Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: Tougher arms licence rules in Punjab are spawning an illegal weapons industry in the state. A country-made pistol can cost you as little as Rs 2,500 while a high-end model would come for Rs 1.50 lakh. Police sources say these illegal weapons are coming in from UP and MP.
Police sources say most arms licences in the state are issued in Amritsar, Taran Taran, Bathinda, Muktsar, Sangrur, Hoshiarpur and Ferozepur. On May 30, the Ludhiana police arrested a teenager with an illegal pistol that was manufactured in Saharanpur in UP. The police say out of the 10 firing incidents reported last month from Ludhiana, illegal weapons from UP and MP were used in half-a-dozen incidents. These weapons are used in carjacking, street fights, robberies and gang wars.
Police sources said an illegal country-made pistol is available for anything between Rs 2,500 and Rs 15,000. A high-end semi-automatic pistol costs around Rs 50,000. “These pistols are smuggled in from Madhya Pradesh with a price tag between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000 apiece. These are sold to gangsters for upwards of Rs 50,000.
Some arms dealers in the state are allegedly selling good-quality bullets in the open market. The illegal weapons are hard to trace after the crime is committed as there is no record of the owner, sources said.In two years, the Punjab Police have busted three MP-based illegal weapon modules. In one case, Baljit Singh alias Sweety Singh was arrested for his involvement in manufacturing and supply of high-quality illicit weapons to Punjab and other states of north India.
Earlier too, the state police had unearthed two such modules from MP. In 2020, the Anti-Terrorism Squad of UP Police had arrested one arms supplier, Ashish Singh of Meerut for allegedly supplying illegal weapons to the proscribed Khalistan Liberation Force.
Attractive arms hub
Punjab Police have seized 1,349 illegal weapons between 2018 and 2020. In many cases, arms dealers from across the country were coming to the state to get illegally imported firearms.
