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Pak woos tribal arms-makers in bid to curb illegal production
Islamabad, Aug 07: In a novel campaign to curb illegal arms manufacturing in Pakistan`s wild western tribal belt, authorities are attempting to lure tribal weapons makers into the military`s key defence production facility.
Islamabad, Aug 07: In a novel campaign to curb illegal arms manufacturing in Pakistan's wild western tribal belt, authorities are attempting to lure tribal weapons makers into the military's key defence production facility.
The move by the Pakistan Ordinance Factories (POF) is paying dividends, officials say, pointing to the slowing of production in the multi-million dollar Darra Adam Khel Arms Bazaar, near the North West Frontier Province capital Peshawar and close to the Afghan border.
"So far, we have brought in around 100 top quality 'artisans' to the complex. Their absence and their presence here is certainly making a big difference," POF chairman Lieutenent General Abdul Qayyum told a news agency. Picked up from some 300 workshops operating in the tribal belt, they are employed at PoF, a cluster of 14 factories 40 kilometers north of Islamabad that make up Pakistan's key arms manufacturing complex.
Tribesmen admit that the PoF recruitment scheme had slowed arms production in their home region.
"Many people are losing jobs," said Mohammad Waqas Afridi, who specialises in assembling crude replicas of the Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle AK-47, popular among tribesmen in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The arms trade in Darra Adam Khel played a key role during the 1979-89 war against soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and the subsequent civil war among rival Mujahedin groups.
Bureau Report
"So far, we have brought in around 100 top quality 'artisans' to the complex. Their absence and their presence here is certainly making a big difference," POF chairman Lieutenent General Abdul Qayyum told a news agency. Picked up from some 300 workshops operating in the tribal belt, they are employed at PoF, a cluster of 14 factories 40 kilometers north of Islamabad that make up Pakistan's key arms manufacturing complex.
Tribesmen admit that the PoF recruitment scheme had slowed arms production in their home region.
"Many people are losing jobs," said Mohammad Waqas Afridi, who specialises in assembling crude replicas of the Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle AK-47, popular among tribesmen in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The arms trade in Darra Adam Khel played a key role during the 1979-89 war against soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and the subsequent civil war among rival Mujahedin groups.
Bureau Report