Pakistanis stock up on guns

LAHORE, Pakistan

When Abid Noor bids farewell to his wife before leaving for work each morning, he runs a mental check to see whether he has remembered everything - his briefcase, his watch, the lunch his wife has packed and a loaded AK-47.

The AK-47, or Kalashnikov as it is commonly called in Pakistan, is a recent addition.

“I only began carrying it two to three months ago and now I don’t leave home without it,” said Mr. Noor, 40, who works at the government’s planning and development department in the northwest city of Peshawar.

Mr. Noor said he decided to travel armed after a friend, Muhammed Javed Afridi, was kidnapped by five masked men carrying AK-47s, while driving home.

Another friend “was working as principal of a school in Jamrud, and for no apparent reason he was shot dead one day as he was returning from work.”

“I think the police are doing the best they can but it’s not enough,” he said. “I need to try and save myself also.”

It’s hard to quantify the exact numbers of Pakistanis carrying arms. Some estimates put the number of small arms in the nation of 172 million at more than 20 million, most of them unlicensed.

The United States has a far larger number of weapons per capita - 210 million privately owned firearms in a nation of 300 million, according to National Rifle Association, but these are licensed.

The North West Frontier Province, a haven for insurgents with a population of about 2 million, is thought to have more than a half-million illegal small arms and light weapons.

For years, guns have been signs of prestige for young men in Pakistan, especially in the rugged tribal regions and in the Punjab, where hunting is popular.

In Peshawar and surrounding areas, guns are routinely fired into the air to show respect and at weddings to symbolize celebration. When President Asif Ali Zardari made a recent visit to the port city of Karachi, guns were fired into the air to welcome him.

But for young, middle-class professionals such as Mr. Noor, gun ownership is a recent phenomenon.

“People are picking up guns because they feel there is no law and order in the country,” said Islamabad-based defense analyst Ayesha Siddiqa. “The writ of the state is very weak and the police don’t have the ability to protect its citizens. As a result, security has become privatized.”

Mr. Afridi, 35, a reporter for a national newspaper, used to wave at the police on his way home from his office, where he frequently works late. Then he was kidnapped, blindfolded and taken to a house where he was chained to a bed for 25 days.

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