The Washington Post has reported that weapons used in the Baloch Liberation Army’s (BLA) March 11 attack on the Jaffar Express in Balochistan were originally supplied by the United States to Afghan forces and were left behind during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
According to the report, Pakistani authorities allegedly provided serial numbers of three rifles recovered from the attackers involved in the train hijacking. When the Post accessed US government records under the Freedom of Information Act, it found that at least two of the rifles had been part of previous American military aid to Afghan forces.
One of the weapons, an M4A1 carbine with serial number W1004340, was manufactured in 2018 at a Colt factory in Connecticut and was reportedly recovered from one of the attackers killed in the Jaffar Express attack. The rifle is among billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment abandoned in Afghanistan after the US troop withdrawal, the report said.
The Washington Post said Pakistani officials had granted its journalists access to dozens of captured weapons last year, claiming they had been seized from militants killed in various operations. After months of investigation, the Pentagon confirmed to the newspaper that 63 of the weapons shown had originally been supplied by the US to Afghan government forces.
The recovered cache included M4 and M16 rifles and older US-made arms, most of which had been delivered to the former Afghan government before its collapse, the report has found.
The Jaffar Express attack, which occurred in March, was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). The armed group hijacked the train, reportedly taking civilian passengers hostage and later releasing them, while detaining 214 Pakistani security personnel aboard. The BLA demanded a prisoner exchange and gave Pakistani authorities a 48-hour ultimatum. A military operation was launched before the deadline expired, after which the BLA claimed to have killed all over 200 hostages. The group confirmed the loss of 13 of its fighters during the operation.
According to The Washington Post, US-supplied weapons were found among the dead attackers and have reportedly strengthened the BLA’s operational capacity in recent actions. However, analysts familiar with the ground situation in Balochistan disagree with the notion that American weapons alone have enhanced the group’s effectiveness.
Observers who closely monitor the Baloch “liberation” movement argue that the BLA has evolved into a more structured and lethal insurgent force in recent years. The group is now capable of launching coordinated and complex attacks across multiple cities and districts in Balochistan. They emphasize that such capabilities are not driven by weaponry alone, but also by a growing pool of trained fighters and increasingly sophisticated operational planning.
However, the Afghan Taliban have rejected the Washington Post report claiming that American weapons left behind in Afghanistan have ended up in the hands of armed groups in Balochistan. Responding to the report, the deputy spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, Hamdullah Fitrat, said the weapons currently in Afghanistan are secure and no smuggling has taken place.
Fitrat said the presence of American weapons elsewhere does not necessarily mean they came from Afghanistan, noting that such arms had previously circulated on the black market. He further claimed that during the US occupation, weapons transported through Pakistan for NATO forces were often looted in attacks and later sold.
He maintained that under the current administration, all military stockpiles in Afghanistan are being kept secure and smuggling has been effectively prevented.