Report from Darra

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The town of Darra Adam Khel, more commonly known by its shortened name Darra, is part of Pakistan’s so-called tribal areas. They include territories bordering Afghanistan in which the Pakistani government has granted autonomy to the tribes, who thus manage administration and access to their territory. The Pakistani government considers them to be troubled regions. So, depending on the tribe, a tourist must obtain a permit issued by the internal affairs agency, in which the various tribes have an office or a representative. Finally, depending on the tribal area, a foreigner may or may not be assigned a gunman, who will act both as a guide and as a sort of bodyguard responsible for his safety.

Excerpt from a travel diary:

So, accompanied by our indispensable Gun Man, whose age doesn’t seem to me to exceed twenty, small in stature, dressed in his shalwar kamiz, wearing a supple black beret and of course equipped with his indispensable rifle, looking rather like a fine toy, we climb into a minibus which quickly leaves the district. We left Peshawar to the south, and after a good hour’s drive on this sunny day, we finally arrived in Darra, a very dry, even arid region. The vehicle then stops at the main street of the small village, which turns out to be a world I’ve never seen before, as its originality is truly unsuspected. Having disembarked from the vehicle, I enter the small village, or rather hamlet to be precise. All along the main dirt road, just wide enough to allow a vehicle to pass, I discover a multitude of stalls where arms manufacturers and merchants are busy! So, in the first stall, I can see a teenager using his milling machine, an imposing machine 2 meters long and high, to machine one of the components of a weapon, then continuing on my way, in the next stall, a craftsman in his thirties this time, using his wood chisel, is shaping the stock of a rifle, there crouched on the ground. Turning around, behind me, in another stall, another craftsman is visibly fine-tuning what seems to me to be, no more and no less, a machine gun, about 12.7mm calibre (according to the memory of my military service), mounted on its tripod! And, without stopping, in the next stall, on the ground, here in wicker baskets and metal boxes are all the components needed to make cartridges of different calibers, i.e.: powder and different sizes of casings and bullets. So, from surprise to surprise, my curiosity is punctuated by the sound of gunshots; the intensity and frequency of these correspond in fact to the calibers of the different weapons used: a pistol shot doesn’t have the same sound as a rifle shot, and the crackle of a machine gun doesn’t have the same frequency as a single rifle shot…. And then, like any good merchant, a salesman notices my curiosity and, for a few rupees, offers me the chance to shoot the weapon of my choice: pistol, rifle, assault rifle or machine gun, not far from his store, in a shooting range in the small village… In Darra, everything is on offer and seems possible when it comes to weapons. Finally, one last stall particularly catches my eye: on various display stands, almost every type of weapon produced in this truly incredible place is on show; from copies of the famous Russian Kalashnikov AK 47 rifle, or its Chinese equivalent with its beautiful red stock, to various models of pistol, not forgetting of course, bullets of all calibers presented in their box or in cleverly decorated cartridge belts, available at will. Navigating from one shop to the next, I ask the craftsmen if I can take a photo of them. Most of them let me, but I’m aware that not everyone is happy about it, even though the spirit of the place is rather good-natured. Astonishing!