ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Minister of State for Interior, Talal Chaudhry, said Wednesday that a "very large-scale funded campaign" is being waged against Pakistan, alleging that political actors have been complicit in an arms-smuggling network supplying weapons to activists in Azad Kashmir.
Speaking at a press conference, Chaudhry said intelligence-based operations have been conducted daily against the network, with raids in June and July resulting in the seizure of sniper rifles and drones. He said security force personnel were killed during the operations.
Chaudhry played audio recordings he said implicated a man identified as Zia in a weapons deal with an individual named Zarshad in Afghanistan, as well as recordings of exchanges between Zia and another man, Majid, discussing arms purchases. He said Zia had been involved in illegal weapons dealing for eight to 10 years and had supplied multiple consignments to people close to the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a Kashmir-based political group.
The minister said a government employee identified as Akbar had used his official position as cover to facilitate the arms shipments, receiving payment for each transaction, including a deal worth 2.2 million rupees in which 1.1 million rupees were paid partly through informal hundi money transfers. Chaudhry said Akbar has since been arrested.
According to Chaudhry, the weapons traveled from Afghanistan through Bara and on to Kotli in Azad Kashmir, aided by local facilitators, government employees and what he called "political patronage."
Chaudhry connected the smuggling network to unrest surrounding recent elections in the region, saying that after elections were announced, a protest movement quickly emerged with the aim of forcing a postponement. He said large numbers of people turned out in Mirpur, and that violence and gunfire on polling day were not coincidental but part of a "complete campaign" planned in advance.
Despite this, he said, voter turnout in Mirpur was high. He said the federal government had implemented 37 of 38 demands made during earlier negotiations "in letter and spirit," but that a long march was announced regardless.
"There is a difference between political struggle and an armed group," Chaudhry said, adding that some movements are designed to "create ambiguity in decisions made for the state."
The minister said the arms-smuggling case is part of a broader counter-terrorism drive with more than 20 components, targeting illegal petrol pumps, smuggled vehicles, drug trafficking and other activities he said finance and support terrorist networks. He said smuggled vehicles now outnumber legal ones in many districts of Pakistan.
Chaudhry said the Interior Minister reviews the counter-terrorism campaign monthly and that Pakistan's prime minister is briefed every three to four months. He said Afghanistan continues to host militant hideouts and training camps, and accused political parties and workers of sometimes becoming entangled in terrorist networks, whether intentionally or not.
Calling for institutional reforms, Chaudhry urged the creation of fast-track and "faceless" courts to prosecute terrorism cases, along with strengthened anti-terrorism laws. "The state also has rights; only talk of individuals' rights should not be done," he said, adding that a lack of convictions despite available evidence — including mobile phone data and location records — has allowed terrorism to continue.
He called on all political parties and provincial governments to act in unison in support of state decisions on security matters.
