PESHAWAR, Nov 13: Pakistan has at least six million mines stockpiled, says the Landmine Monitor Report, 2007.

The country has been a major exporter of landmines in the past and one of the few countries still producing anti-personnel mines, the report says.

However, Raza Shah Khan, chief of the Sustainable Peace and Development Organisation (Spado), said at the launch of the annual report here on Tuesday that there was no official information available about the size of the anti-personnel mine stockpile.

Pakistan reported in 2005 and 2006 that the army “destroys a large number of outdated mines every year” but “information about the quantity or type of mines destroyed has not been made available,” the report says.

The report was launched by Spado and the Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (Camp) at the Peshawar Press Club.

In Balochistan and Waziristan, non-state armed groups continue to use anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against the armed forces and state administration agencies, it says.

The authorities acknowledge that some landmines continue to find its way into Pakistan from Afghanistan. Baloch tribal elders maintain that landmines are smuggled from clandestine sources in Afghanistan to Waziristan and then to some districts in Balochistan.

Pakistan has repeatedly affirmed that it ‘faces no problem of un-cleared mines’ and it has also stated that ‘mines have never caused humanitarian concerns in Pakistan’.

However, inhabitants of Azad Kashmir say that some areas along the Line of Control are still contaminated and have not been properly fenced by the authorities of either Pakistan or India, the report says.