GREATER NOIDA: Bhatta , the Jat-dominated that has been the epicentre of a bloody battle over land acquisition, is home to several retired police and army personnel. For a population of around 10,000 people, this village that comes under the Jewar assembly constituency has more than 50 licensed arms. And these were used to a great effect in thwarting off armed police forces in the gun battle on Saturday."There are a large number of unlicensed weapons here too, smuggled from villages in eastern UP," said a villager. The battle for their land was led by the retired armed force personnel. "These men, trained in gun fight in their service period, kept the police forces at bay," added the villager.Earlier, Manveer Taiwatiya, the leader of the farmers, had claimed that his team would continue to fight with the district administration for their rights. This was the reason why the administration had stopped issuing arms licenses in the district. Sources say so far 578 arm licenses have been issued so far in the district and nearly 50 licenses were issued to Bhatta Parsaul villagers.Speaking to TOI, ADG (Meerut-NCR zone) Gurbachan Lal said it cannot be ruled out that the villagers had a huge collection of arms. They were engaged in exchange of firing for more than three hours, till 5.30 pm. They then fled towards the fields and also opened fire from there. "The arms might have been illegal and brought in from other districts. We are also investigating who supplied those arms and funded them. Without funding such an incident is impossible," Lal further said.Sources in the village also say that the agitating farmers had purchased arms from the compensation money received from the administration.Apart from Jats, the village also has small numbers of Muslim and Brahmin families. "The educated youth of this village take up small jobs in the police or in the army, the rest are mostly farmers," said an official. The main occupation of this village is farming accounting for the livelihood of more than 75 per cent of the population. According to the official, the population consists of a small percentage of people belonging to the category of goldsmiths apart from a few families belonging to the scheduled caste category too."Because of the dominance of the Jats, and as they control most of the land, it is their community that calls the shots," said a district administration official. The villagers grow sugarcane, wheat and paddy over hundreds of acres of land which has now been earmarked by the government for acquisition.Over the years, the villagers have developed a good system of irrigation using a combination of water pumps and canals. "Overall, the farming scenario in this area seems to be prosperous. The villagers are not going to part with their land with ease," said Brijen Bhati, district president of the Samajwadi Party in Gautam Buddh Nagar