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American Morning

Weapons Abound in Pakistan Despite Heavy Penalties

Aired November 01, 2001 - 09:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Pakistan may be on the front line in the U.S. war on terrorism, going across its border in Afghanistan, but for Pakistanis themselves, there is another fight closer to home. Our Carol Lin has that story, live from Quetta. Carol?

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula, to you in New York. Yes, the fight is to control the flow of guns which feeds the terrorism in the region. Now, it is -- I heard a great analogy the other day, that the first sound that a Pashtun baby hears is the sound of gunfire, it is no surprise that there are a lot of guns in Central Asia.

But the Pakistani government, about a year and a half ago, took the unprecedented step of cracking down on its citizens, banning all licenses for guns, banning all weapons of any kind. Asking the citizens to turn their guns in. Well, this was under pressure from the international community, as well as the United States. So we decided to take a look at how much influence the Pakistani government does really have over its people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: It's pretty clear in the frontier town of Quetta that the average family's idea of home protection means more than just a handgun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got Russian Kalashnikovs, then you've got Chinese Kalashnikovs, and you've got local-made Kalashnikovs, which are obviously not as good as the original Chinese ones.

LIN: When Pakistan outlawed high powered weapons and demanded citizens turn in their guns, no one seemed surprised when doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers showed up with an arsenal powerful enough to outfit an army. Police showed us just a fraction of the automatic rifles, the rocket launchers, and the hand grenades that people turned in to the government in the last year. Today, possessing an automatic gun could get you life in prison. But this is Pakistan's Wild West, where a man is measured by the size of his weapon, and guns are still easy to get.

(on camera): What's that?

(voice-over): In downtown Quetta, gun dealer Haji Qasim says he only sells low-caliber hunting rifles, which are still legal for sportsmen with a government license, but as he showed us what's in stock, our translator overheard the store clerk assuring two men he could help them get automatic weapons, but to come back when the TV camera was gone.

How do people get banned weapons? The deals are easily made after dark. It only took a couple of hours for a gun dealer's salesman to meet us. After a drive through town and up a dirt road, we ended up in a vacant lot, where he pulled out a .9 millimeter automatic handgun -- ours for 100 bucks.

(on camera): Not licensed. Untraceable.

(voice-over): For another 100, he says he could get a Kalashnikov rifle. We said no. But plenty of people stay well armed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we have a gun, we feel very protected.

LIN: Storekeepers still quietly stash their weapons. We're told the dry cleaner on this street owns a kalashnikov. Pakistan's government says it still confiscates 150 illegal guns every day, but authorities admit, for every weapon collected, they have no idea how many citizens are still heavily armed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

So while the government does try to crackdown on the weapons problem here in Pakistan, the fact of the matter is that Pakistani police only have authority over 5 percent of the territory in this country. Paula, 95 percent of the area is controlled still by tribal chiefs who operate according to ancient traditions.

ZAHN: So even the threat of this prison sentence isn't enough to get people to give up their arms?

LIN: No. Paula, it is, really interesting how far back these traditions go. And, as the locals tell me, for a man, a gun, even something like rocket launcher, even something like a weapon like a hand grenade is considered as common as a wearing a wrist watch or a buying a new pair of shoes. It's simply part of them. They almost consider like a household appliance. Those are the words that somebody used yesterday with me.

ZAHN: Wow. Carol Lin, thanks so much. I thought the other thing that Carol said that's going to linger with me is the sound, you know, the Pashtun babies, the first sound they hear is the sound of gunfire.

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