65 illegal gun factories unearthed in central Bihar this year

Munger, Nov 04 : As many as 65 illegal gun factories have been unearthed in this crime-prone central Bihar district this year and a huge cache of arms, ammunition and gun-making materials recovered from there to the astonishment of senior officials.

''We have conducted more than 50 raids in different parts of this central Bihar district this year and unearthed as many as 65 gun factories,'' Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Nayak told UNI here yesterday.

Referring to the ''enormity'' of their success, Mr Nayak said more than 250 weapons of different types, including assault rifles, double barrel guns, revolvers, one shotters and other countrymade firearms, along with a huge quantiry of gun-making materials and thousands of live cartriges, were recovered from these unlicensed factories.

Describing the seizure as ''only the tip of the iceberg'', the SP said in view of the seriousness of the matter they had decided to continue similar raids in various other places on the basis of ''reliable tip-offs'' from different sources.

Agreeing that the recent arrest of a Bihari youth in New Delhi with a large number of sophisticated weapons, destined to be delivered to local criminals, had revealed the enormity of the undeground trade, besides drawing national attention, Mr Nayak claimed that had they not conducted continuous raids and made huge seizures within the state, the problem would have been aggravated.

He felt that more and more people were being attracted to the trade of arms manufacturing and arms dealing because of its high profitability margin.

''The criminals have no dearth of money and they are ready to acquire such sophisitcated weapons at any cost,'' he said and stressed the need for stringent measures to tackle the menace.

Claiming to be able to ''crush the backbone'' of unlicensed arms trade once and for all in Munger district by next year with government support, Mr Nayak urged the common people to come forward with specific information to the police about the existence of such gun factories.

Rampant corruption at all levels and largescale unemployment even among the educated youths were the prime reasons for thriving of the illegal trade, Mr Nayak felt and underscored the need for launching awarness campaigns about the danger associated with the illegal trade at all levels.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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