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Pakistan Urges UN to Act Against Illicit Weapons Aiding TTP, BLA
Pakistani diplomat urges UN to stop illegal arms flow aiding TTP & BLA via Afghanistan. Warns of advanced US weapons in terrorist hands.
ND
by News Desk
2025-04-05
Pakistan Urges UN to Act Against Illicit Weapons Aiding TTP, BLA

A Pakistani diplomat has called for urgent international action to intercept the illicit flow of sophisticated weapons that are being used by UN-sanctioned armed groups such as Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), who continue to launch cross-border attacks into Pakistan from their safe havens in Afghanistan.

Speaking at an Arria-Formula meeting of the UN Security Council — a consultative session hosted by Sierra Leone — Syed Atif Raza, a counsellor at Pakistan’s Mission to the UN, warned that “terrorist armed groups are in possession of billions worth of illicit arms abandoned in Afghanistan.”

“These weapons are now being used by the TTP, BLA, and its Majeed Brigade to conduct deadly attacks against both civilians and armed forces in Pakistan,” Raza stated. He stressed that the misuse and clandestine circulation of modern small arms and light weapons is a growing threat to regional stability.

Relations between Islamabad and Kabul have remained strained amid repeated accusations that Afghanistan is providing shelter to banned terrorist outfits like the TTP. Kabul has consistently denied these allegations, but the increase in cross-border attacks has raised serious alarm in Pakistan.

Counsellor Raza highlighted the grave concern over the “external support and financing” that these groups receive from “our principal adversary” — a veiled reference to India — and urged the international community to take concrete steps.

“We call upon our international partners to recover the vast stockpile of abandoned weapons, prevent their access to armed terrorist groups and take measures to close this thriving black market of illicit arms,” Raza said.

He emphasized that the proliferation of small arms and modern weaponry not only fuels terrorism but also threatens socio-economic development and regional peace.

The Pakistani delegate further questioned how non-state actors could possess such advanced weaponry, hinting at possible complicity by certain state actors.

Earlier this year, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram also raised similar concerns during a UN Security Council briefing on Afghanistan, saying that the Afghan authorities had “failed to address the threat posed by Al-Qaeda, TTP, BLA, and the Majeed Brigade — all of which operate from Afghan territory.”

Adding to this, Foreign Office spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan said in January that advanced US-made weapons left behind after the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan were being used by terrorist organisations like the TTP to attack Pakistani targets.

Pakistan continues to press for a coordinated global approach to neutralize the threat from such armed non-state actors and their enablers, warning that failure to do so will only embolden terrorism and violence across borders.

 
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Pakistan

Afghanistan

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