From sophisticated to country made weapons, Atiq Ahmed had it all

PRAYAGRAJ: From foreign made P-88 Walther pistol and British Bulldog 455 revolver to Colt .45 bore handgun and SBBL and DBBL guns, jailed gangster Atiq Ahmed's arsenal had them all.
While the law enforcement agencies are working overtime to bust the module of supply of illegal and licensed weapons and cartridges to Atiq's gang, investigations into recent seizure of 42 weapons, including 28 licensed (SBBL\DBBL) in Kaushambi and 10 weapons in old office building of Atiq Ahmed at Chakia locality, revealed that gang has a vast nexus of obtaining illegal weapons from inter-state smugglers and sympathisers. STF and police sources said Atiq's gang had always maintained a wide range of weapons in their arsenal. Moreover, Atiq's sons were also fond of having the latest weapons. Police also claimed that Atiq and his brother Azim alias Ashraf had confessed that they obtained sophisticated weapons from a person, who used to procure them from the Pakistan border at Punjab. The weapons were drone dropped.
The gang has connections with licensed arms holders in both Prayargaj and Kaushambi region who not only provide them their weapons but also collect cartridges at the behest of the gang. These facts had come to the fore about three years back when a team of Khuldabad police had seized two sophisticated weapons including one rubber rifle worth Rs 35 lakh and a .30 pistol worth Rs 15 lakh from Atiq's old office buildings in Chakia locality during a raid.
"The don and his gang were using his old office situated in the partially demolished structure at Chakia to stash illegal cash and weapons. The structure from where a rich haul of cash and weapons was made in March this year, had earlier also yielded two sophisticated and expensive firearms in 2020. When the district authorities cancelled the arm licences of Atiq in 2017, he did not surrender the weapons and instead hid them inside the partially damaged structure. These firearms were seized by the Khuldabad police in 2020."
On March 21 this year too, the partially collapsed building in Chakia had yielded a huge cache of illegal money and weapons, including Rs 72.37 lakh cash and 10 sophisticated firearms. These firearms included one Colt pistol of .45 bore, four pistols of 0.32 bore, three country made pistols of 0.315 bore and two country made pistols of 0.312 bore along with 112 live cartridges of different bores, one colt magazine with 10 bullet capacity. The raid was conducted by Prayagraj police after the arrest of five key associates of Atiq in connection with the February 24 Umesh Pal murder case. Also, Kaushambi police had during a search operation for Abdul Kavi, a key aide of Atiq who remained elusive for 18 years before surrendering in a CBI court in Lucknow in connection with killing of 2005 BSP MLA Raju Pal case, had seized over 42 weapons, including 28 licensed firearms after conducting raids at 13 houses in Sarayakil and adjoining localities. Investigations had revealed that majority of licensed weapons were recovered from sympathisers of Atiq's gang whereas there was no whereabouts of genuine licence holders. Sympathisers were not able to answer about the stock of around 200 cartridges of different bores. Thursday's recovery of two foreign pistols like Walther and British Bulldog 455 along with one 0.32 bore pistol and several cartridges of 7.65 mm near the encounter site in Jhansi by STF has also exposed gang's penchant for sophisticated weapons.