The Gun Markets of Pakistan

[GUNFIRE] SUROOSH ALVI: We're here in Lahore, Pakistan, in the old city. I'm here visiting family. It's been about three years since I was in the country. And in that time, the country has gone through insane amounts of change-- truly full of deep contradictions. On the one hand, you've got this progressive side of the population. They're organizing fashion weeks. They're partying. And you've got this liberal media explosion happening in this country. And they're operating uncensored by the government. On the other side, you got the Taliban. They've been infiltrating the entire country, attacking police stations and government buildings in a recent wave of violence. It's now escalated into a full-fledged battle with the Pakistani Army fighting the Taliban in the tribal areas near the Afghan border. We travelled to this area three years ago when we wanted to visit a massive illegal arms market believed to be a source of weapons for the Taliban. It's been called the most dangerous place in the world and is now basically closed outside of the journalists. So I asked my mom to call her buddy. He is the chief secretary of the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. With his help, we got our own private militia. And they made sure we wouldn't get kidnapped or killed. SUROOSH ALVI: Naeem, who is our host, is part of the Afridi tribe. He is born and raised there, now works as a protocol officer for the government. He put them together for us. He got us through, dealt with a huge amount of bureaucracy, and got the militia to cover us as we went through the market. Is this loaded? NAEEM AFRIDI: Yes, this is loaded, but they're locked. SUROOSH ALVI: They locked it. Where's the lock? SUROOSH ALVI: It's the most historic pass in the history of the world. The Aryans came through. The Mongols came through. The British Army came through and got destroyed-- special place. SUROOSH ALVI: Thanks, buddy. [PARADE MUSIC] SUROOSH ALVI: He's the founder of the *** trade. SUROOSH ALVI: The concept? SUROOSH ALVI: Of what? SUROOSH ALVI: It's a very special Italian hat. NAEEM AFRIDI: I will try my best to-- SUROOSH ALVI: Oh god. No. After Khyber, we went into Darra. That's where the arms market is. So when you were explaining to the officials what we wanted to do, the old man started laughing when you said we wanted to shoot guns and maybe buy some guns. I think he liked that idea. SUROOSH ALVI: He liked that idea. SUROOSH ALVI: He was laughed. SUROOSH ALVI: This is definitely the largest illegal arms market in the world. There is another one in Pakistan. It's not quite as big. And the story is that during the '80s, the Soviet-Afghan war was happening. All the scrap metal from all the broken-down tanks and guns they would find, they would bring it back over and then replicate the firearms. SUROOSH ALVI: So in the whole town, they're making 1,000 guns a day here. And they've been doing that for 70 years. That's a lot of guns. So this guy is making 9-millimeter pistols with his bare hands. The guy who's making it is deaf. It's a Mauser but says "Made as China by Norinco." [GRUNTING] SUROOSH ALVI: This is the cartridge. He has no tongue. 3,050 rupees? We're hearing lots of guns being shot around us. And they're just checking to make sure that the guns work. They're doing it with live ammo. What I'm wondering is, they shoot it up in the air, where do the bullets fall? SUROOSH ALVI: It's time we go gun shopping. This is an Italian machine. This is like a Kalashnikov? MALE SPEAKER: Kalakov. SUROOSH ALVI: Kalakov. It says it's a Muzzelite. I think we can do some damage with this. The original Khyber rifle-- so in 1857, the British gave the Afghanis 10,000 of these. I don't even know how to *** this thing. Where do you put the bullet in? [INTERPOSING VOICES] SUROOSH ALVI: The musket? The musket is where you put it in. MALE SPEAKER: Nazi gun. German. SUROOSH ALVI: Germany. World War II, Nazi gun-- pure evil in my hand. MALE SPEAKER: Suroosh, now we are going into the shooting area. Yes? Let's go. SUROOSH ALVI: Bullet. So we were wondering, were they following me? MALE SPEAKER: They're not going far from us. SUROOSH ALVI: If not, I'm going to keep it. NAEEM AFRIDI: Yes, keep it. SUROOSH ALVI: You got to be kidding. This is the shooting area? We just had lunch downstairs. NAEEM AFRIDI: Yes. SUROOSH ALVI: All right. Let's do this. I'm shooting the enemies in the hills. I've never done this before. It's a Kalashnikov. And we're kind of nervous. I see my target. [GUNFIRE] EDDY MORETTI: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [GUNFIRE] SUROOSH ALVI: America thought that by sending in troops to Afghanistan and the Pakistani Army into the tribal areas, they'd to be able to squash the Taliban uprising. They were wrong. The people we saw live in caves. They work in insane conditions. They have no tongues. They make guns with their bare hands. We're done. We succeeded our mission. We came to Darra. And we bought guns. We shot them. We saw how it all happens. If you come here, you got to make sure you look the part. And you've got to have a guy like Naeem to make it all happen. SUROOSH ALVI: And one last thing-- NAEEM AFRIDI: Goodbye to the gun. SUROOSH ALVI: --Pakistan Zindabad. Three years ago, when we filmed in Darra, after we left, the government basically shut it down. They shut it down to outsiders and journalists because the Pakistani Army was in there fighting the Taliban. And right now, between the Pakistani Army and the US troops on the border, the Taliban inside the tribal areas, it's essentially a powder keg that's ready to blow. The military expert that we know, he described the situation as the wickedest problem you could possibly imagine. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE].