Military deployments may officially end with a withdrawal, but the lethal hardware left behind often sustains conflicts for decades. The rapid August 2021 departure of Western coalition forces from Afghanistan created a massive power vacuum which placed billions of dollars in military hardware directly into the hands of the de facto Taliban authorities. Today, that leftover arsenal, combined with uninhibited territorial sanctuaries across the border, has coalesced into an unprecedented security threat for Pakistan.

The sheer scale of small arms and specialised equipment abandoned in 2021 fundamentally reshaped the tactical capabilities of regional non-state actors. Western military oversight reports revealed that over 160,000 assault rifles, tens of thousands of machine guns, advanced communications systems, and specialised tactical gear remained inside Afghanistan. Independent investigations and serial-number tracking have confirmed a........

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