127 firearm licences cancelled over misuse in Feb 8 violence
Nainital district administration has cancelled a total of 127 firearm licences of 120 firearm licence holders till further orders and ordered seizure of these firearms, according to an official order. The development comes in view of misuse of firearms during violence at Banbhoolpura area of Haldwani on February 8.
“The licensed firearms were misused during the violence and conditions of the licences were violated. There is a possibility of misuse of these licensed firearms during the anti-encroachment drives in the future. In view of the same, 127 licensed firearms of 120 licence holders are cancelled till further orders and will be seized by the senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nainital in the next 24 hours,” an official order quoting Fincha Ram Chauhan, additional district magistrate (ADM) stated on Monday.
Nainital SSP Prahlad Narayan Meena said the miscreants used firearms, both licensed and country-made, procured from illegal markets, during the violence on February 8.
Nainital Police has intensified its crackdown to arrest “rioters” and arrested 30 in connection with the case so far.
“We registered three FIRs for violence after the demolition. Different teams have been investigating these cases. We have arrested 30 people so far,” Meena said.
“We have also recovered seven country-made weapons, 54 live rounds from these accused,” he said, adding that miscreants had also looted police ammunition during the attack on the police station.
“We have recovered a total of 99 live rounds (67 of 7.62 mm and 32 of 9 mm) that were looted by miscreants from Banbhoolpura police station,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Nainital Police produced 25 accused in a local court on Monday after their medical examination. They were sent to 14-day judicial custody.
Violent clashes erupted in the Banbhoolpura area of Haldwani district on the evening of February 8, when civic authorities razed two structures — Masjid Mariam (mosque) and Abdul Razzaq Zakaria madrasa — alleging they were illegally built on state government (nazool) land.
As workers from the Haldwani municipal corporation and Nainital administration razed the 22-year-old structures, residents of the area set afire several vehicles, and a police station and hurled stones at the demolition team as well as police personnel, according to police. The violence has left at least five dead, so far, and 150 people were injured.
The state government on Saturday evening sought more central forces for deployment in Haldwani. Chief secretary (CS) Radha Raturi wrote a letter to the secretary (home) of Union government asking to send four companies of central paramilitary forces to maintain law and order in Haldwani.