How Did an American M4 Rifle End Up With a Jaish Terrorist Killed in J&K? The Weapon Trail Explained

The killing of one of the most-wanted Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district has once again drawn attention to a troubling question: how did a US-madeM4 automatic rifle,

used by the militaries of NATO and western countries, find its way into the hands of a Pakistan-backed terrorist operating in the region?

M4 Recovered from JeM Terrorists

The security forces eliminated a top Pakistani terrorist linked to the JeM in an encounter in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition, including an M4 automatic rifle and steel bullets.The neutralised terrorist was identified as JeM commander Usman alias 'Abu Maviya'. He was one of the most wanted JeM terrorists active in the Udhampur-Kathua belt for the last couple of years after infiltrating into this side from across the border and had escaped several encounters in the past, the latest being on January 7 and 13 in Kahog and Najote forests, respectively.

What Is the M4 Rifle

The M4 carbine is a lightweight, gas-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed and shoulder-fired weapon with a collapsible stock in service since 1994. With over 500,000 units produced since the 1980s, the M4 is available in several variants. It is claimed that the rifle has a cyclic rate of fire of 700-970 rounds per minute and an effective firing range of 500-600 meters.Offering greater manoeuvrability, the rifle has been used in several wars including the Syrian civil war, Iraqi civil war, Yemeni civil war, Colombian conflict, Kosovo war, Iraq and Afghanistan war after 9/11.

M4 carbine rifles were designed and developed in the 1980s and used extensively by NATO, including a variant reportedly in service with several militaries, including Pakistani special forces and the Special Security Unit of the Sindh Police.

The Afghanistan-Pakistan Route

The frequent use of M4 assault rifles by Pakistan-based terrorists is said to be a consequence of the US Army leaving behind arms and ammunition while pulling out from Afghanistan in 2021. Experts suggest that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that has been helping terrorists with sophisticated weapons like M4 carbine rifles to further their "nefarious designs" in Jammu and Kashmir."After the withdrawal of Americans from Afghanistan, they have left a huge stock of arms and ammunition. Though the Americans claim that they destroyed most of it. But I think with canonisation and things of that kind, these weapons have fallen into the hands of the terrorists," defence expert Lt Gen Sanjay Kulkarni was quoted as saying by PTI. Shesh Paul Vaid, former Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, asserted that there was no frequent use of M4 carbine rifles by terrorists in the region during his tenure - December 2016 to September 2018.

"Let me first make it very clear that during my tenure as DGP, I have not come across the use of M4 rifles. They have largely come to notice, being used here in Kashmir, after America left its arms in Afghanistan," Vaid told the agency. He flagged that the use of M4-like sophisticated weapons increase the probability of casualties.

A Pattern, Not an Isolated Case

The recovery of a US-made M4 carbine in the Kathua encounter is not an isolated incident. Over the past two years, Indian security forces have repeatedly recovered M4 rifles from terrorists operating in Jammu and Kashmir, pointing to a troubling and recurring pattern. The Pahalgam attackers, who killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists, at the Baisaran meadow, were armed with M4 carbines. The weapon was later recovered after the terrorists were neutralised during a counter-terror operation, named Operation Mahadev.

The first instance of recovery of the M4 carbine rifle in Jammu and Kashmir was reported on 7th November 2017, when a nephew of Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Masood Azhar, Talha Rasheed Masood, was killed in a gunfight in Pulwama.In 2018, the weapon was recovered by security forces in Kashmir's Pulwama for the second time when Azhar's another nephew Usman Ibrahim was killed.Later on July 11, 2022, one M4 carbine rifle was recovered from an encounter site in the Awantipora area of Pulwama district where Jaish-e-Muhammad commander Kaiser Koka and one another terrorist were neutralised.The M4 carbine was reportedly used in all the major attacks in the Jammu region including the Kathua attack on July 8 in which five soldiers were ambushed to death in 2024. The weapon was also used in the June 9 Reasi attack, in the same year, when terrorists attacked a tourist bus leaving nine people dead and 41 injured. Two weeks later, on June 26, an M4 rifle besides a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the terrorist killed in a gunfight in Doda district.In Poonch attack (2024), in which four soldiers were killed, the People's Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF) terror outfit showed the M4 carbine assault rifles on social media.