Over the past four years, security forces seized 40,174 illegal weapons across India.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), 4148 of those illegal weapons were in the North Eastern region.
These details come from a Ministry of Home Affairs report showing date from 2012 to June 2015.
Approximately 11,000 weapons were seized in each of the four years.
Over the four years the number of weapons seized in each state were:
Illegal Weapons. Photo: Hemanta Kumar Nath
- Uttar Pradesh 19,214
- Bihar 2,449
- West Bengal 2,311
- Jammu & Kashmir 2,026
- Assam 1,705
- Manipur 1,249
- Nagaland 565
- Meghalaya 388
- Mizoram 149
- Arunachal Pradesh 23
- Tripura 69
Assam police say the state has become a ‘Transit Route’ for the illegal weapons trade, with 4148 arms seized in the NE region in the past four years. Assam police say most of those illegal weapons originate in South-East Asia and arrive in India through Myanmar. Militant groups then send the illegal weapons to other parts of the country via their agents
“Several militant groups of North eastern region including NSCN(K), ULFA(I), PLA, GNLA are involved in the illegal weapons trade. Not only outfit groups, few anti-social groups also involved in the illegal trade,” a top Assam police official said.
“The outfit groups had sent illegal weapons to the other parts of the country from this region via their agents,” the top police official said.
“In 2012, 525 illegal weapons were seized in Assam, while 542 in 2013, 451 in 2014 and 187 illegal weapons seized upto the month June in this year,” the MHA report said.
“In 2012, a total of 11,433 illegal weapons were seized across the country, while 11,720 in 2013, 11,974 in 2014 and 5047 illegal firearms seized upto June, 2015,” MHA report.
Of the38,333 persons arrested across India, 1,321 of those arrested were in Assam, 1,174 in Manipur, 555 in Nagaland, 360 in Meghalaya, 72 in Mizoram, 13 in Arunachal Pradesh and 35 in Tripura.
