Bhopal: Gunrunning Racket In Southwestern Dists Under NIA, ATS Lens

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): As many as 17 habitats of the Sikligars in the four south-western districts—Dhar, Barwani, Khargone and Burhanpur—are involved in illegal arms manufacturing and supplies. On Tuesday, the MP-ATS conducted raids and searches in Khargone district and arrested two accused, and seized finished and unfinished weapons.

Sources in ATS claimed that the Sikligars are now using modern technology to manufacture guns, which can be matched with the high quality branded products. Not only this, they are selling them to the terrorist-gangster nexus. DIG, ATS Tarun Nayka told Free Press, “We are working on the issue and we are also focusing on the working of the Sikligars.

The police have prepared vast plans to control them.” Recently on March 12, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) crackdown against terrorist-gangster-drug smugglers nexus having suspected links to Khalistani separatist elements and conducted searches at 30 locations in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chandigarh.

In the state, the NIA teams from Chandigarh searched multiple locations, which included villages of three south-western districts – Khargone, Barwani and Burhanpur. Importantly, many of these villages where the premises were searched are infamous for housing gunrunners and gunmakers from the Sikligar community, which since generations has mastered the art of making firearms.

According to sources, the gunmaking is going in Umarthi village on MP-Maharashtra border in Barwani district and Signur village in the adjoining Khargone district. Both these villages have long been notorious for gunmakers/gunrunners. The work is also done in Pachore village of Burhanpur district.

Kharti village in Rajpur of Barwani district as well as Satipura Faliya in Bhagwanpura town of Khargone district have been under the NIA and ATS lens for their gun making skills. In 2023 also, an NIA team conducted a search in Umarthi village of Barwani district. In the past too NIA teams have conducted searches in similar cases in Ujjain and Ratlam districts of western MP.