Cheers!
Abhijeet
UP poll: Boom time for illegal gun makers
Haider A. Naqvi & Bhupendra Pandey
Kanpur/Lucknow, March 2
Hindustan Times - Lucknow edition
It's a busy time for the illegal gun manufacturers in the hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Across both states, makers of small firearms are upgrading machinery and hiring more staff to meet a spurt in demand for cheap weapons from politicians and criminals before the UP assembly election, scheduled to start from April 7.
"We are always flooded with orders," said Sughar Singh Rajput, who has been making handguns for 30 years in Unnao, near Kanpur. "Elections keep happening. Just two years ago, there were panchayat elections, last year we had elections for civic bodies and now we have the assembly poll."
In Lucknow, guns and gangsters have found refuge in the official flats of state MLAs. The police have sent a report to the head of the state police about the flow of arms into the capital, said a senior police officer.
In both UP and Bihar, firearm makers said they had set up shop in remote rural areas because these are less policed and land is cheap. In UP, factories are located in Mainpuri, Moradabad and Unnao districts, while in Bihar these are located in Munger, Saharsa and Madhubani. In October last year, the police raided 35 illegal arms factories in Sitapur, north of Lucknow, during the panchayat elections. "The arms makers were originally masons. Now they churn out handguns," said a police officer involved in the raids.
For people like Wali Mohammad of Mainpuri, gun making is a traditional occupation. Elections are a bonanza and guns are supplied through middlemen who charge a commission of 10 to 20 per cent.
It doesn't take much skill or money to manufacture low-end weapons: a small shed, a hammer, chisel, pliers, coal forge and screw drivers as tools, and a metallic pipe, spring, wood and some nails as raw materials. Higher-end weapons require lathe machines, electric drills and a moulding unit.
In Panhai village in Fatehpur, central UP, the steel-bodied katta is in demand by criminals in North India. In Hasanpur in Unnao, Lallan is hard at work making a 'chakri' - a six-shot revolver that takes up to three days to make. "I am producing three or four pieces a day and have had to hire six more men," he says.
It's easy to see why these country-made weapons are so popular. A basic katta costs Rs 300 (in UP the cheapest ones come from Auraiyya and Etah), but these are liable to explode. Steel-barrelled kattas are preferred and prices start at Rs 1,600, says a police officer (see box).
Pakistani guns produced in Darra Adam Khel, a settlement in the North West Frontier Province, have also become popular. A pistol with six rounds costs Rs 5,000. These guns are transported through state-run buses all over the state.
"These days, we are selling up to 10 pieces a week," says a dealer from Chamangunj who introduced Pakistani arms to Kanpur. "Usually, we sell only two or three handguns a week."
Violence is common in Uttar Pradesh elections. Politicians and their henchmen often try to intimidate people to vote one way or the other, and also target opponents.
Goons in Bihar must be pretty cheap.Nice to see that the rates are so reasonable there.
