GUJRAT, June 4: Arms trafficking continues in the district despite an official drive to recover illegal weapons. The campaign was launched by DPO Raja Munawar Hussain a couple of weeks ago after the Madina Syedan shootout in which 14 people were killed and 16 injured.

The district police has so far registered more than 400 cases and recovered as many arms by now. It is not the first drive of this kind. A similar exercise was conducted in 2002.

Information gleaned by this correspondent during the last two weeks revealed that the arms' dealers of Gujrat, Lalamusa and Kharian were allegedly supplying sophisticated weapons to their clients, mainly gangsters of Peero Shah, Karrianwala, Bhangranwala, Madina Syedan, Gandhra, Jamalpur Syedan, Moeenuddinpur, Marrarrpur, Rabaspur, Sheikhpur, Gorali, Shadiwal Daraji, Hajiwala, Dhola, Ranian, Seekariali, Topa Adam, Chakori Bheelowal, Dhakranwali villages and to a notorious group of Lalamusa.

Weapons brought from Darra Adam Khel are dumped at secret places by the local dealers. Sources claimed that rifles like AK-47 (kalashnikov), 222-bore, 223-bore, 30-bore pistols, rocket launchers and machine guns are in demand.

The history of old enmities in the district showed that rival groups had used rocket launchers and machine guns during clashes or ambush.

The main route of transportation from Darra to Gujrat is the GT Road. The Customs authorities and other law-enforcement agencies had set up many pickets on the road but surprisingly arms were reaching here.

For preparing licences, the dealers have hired the services of the corrupt officials in the DCO office arms branch and the postal department. After the military takeover in 1999, the government had imposed a ban on the issuance of new arms licences.

However, the government had lifted the ban some months ago on the condition that the new licence seekers must be professionals or holders of national tax number. The sources claimed that the dealers were charging big amount from their clients to get them issued licences in back dates from 1997 to 1998.

According to rules and regulations, the arm dealers can sell ammunition to a licence-holder as per the approved quota and mention the sale in their record. But one can easily purchase ammunition and cartridges from them without showing any licence after paying some extra.