Another ignominious Himalayan high for Uttarakhand, pips J&K in number of arms seized

How would you react if told that more arms were seized in the largely peaceful Uttarakhand than in the strife torn Jammu & Kashmir? In fact, more than three times the number of deadly weapons that the police found on criminals or seized in different operations in the Valley?

Sounds ironic, but it is true.

Uttarakhand witnessed a sharp jump of around 96% in the number of arms seized in the state last year compared to the 2015, as per the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2016 report.

The hill state -- which reported total 621 arms seizure in 2016, up from the 2015’s figure of 317 -- also recorded the highest number of arms seizures among the Himalayan states.

Jammu & Kashmir (185) reported the second highest number of arms seizures among the mountain states, while Sikkim, with just a single seizure, was at the last spot. Uttarakhand’s neighbour Himachal Pradesh reported only 20 such cases last year.

Incidentally, the state had also recorded the highest number of crimes against children and cases of economic offences among the Himalayan states last year.

When it comes to confiscation of arms, Uttarakhand was way ahead of even bigger states such as Gujarat (502), Tamil Nadu (252), Kerala (196), Odisha (413) Karnataka (22) and Andhra Pradesh (36). Nationally, Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of arm seizures (27,189), raising concerns about the growing activities of interstate gangs and criminals here.

Ashok Kumar, additional director general of police (law and order), however, said that the rise in arms seizure in Uttarakhand indicated how the police was working actively to crack down upon anti-social elements in the state.

“We are continuously working to strengthen our intelligence network and based on specific inputs from them, conduct seizure of illegal arms from time to time,” Kumar told HT.

It may be recalled that the number of seizures under the Arms Act had witnessed a decline in the state in 2015, as compared to 636 arms seized in Uttarakhand in 2014.

HT had recently highlighted how crime graph in the mountain state, especially in Haridwar district, known for its pilgrimage importance, has shot up mostly because of criminals and gangs from Western Uttar Pradesh making a base here.

Haridwar is close to west UP’s crime-sensitive districts of Muzaffarnagar, Bijnore and Saharanpur.