In accordance with the Yogi Adityanath government’s zero tolerance policy against crimes and criminals, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorists Squad in a joint operation with Azamgarh police on Friday busted an inter-state gang of illegal arms smugglers and arrested two of its members.
A huge quantity of manufactured, semi-manufactured illegal weapons as well as cartridges and empty cartridges, semi-made pen-guns and materials for producing weapons were recovered from them.
It is noteworthy that there has been a considerable drop in crime and criminal activity in the state as a result of the UP Police's ongoing operations against criminals.
Furnishing details of the operation, the UP ATS said it had gathered information that two people from Azamgarh district along with their other associates were engaged in the manufacturing and smuggling of illicit firearms.
According to the ATS, further inputs were gathered through electronic and physical surveillance. It was discovered that Aftab Alam, son of Firoz Alam, a resident of Falahnagar in the Bilariyaganj police station area of Azamgarh, and Mainuddin Sheikh, son of Sammu Ahmed and resident of Patila Gauspur village in the same district, were involved in the production of illegal weapons, acquisition of cartridges from gun house, and illegal sale and smuggling of arms and ammunition. Subsequently the UP ATS took joint action with Azamgarh Police and arrested both of them.
Aftab Alam has been involved in illicit arms production and smuggling for the past several years, according to the disclosures made by him during interrogation. He has previously served two jail terms. The illegal weapons, cartridges, and other supplies were smuggled by Mainuddin Sheikh.
Mainuddin Shaikh used to smuggle illegal arms and cartridges from gun houses in Azamgarh for a long time and he had also set up a factory to manufacture arms on his agricultural land in Ibrahimpur village near Kudhhi Dhala in Devara area of Azamgarh. Due to the flood, he was currently running this factory from his house.
During interrogation it was also revealed that the weapons manufactured in the factory were smuggled to different areas of Purvanchal through Aftab Alam and the owner of Qazi Gun House at Asifganj Pandey Bazar Road in Azamgarh, Syed Qazi Arshad. Both of them used to get the cartridges illegally from the gun house and supply them as per the demand. It has also been learnt that the accused has connections with Nepal, Pakistan, and Dubai.
A case was registered against Aftab Alam and Mainuddin Sheikh at Bilariaganj police station of Azamgarh district after the recovery of a large quantity of manufactured, semi-manufactured illegal arms, cartridges, empty shells, semi-made pen guns (state-of-the-art), weapons making items and mobiles.
The ATS recovered one 9 mm and one .22 mm pistol, a DBBL gun, a SBBL gun, 8 air guns, two 12 bore guns, one gun of .32 bore, two semi-made pen guns, one semi-finished pistol with magazine, four semi-finished carbine barrels, two semi-finished revolvers, two semi-finished shotguns, three magazines of 9 mm, one magazine of .22 mm, one pistol magazine, 10 live cartridges of 9 mm, 51 live cartridges of 12 bore, 323 fired cartridge shells of 12 bore, one fired cartridge shell of .315 bore, 6 live cartridges of .22 bore, three fired cartridges of .32 bore, 51 air gun pellets in an iron box, 54 air gun pellets in a paper box, two telescopes of rifles, three gun butts, 13 gun barrels, seven gun barrels short cord, four gun rear with side alignment, part of one DBBL gun, one pistol slider with fist, one headlamp, one drill machine, one gun licence (in the name of Mainuddin's deceased father), two bank cheque books, one debit card, voter ID and PAN cards and visiting card of different gun houses among others things.