Gun store
Dara, Tribal Frontier Area, Pakistan
The town of Dara lies in the Tribal Frontier area of Pakistan. It's a haven for drug and gun dealers and smugglers into and out of Afghanistan. There is an entire street of vendors who manufacture imitation guns of every possible type -- from flint-locks to automatics. These guys are shopping for rifles and ammo.
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Karim writes:
Ahhh Dara. Dara is not just about drugs and guns. It was the place to get the latest gadgets and goods from around the world. The first 12 years of my life were in Karachi. My uncle had a had tobacco business in Mardan NWFP. He would spend months on end there. But when ever he came back to the port city, he would always bring us something back from Dara. That used to be our such a treat.
When I was 10, I went on a month long school trip all over Pakistan. I met my uncle in Mardan and asked him to take me to Dara. I can still remember approaching the town and the market and seeing all the guns everywhere. And then my uncle pointed out to me sealed plastic bags on a merchant's table. "Opium" he said.
Thanks for reminding me of Dara!
Ted writes:
I was in Pakistan during the summer of 1961 and visited the village of Dara which was said to have a gun factory. At the time I visited there was indeed a gun factory which claimed to produce 7 rifles and 5 pistols a day. At the time I remember doubting that claim since all the barrels were hand bored and there didn't seem to that many people in the village to do the work.
I did not buy a rifle or pistol but did buy three daggars which I still have today.
I also remember that day while returning to Peshawar that one of our party traded a transistor radio for a burro!.
Felicity Stevens writes:
I visited Dara in 1986, it is one of the most bizarre and fascinating places I have been too. It was in full production churning out weapons for the war in Afghanistan during my visit. There was every kind of weapon that you could imagine for sale, both originals and replicas from the small pen gun to anti aircraft guns. I would have estimated at that time that maybe 80% of the village was involved in churning out weapons at that time, as far as I could see there was no other industry, except a few small places to eat and some shops that sold massive blocks of hashish wholesale, maybe 8 different varieties. There seemed to be plenty of people in Dara buying weapons when I was there, I heard prospective buyers test firing in the air about 3 times per minute and the shop owners would happily hand me a machine gun to test myself.