Friday, December 23, 2016

Customs seizes airgun at Pune airport in wake of ISIS alert

Pune: The customs department has seized an airgun from a passenger who had come down to Pune from the US recently, approaching the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to seek an inquiry of the passenger. This was in the wake of intelligence inputs that Islamic State (ISIS) operators were using airguns to train new recruits. The investigation agency has now banned the transportation of airguns which are more than .177 mm bore.

Customs officials detained Vijay Khanna at the Pune airport, after stopping him to check his baggage. They found an airgun within his belongings, which is not allowed for transportation in India. The officials also found that the passenger did not have any documents to prove that the arigun was legally brought to the country.

According to the officials of the department, “When we detained him at the airport, Vijay started arguing with us, trying to prove that the gun has been legally imported. But he did not provide any documents. He also claimed that the gun is 0.177 bore, which is not banned in India. After our investigation, we found that the gun is 0.22 bore. We confiscate the gun and send all the details to NIA to begin an inquiry regarding the passenger.”

Last year, NIA officials had conducted raids in Hyderabad, arresting five men who were at an advanced stage of planning strikes on multiple targets in the city, including a temple, markets, malls and a police station. During probe, the agency found that ISIS operators were using airguns to train new recruits. According to the Arms Rules 2016, “Air weapons, including air rifles and air guns having muzzle energy exceeding 20 joules or 15 feet lbs and/or bore exceeding 0.177 or 4.5 mm, shall be subject to licensing requirements and shall be counted within the limit of 3 firearms as defined under Section 3 of The Arms Act, 1959.”
23/12/16 Sushant Ranjan/Pune Mirror
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

0 comments:

Post a Comment