WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2003
Pak has 18 mn illegal firearms: Report
REUTERS
ISLAMABAD: About 18 million firearms are held illegally in Pakistan in addition to the 2 million weapons that are legally registered, a newspaper quoted interior ministry officials as saying.
Tuesday's edition of Dawn said a campaign launched in 2001 by military president General Pervez Musharraf to counter the country's "Kalashnikov culture" had led to the recovery of 210,000 illegal weapons in 18 months.
The paper said the Interior Ministry's Small Arms Survey for 2002 found there were two million legally authorised weapons. But it said officials of the ministry estimated another 18 million were held illegally.
Ministry spokesmen could not be reached for comment.
The main concentrations of illegal arms in Pakistan are in semi-autonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
Many of the weapons have been imported from Afghanistan, awash with arms after more than 23 years of war.
Guns are also produced locally, notably in the tribal town of Darra Adamkhel, which is famous for imitation weapons from all over the world.
The Dawn report said Darra Adamkhel still had around 900 arms factories, all of them illegal and about 150 shops selling arms and ammunition.
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