#Pakistan

On the 28th December Pakistan Defence shared a ‘documentary’ looking at Pakistan’s Ordnance Factories. Produced by Midas Communication Pakistan, the short film showcases some of the work done by Pakistan’s Ordnance Factories and the large variety of small arms and ammunition they produce.

The Pakistani Ministry of the Interior made an announcement in November of this year, that Pakistani citizens who have Prohibited Bore licenses with registered fully automatic firearms will have to either surrender their firearms or convert them to semi-automatic by January 31st, 2018. Punjab Arms & Ammunition Company just recently shared two photos of documents that are being circulated right now, notifying citizens of the ban and how to proceed. The ad in the paper below has “Public Notice” as the title.

Government officials from the Pakistani province of Punjab Province (capital, Lahore) have recently announced through local television outlets and in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn  that a small arms procurement program for the provincial law enforcement forces is currently in order. Initially, it appeared that the force was acquiring 5,000 M4 carbines. Upon further investigation, this number appears to be more like 100 M4s and 5,000 submachine guns (unspecified type, but most likely an MP5 derivative). Along with precision rifles, handguns, armor, and 200 paintball guns (most likely for riot control).

Recent evidence has suggested that there is an uptick of mounting evidence to suggest that rebels in the Jammu and Kashmir province of Northeastern India are slowly trading their traditionally used 7.62x39mm  Kalashnikov patterned derivatives for 5.56x45mm M4 carbines. This has been blasted all over the Indian media after an image of a Hizbul Mujahideen went floating on social media posing with an M4 patterned carbine. After that image came online, there was a raid in the district of Pulwama of Jammu and Kashmir in which several Kashmiri terrorists were killed, along with an Indian soldier. During the raid what would appear to be U.S. made Colt marked 5.56x45mm carbine was showcased at a news conference. Alongside it was a pre-1986 AKS74U (or at least a copy of such), completely misidentified by the Indian media as an “AK47 Draco” under the headlines of “Recovery of US-made M4 carbine shows Pak complicity in Kashmir militancy”.

A TFB reader sent us these photographs of a craft produced 7.62x25mm Tokarev submachine gun from Pakistan. The submachine gun is a select fire, blowback operated, Kalashnikov based derivative most likely originating from the gun making village of Darra Adam Khel from the Pakistani owned, Pashtun dominated province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was confiscated from a local Pakistani resident that didn’t have the necessary permits or registration to possess it and was then photographed.

Recent images have emerged of the Pakistani Special Service Group (SSG), the countries Naval Special Operations component, with New Hampshire based  Sig Sauer, Inc. 5.56x45mm NATO SIG 516PDW carbines with 7.5 inch barrels, along with Steiner DBAL I2 ATPIAL s mounted on the handrails. SSG operators have been seen with both Magpul and STANAG magazines inserted. The images appeared on two recent threads in Pakistan Defense, from July of this year, and from early October as well.

Thanks to d_grey for sharing these pics of some custom guns he came across in Pakistan.

Thanks to disqus member d_grey for sharing these photos.

This is a guest post by Zain from Pakistan

Haris Tareen shared these pics from his trip to Pakistan.

In our final installment of looking at the handmade wonders of the gunmaking village of Darra Adam Khel, we finish it off with an in-depth examination of the Krinkov patterned Kalashnikovs produced in the village. Some of them display an excellent resemblance to the original AKS74Us, however others leave much to be desired. As is shown with the final Krinkov that was very ornately designed in regards to the plastic furniture and the finish on the outside metal, the primary importance of these very short Kalashnikovs is that they serve as a status symbol among Afghans, Pakistanis and numerous other countries in Central Asia and the MENA region. We’ll be covering this, in addition to the actual history behind the name “Krinkov” in a future TFB TV episode, in much detail.

Previously we looked at examples of long guns out of the Pashtun gun-making village of Darra Adam Khel in the FATA region in Pakistan. In this episode, Miles looks at some of the handgun copies that have emerged from the cottage industries there. We compare Makarov and Beretta copies side by side, in addition to an odd Martini Henry contraption that has since been deactivated. Many of these copies are so well made that it would make most small arms enthusiasts think twice about which one is legitimate and which one was handmade. But most of all, the conditions that these are made in are sure to be admired as the gun-makers lack any of the amenities that most firearms manufacturers or even Western gunsmiths possess.

The small arms markets of Darra Adam Khel have made themselves known throughout the world for the immaculate ability of talented Pashtuns to handcraft a large number of small arms and produce almost identical copies of numerous Western designs for over a century. In this episode, we look at a few rifles that were produced in Darra, along with their original Martini-Henry or SMLE originals. In addition, we take a look at a local monstrosity that is an 8mm magazine fed, M1917 Enfield action married with a Kalashnikov outline of a receiver and actual folding AKMS buttstock.

Thanks to a recent leak exclusively to The Firearm Blog, we have now become aware of a new tender for rifles issued by the Pakistani government. According to the tender document, the Pakistani Army is looking for 75,000 “modern 7.62x39mm caliber weapons”, presumably as part of the program to replace their aging fleet of G3 and Type 56 assault rifles. The specifications for the tender are given below:

In a recent announcement, the U.S. Government has released a 7 million dollar award modification notice for Colt Defense’s over 35 million dollar contract to provide M4 and M4A1s in the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. This modification notice specifically mentions the countries of Georgia, Lebanon, Iraq, Slovakia, Pakistan, and Bahrain.This latest modification tacks on another 7 million dollars for the additional countries, specifically mentioning the number of 8,730 M4/M4A1 carbines. The numbers bring this to around $800 per carbine, but we assume the actual cost per rifle is much lower with the extra cost being taken on by other equipment.