KARACHI: Sindh police to destroy illegal arms next month
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, Dec 30: The Sindh police will destroy thousands of those illegal weapons in the second week of the next month which had either been submitted voluntarily during the arms recovery campaign or seized in raids by the police.
According to the official statistics, the police seized 9,482 illegal weapons in all over the province and arrested 3,891 suspects for keeping illegal weapons in their possession from June 21 to Dec 21.
The figures show that 1,661 weapons of various kinds were deposited voluntarily by people at different police stations during the weapon recovery campaign in the province from June 1 to June 20. People voluntarily deposited 653 illegal weapons in Karachi, 116 in Hyderabad, 73 in Mirpurkhas, 713 in Sukkur and 106 in Larkana.
The police seized 701 illegal weapons during raids from June 1 to June 20 this year in the province and arrested 396 suspects. They recovered 234 weapons in Karachi, 182 weapons in Hyderabad, 132 in Mirpurkhas, 128 in Sukkur and 23 in Larkana. They arrested 126 people in Karachi, 131 in Mirpurkhas, 116 in Sukkur and 23 in Larkana. The Hyderabad police failed to arrest any of the suspects for keeping illegal weapon and they seized all of the illegal weapons as abandoned.
Besides, the police recovered 7,120 illegal weapons during June 21 and Dec 21 this year and arrested 3,495 suspects for keeping illegal weapons in the province. The Karachi police seized 2,029 illegal weapons, Hyderabad 1,220, Mirpurkhas 298, Sukkur 1,230, and Larkana 2,343. The police also arrested 1,403 suspects in Karachi, 464 in Hyderabad, 220 in Mirpurkhas, 502 in Sukkur and 902 in Larkana.
The provincial police chief, Syed Kamal Shah, said the destruction of illegal weapons had earlier been scheduled in the first week of January but the schedule had been changed and now it would take place probably in the second week of the next month at a ceremony where the Sindh governor would be chief guest.
He said different methods were being considered to destroy the illegal weapons which included the use of roadroller or electric saw. It was also being considered that the weapons could be melted in the furnace. He said the destruction of the weapons would take place in a public place and if a suitable place was not available, then it would be held at the district headquarters South.
The figures show that the police have chalked out the plan for the destruction of 7,211 illegal weapons out of the total recovery of 9,482 weapons. The police statistics do not elaborate on the fate of the remaining 2,271 illegal weapons as they were still kept with the respective police stations or had been deposited with the provincial Malkhana, located on the premises of the city courts.
Official sources in the Malkhana had said all recovered goods, including arms and ammunition in Karachi, were deposited at the Malkhana by the police stations concerned. They said that the illegal arms and ammunition were also deposited at the Malkhana from all over the province.
The sources said illegal weapons remained with the Malkhana till the disposal of their respective cases and thereafter they were submitted to the Fire Arms Bureau (FAB), situated at the south police lines near the zoological garden.
The official sources said that the unclaimed arms and ammunition seized by the police were not submitted to the Malkhana and they were directly sent to the FAB.
FAB sources denied the version of Malkhana officials, saying that no illegal weapon, even unclaimed ones, was submitted directly by the police. They said they had to write a letter to the districts of the province to submit their arms and ammunition.
The sources close to the police said there was no proper procedure of submitting the unclaimed weapons which were seized by the police and the law-enforcement agencies. The seizure of weapons was, in fact, on the record but their disposal was not properly maintained which created the doubts of misappropriation.
Under the Sindh Disposal of Arms Rule 1999 it was obligatory upon the (defunct) district magistrates (DMs/DCs) to inspect district Malkhanas and arms bureaus at least once in three months apart from SDMs’ inspection once a month. Since the district magisterial system had ceased to exist, no inspection of Malkhana had been carried out, the sources claimed.
According to rules, annual audit of the deposits in the Malkhana is mandatory, but the sources claimed that audit had never been conducted since its establishment. If a thorough checking was made, dissimilarity would come to light between the seizure of unclaimed and illegal arms and of those submitted in the Malkhana, the sources further claimed.
During the first quarter of the year 2000, the District Magistrate South had conducted a survey. In his report submitted to the provincial government, he stated that due to non- availability of the record, he failed to carry out the proper inspection to ascertain the quantity of weapons stored at the Malkhana on the premises of the city courts.
