ISLAMABAD, March 15: The government has decided to return the licensed weapons which were surrendered by the people voluntarily during arms control campaign throughout the country, an official source said.
It has also been decided that a database of arms dealers and licensed weapons would be prepared by April 30, the source said.
The source said the decision of returning the licensed weapons was made during a top level meeting on law and order. The issue was raised by the Inspector General of Police, NWFP, who said during Arms Control Campaign — which cost millions of rupees — a large number of people who had been holding legal weapons surrendered these due to fear of police raids.
It has been decided that the licensed arms would be returned to the lawful owners after the four provincial governments gave a clearance that there were no more illegal weapons to be recovered, the source said.
The arms control campaign was launched by the government in June 2001 which cost billions of rupees despite economic difficulties. The non-serviceable weapons, recovered during the arms control campaign, were destroyed publicly while the serviceable arms were given to the police force.
The statistics collected from the Ministry of Interior show — from June 21, 2001, to March 12, 2002 — that 141,180 weapons and 848,407 ammunitions were recovered from four provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory during the arms control campaign.
It included, 02 missiles, 03 AA guns, 446 hand grenades, 120 dynamites, 43 rocket launchers, 123 repeaters, 100 Pashposha, 89 mines, 7 gren guns, 124 LMG, 1 ganger machine, 111 daggers/knives, 03 mines, 229 RPG shells, 369 mortar shells, 565 AA Ammo, 11 shotgun shells, 05 anti-personal mines, 18 anti-tank mine, 99 explosive fuses, 22 rocket fuses 107mm, 384 anti-aircraft gun rounds, 407 rocket launcher shells and 18 mines shells.
The statistics show, 2,576 weapons and 2,272 admonitions were recovered during the pre-amnesty period — 88,759 weapons and 200,461 admonitions were recovered during the amnesty period, while 49,845 weapons and 645,674 ammunitions were recovered during post amnesty period.
The statistics further show that no crackdown had been launched by the Islamabad Territory Police during the arms control campaign, while 74 FIRs were registered by the police. Similarly, 17,472 raids were carried out in Punjab, 8,863 in the NWFP, 86 in Balochistan, while no raid was conducted in Sindh, the official source said, adding 18,639 FIRs were registered with the Punjab police, 5,150 FIRs with the Sindh police, 6,570 FIRs with the NWFP police and 139 FIRs with the Balochistan police. 74,533 persons were arrested all over the country while challans were issued against 2,583 accused and 354 were convicted by the courts of law. The 91 persons were acquitted.
The statistics further indicated that 25,311 cases are still pending in different courts of law in the country. The pendency of cases in Punjab was 18,084, in Sindh 3,740, in the NWFP 3,351 while 136 cases were pending in the courts in Balochistan.
The arms control campaign was on the whole unsuccessful and gradually the rate of recovery of illegal weapons dropped, the source said.
It added that in the first phase the licensed weapons of non-prohibited bore would be returned to their lawful owners.
