Arms seized from ultras in J&K enough to raise a large army

SRINAGAR: The quantity of arms and ammunition recovered by security forces from militants in Jammu and Kashmir over the past 22 years is enough to raise an army larger than that of 150 member countries of the United Nations, officials said.

According to state home department officials, security forces have seized nearly 31,000 AK rifles of various series from the militants and their hideouts in the state since the eruption of militancy in 1990.

The security forces have also seized nearly 11,500 pistols, 1,027 universal machine guns, 79 carbines, 219 light machine guns, 69 general purpose machine guns, 295 rifles of .303 make and nearly 400 sniper rifles over the past 22 years.

A senior official of the security grid in the state said the arms seized from militants in JK over the years was enough to raise an army of more than 50,000 active personnel.

"The variety in the arms and ammunition seized in the state - rifles, light and heavy machine guns, carbines, snipers, rockets and launchers - is good enough to raise an army of over 50,000 personnel," he said.

According to information posted on Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, of the total 193 member countries of the UN, only around 40 nations have a regular army strength of over 50,000 personnel.

The weapons seized from militants in JK also included 2,262 rocket projectile guns, 2,830 rocket boosters, 70,071 AK magazines, 11,055 pistol magazines, 1321 UMG magazines, 150 LMG magazines, 31 carbine magazines and 32 telescopes, used on rifles for better aim, the official said.

A massive quantity of ammunition for these weapons was also recovered during the counter-insurgency operations which included nearly 40 lakh AK rounds, 2.20 lakh pistol rounds, 1.27 lakh UMG rounds and 1.22 lakh belted ammunition rounds.

The security forces also seized tonnes of explosives including nearly 13 ton RDX, over 6,000 IEDs, more than 63,000 grenades and nearly 70,000 detonators.

Over 43,000 people - 21,500 militants, 16,400 civilians and 5,400 security force personnel - were killed during the past 22 years of turmoil in the state.