Communicating Arts - Main Web SiteIf ever there is a "Mil-Travel" trade, something to balance out "ecotourism", this place stands to make a fortune: Darra Adamkhel, Pakistan (be careful of the article dates--the location has been taking a pounding for the past 20 days):
"These militants are the permanent customers of the weapons factories," said Dilawar Wazir, a political analyst in the tribal area known as North Waziristan. "About 40 percent of their light arms and explosives used to make bombs come from these factories." Source: Rahmanullah, Chronicle Foreign Service. "Pakistan's illicit arms trade thrives." San Francisco Chronicle, November 16, 2007: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/16/MNG4S3PBU.DTL&feed=rss.news.
"The arms dealers in Darra Adamkhel told Dawn that the local market had witnessed an unprecedented surge in the prices of automatic assault rifles and its ammunitions in the last couple of months." Source: Ali, Zulfiqar. "Peshawar: Kalashnikov prices shoot up." Dawn, The Internet Edition, February 10, 2007: http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/10/local33.htm.
"Currently about 60 factories are operating in Darra Adamkhel, with 300 small enterprises and 400 dealers. The industry provides direct employment to 6000 people while in all, 10,000 are dependent on the manufacturing and sale of arms in this tribal territory." Source: Jan, Abdullah. "Darra Adamkhel: Asia's biggest illegal arms industry." Military Photos.Net, November 29, 2005: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-63582.html.
It should go without say, Darra Adamkhel has been taking some heat from Pakistan's Defense Forces.
Brig. (r) Junaid Zaman writing through his blog, The Pakistani Spectator, notes, "Only local population could provide actionable intelligence to mitigate the militants and only they could alienate the Taliban in the area. If the operation starts and undergoes without taking the locals of area in confidence then it would be another half-completed, half-failed operation like in Bajour, Swat and other areas of FATA and Balochistan" (August 31, 2008: http://www.pakspectator.com/darra-adamkhel-operation/).
One may glean from other, more recent news (A Pakistan News, "Security Forces Operation Continue in Darra Adamkhel," September 13, 2008: http://www.apakistannews.com/security-forces-operation-continue-in-darra-adamkhel-81172) that the operation Zaman noted had been going on 17 days three days ago, or 20 days today.
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