Pak takes aim at gun culture, to de-weaponise its tribal areas

Pak takes aim at gun culture, to de-weaponise its tribal areas
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

ISLAMABAD, MARCH 2: Pakistan’s military government intends to launch an unprecedented campaign to retrieve weapons from its tribal people in Baluchistan and North West Frontier Provinces, a report said today.

Interior minister Moinuddin Haider said the government had already told semi-autonomous tribal chiefs to surrender their weapons voluntarily, the News daily reported.

He said the government was determined to end the gun culture in Pakistan which he said was the legacy of the Afghan-Soviet war in the 1980s and the ongoing separatist insurgency in kashmir.

He was speaking yesterday at an arms control seminar in Karachi as eight people were gunned down at a market in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in a sectarian attack.

Semi-autonomous tribal areas in NWFP and Baluchistan are home to large gun markets where local tradesmen specialise in producing cheap copies of foreign assault rifles and other weapons.