NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday admitted in Parliament that illegal arms are being smuggled into the country from foreign countries, including Japan, Pakistan, China and Czechoslovakia. MoS Home Affairs, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said a total 5,047 illegal arms were seized in the last six months and 6,503 persons linked to arms smuggling were arrested by the law enforcement agencies.
In some cases the seized arms carried markings indicating that the arms had been made in foreign countries. “ These markings often contain the names of countries like Pakistan, China, the US, Italy, Japan, France, England, Czechoslovakia etc,” Chaudhary said.
The maximum number of illegal arms-- 4531-- seized this year were from UP followed by 402 from West Bengal, 247 from Assam and 160 from Haryana.
In all, 11,974 illegal arms which include AK47/56, pistols, carbines, revolvers, guns and rifles were seized by the agencies last year.