Police seek cancellation of 90 gun licences in Faridkot

Faridkot, November 29

The police have written to the authorities to cancel 90 arms licences in the district stating that many of these firearm licence holders were settled in foreign countries, while many had died in the past 10 years.

Faridkot SSP Raj Pal Sandhu said most of these weapons were lying deposited with private arms dealers or the malkhana of police stations in the district.

“We have scrutinised the record of every weapon lying deposited with arms dealers and the malkhana, and found that over 90 arms licences needed to be cancelled,” the SSP said.

A list of all redundant licences has been sent to the authorities. The district administration has issued a public notice, listing the licences and inviting objection within 15 days, if any.

The maximum number of these licences (44) pertain to the Bajakhana police station area. In 10 years, many of these licence holders have died, according to a report of the police. As the licence holders have died, the arms licences have not been renewed for years. The Bajakhana area was the epicentre of sacrilege and incidents of public-police clash in 2015.