ISLAMABAD, July 13: Weapons smuggled to Balochistan from Afghanistan via the tough terrain of Koh-i-Sulaiman were delivered in fruit crates to Lal Masjid. Two arms merchants based in the Rajanpur and Faazilpur areas of southern Punjab had nexus with arms dealers on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border and they started supplying arms to the mosque-seminary complex more than two years ago, well-placed security sources told Dawn on Friday.

The arms were smuggled to Sabzi Mandi in Islamabad in trucks carrying fruits and vegetables. The arms, mostly AK-47 rifles or Kalashnikov and automatic pistols, were delivered to the complex in crates.

The process had taken months, the sources said. And security agencies knew at least a year ago about the stockpiling of arms inside the mosque but could not take any action, they said.

It could not be confirmed from the sources whether heavy weapons like rocket launchers which the government showed to media people during their post-operation visit to the mosque on Thursday, had also been provided by the same arms dealers or if such arms had been procured by the mosque administration at all.

The sources believed that two arms dealers from Rajanpur — Ghulam Qadir and Farooq Usmani — had developed links with the Lal Masjid administration after the US attack on Afghanistan in 2001. They said they also had information about the mosque administration’s links with another well-known arms smuggler from Balochistan, Alla Lashari.

The mosque administration had enough resources to purchase such weapons, they said.

The sources said it was not known if the Rajanpur-based arms smugglers had any soft corner for the militants, but they were certainly against peace efforts in the neighbouring Afghanistan – a haven for arms and drug smugglers.

The sources said the Koh-i-Sulaiman route had fast replaced traditional routes of arms smuggling into tribal areas, apparently because of lower transportation charges and being relatively safe. They said weapons were normally smuggled on mules and camels to Balochistan at considerably low cost. The weapons were later smuggled to Punjab and Sindh, they said.

They said a Kalashnikov cost from Rs20,000 to Rs35,000, which included transportation charges. A pistol cost Rs5,000 to Rs7,000.

During the Afghan war and the Taliban reign, Peshawar was the main centre of weapons trade, but smuggling was more concentrated in the tribal areas.