Pakistan sold weapons to Ukraine: BBC claims

• US companies signed contracts with Pakistan to buy weapons.
• "These contracts were specifically for 155mm shells," BBC report.
• BBC claims a plane took same route to reach near Ukraine 5 times.

LONDON: Documents, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) claims to be in possession of, purportedly show Pakistan has sold arms to Ukraine, despite Islamabad's consistent denial, reported The News on Tuesday.

The BBC Urdu, in its recent report, stated that former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, on August 12, 2022, addressed the passing-out parade of the British Royal Military Academy. 

As the now-retired military chief witnessed the relations between both countries reach “historic heights”, a British military cargo plane made a landing at the Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan in Rawalpindi. The plane, as stated in BBC's report, landed at the same base a total of five times.

According to the report, the plane's journey was noted to have flown on the same route — from Nur Khan Airbase to the British military base in Cyprus, Akrotiri, and thence to Romania. This happened during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a country neighbouring Romania.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied the presence of Pakistani weapons in Ukraine, and its Foreign Office has maintained that Pakistan is completely neutral in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The report says, “Documents in the possession of the BBC show that in August 2022, Pakistan entered into arms sales contracts worth $364 million with two private US military companies under which Pakistan sold 155mm shells to these companies.”

The report says, according to a BBC investigation , the American companies named "Global Military" and "Northrop Grumman" signed two contracts with Pakistan for the purchase of 155mm shells.

“This is evident from the details of the contracts obtained from the Federal Procurement Data System of the United States that these weapons (155mm shells) were bought from Pakistan while both agreements were signed on August 17, 2022, expiring in October this year.

These contracts were specifically for 155mm shells. A $232 million contract was awarded to Global Military and $131 million to Northrop Grumman.”