Guwahati, March 28: After Bihar and other north Indian States, the illegal arms market is fast spreading to the North Eastern States including Assam.

The demand for these arms has been increasing in Assam and other North East States for last few years.

What supports the fact is the CID records which show that the police and security forces have seized 191 hand made arms in the year 2006 followed by 88 factory made arms across Assam.

These included pistols, 12 bore gun, revolver, carbine and AK 47 and AK 56.Sources in the police said that most of these arms and weapons come to the region from Bangladesh and Myanmar through Meghalaya and Moreh.

"While the arms from Bangladesh come to the region through the Garo Hills route in Meghalaya, those from neighbouring Myanmar come through the Moreh border and enter Dimapur via Manipur," said sources.

"Out of these arms the demands are more for the AK 47, AK 56, AK 81, 9 mm pistols, star pistols and pistol-56," said the sources while adding it is very difficult to differentiate between the hand made and factory made 9 mm pistols made in Myanmar.

"The only difference between the factory made and hand made AK series rifle is that the hand made AK rifles does not include the chromium plate inside the heat chamber of the rifle like the factory made ones," said the sources.

A recent report of the International Action Network of Small Arms (IANSA) revealed that there are 7.50 crore illegal arms in South East Asian countries out of which 6.30 crore are in the hands of civilians � most of these arms are in India and Pakistan.

On the prices of these arms, the sources said that while the price of AK series rifles varies between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, the pistols of various categories costs only about Rs 40,000.The hand made version of the M-16 rifles (used by the American Army earlier) costs about Rs 1.70 lakh in the markets in the region, the sources added.

Another interesting fact is that there are places in Barpeta district of Assam where pistols are made which are more cost effective, the sources said while adding that although very crude in looks these pistols comes in the range of Rs 5000 only.

"The illegal arms are made in huge quantity in Bangladesh and joint forces of Bangladesh have destroyed at least 21 local arms factories from the period between July 2005 to June 2006," said the sources.

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