NEW DELHI: Several operations carried out by the security forces against militants in the wake of recent terror strikes in the Jammu region, have led to recovery of lethal weapons, a majority of which were earlier used by the Taliban terrorists or were abandoned by American soldiers before leaving Afghanistan, officials said.
According to security officials, the patterns show that the arms are now being brought to Kashmir via Pakistan. These weapons include the deadly US-made M4 carbine assault rifles, which can fire 700-970 rounds of steel bullets in one minute and pierce the normal body of any vehicle, officials said.
The M4 carbine’s effective firing range is 500-600 metres, with a maximum firing range of 3,600 metres.
The officials said after each anti-terror operation, they have been recovering M4 carbines. “The militants are mostly using either AK-47 rifles or M4 carbines. The first attack last month on army vehicles was fired from an M4 carbine,” said an official, adding that the weapon fires steel bullets, which penetrate the steel sheet of thin-skinned vehicles (non-bulletproof vehicles) more easily than a copper bullet.
According to sources in the security establishment, the M4 carbine was first recovered in Jammu and Kashmir in 2017, when the security forces killed Talha Rashid Masood, the nephew of Jaish chief Masood Azhar, in Pulwama. In the recent times, the weapon has been used in terrorist attacks in Kathua, Reasi and Doda.
As per sources, intelligence reports point out that two big meetings were held in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in the past few months. “One meeting was called by the commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba at Pak Army Camp Tejin in PoK and the other by Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Abdul Rauf. It was then decided to export the weapons as much as possible to Kashmir,” an intelligence source said, adding that more than two dozen US-made M4 carbines were sent to Kashmir.
The Pak route
Patterns show that the arms are now being brought to Kashmir via Pakistan. These weapons include the US-made M4 carbine assault rifles, which can fire 700-970 rounds of steel bullets in one minute and pierce the normal body of any vehicle, officials said. The M4 carbine’s effective firing range is 500-600 metres, with a maximum range of 3,600 metres.