PESHAWAR, May 21: Private militias in Afghanistan have purchased alarge quantity of discarded weapons from Dara Adamkhel to hoodwink the Karzai government during the disarmament campaign.

Sources said small arms, including AK-47s, had been transported on a large scale from Dara Adamkhel to Afghanistan through unfrequented routes in South and North Waziristan.

Afghan warlords had accumulated a large quantity of junk weapons to hand them over to the government during the disarmament campaign and get benefits in return for their cooperation, said an arms dealer, Khalid Khan Afridi.

The agents of militias were regularly purchasing defective weapons, he said. They transported the weapons via Wana and Miramshah, the sources said. Mohammad Amin, a represents of Camp, a non-government organization working against the proliferation of small arms, said a recent survey had confirmed large-scale weapons smuggling from Dara Adamkhel to Afghanistan.

"I think the purpose of the purchase of these out of order weapons is to secure jobs or get some monetary benefit from donor agencies in Afghanistan after handing those over to the Afghan government," he said.

The main phase of United Nations-backed disarmament, demobilizationand reintegration campaign launched in Kabul on Monday is aimedat decommissioning thousands of former mujahideen and fighters of private militias.

It is seen as vital for bringing stability to the country ahead of the election in September. Afghan agents purchased Kalashnikovs, makarovs, single and double-barrel 12-bore guns and 30-bore pistols, an arms dealer, Asmatullah Khan said.

"The price of a locally-made Kalashnikov is Rs6,000, 38-bore makarov, Rs5,000, 12-bore gun, Rs3,000 to Rs4,500 and 30-bore pistol, Rs5,000. The Afghans are purchasing out of order Kalashnikovs for Rs1,300, Makarovs for Rs1,000, 12-bore guns for Rs1,200and 30-bore pistols for Rs700," he said.

He said the Afghans might be replacing original weapons by discarded ones during public destruction of seized arms in Afghanistan. The purchase of cheap weapons started almost a year ago and is still continuing, he added.