47 assault rifle, the infamous Kalashnikov.
Raees Khan’s store inventory ranges from revolvers and pistols to semi-automatics. “Guns are an integral part of our culture. We don’t care if there is food to eat, but every man must have his weapon,” he says.
That’s a sentiment that reflects the gun-friendly culture of the region, where weapons are part and parcel of everyday life. They are particularly visible in the tribal areas, where man and gun are rarely separated.
Drugs and firearms flow freely in Darra, giving the place a lawless feel. Hash bars are interspersed among the firearms stores; various grades of hash, and sometimes opium, are openly advertised and consumed.
In one bar on the town’s edge, scales are used to weigh the hashish. Inside, a young seller uncorks a bottle filled with the rich, pungent drug that is rolled into a ball.
Higher quality hashish sells for the equivalent of about $1.50 a ball, while an inferior quality sold in long licorice-style sticks is about 40 cents.
An imitation repeater costs about $46, a G-3 semi-automatic runs $93, and a USP Tactical costs $75. If the licence plates on the cars parked along the street are any indication, Darra’s customers journey here on gun-buying binges from across Pakistan’s four provinces.
Popularity: 4% [?]
