Pakistan is supplying lightweight and high-precision Turkey-made Canik TP9 pistols to terrorist outfits in J&K for “increased accuracy” in attacks on civilians and off-duty security personnel, IGP (Kashmir range) Vijay Kumar said on Wednesday.
The proliferation of these guns, part of combat equipment used by highly modernised armies, was confirmed after security forces seized 15 pistols, 30 magazines, 300 rounds of ammunition and a silencer during a crackdown on overground workers of terrorist outfits following a series of targeted killings in May. Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliate TRF have been behind most of the targeted attacks on Kashmiri Pandits, migrant workers and off-duty security personnel since last year, the IGP said. “The use of Canik pistols by terrorists suggests Pakistan is arranging supply of sophisticated weapons from Turkey and smuggling them into the Valley.
These are easy to carry and convenient to hide while trawling even crowded markets for targets.” Even untrained overground workers are able to use the lightweight pistols with accuracy when targeting someone, Kumar said. In 2021, a total of 42 people, including security personnel, were killed in targeted attacks. This year, there have been 16 such killings so far. Besides being part of armaments of the Turkish military, including that of the country’s special forces, Canik pistols are imported to the US by Century Arms.
Turkey has lately become a safe haven for Kashmiri separatists, especially after the nullification of Article 370 in August 2019 took away J&K’s special status. Deceased Hurriyat patriarch Ali Shah Geelani’s daughter, son-in law and grandchildren have permanently shifted base to Turkey, as have some fugitive separatists wanted in India for their involvement in acts of terror, intelligence officials said.