Man opened fire at newspaper hawker

LUCKNOW: Call it easier access to firearms or dwindling levels of patience, but in the land of tehzeeb upholding Lucknowites , there has been a spurt in trigger-happy criminals ready to shoot even at the most frivolous reasons.Already, the first two months of 2019 have witnessed 12 cases where firearms were used to settle disputes. In comparison, only six such cases were reported in 2018 and four in 2017. Seven people were injured in the 12 incidents from January 1 to March 2. This phenomena also rang alarm bells for the police as it was noticed that illegal firearms were coming into the city and country-made guns were becoming common. In 11 of the cases, country-made pistols were used in the act. In one, a licensed pistol was used. Another worrying aspect was that youths aged under 20 were involved in three incidents. In two cases, firearms were used in loot attempts while in two, it was an old enmity. In three cases, the shooting took place at slight provocation.For example, a block development officer had trained a pistol at a bus conductor and later shoved the muzzle of the pistol in his mouth inside a bus in Alambagh. When passengers intervened, he opened fire in the air.Similarly, a man had opened fire at a newspaper hawker during an argument over the price of a fashion magazine. In another such incident, unidentified persons had opened fire at a garment businessman in Hussainganj .Officials said there has been a consistent increase in the cache of illegal arms caught last year. In 2018, 221 arms were recovered while 162 were recovered in 2017.SSP Lucknow Kalanidhi Naithani said most of the weapons seized by the police over the past year were manufactured in Munger, Bihar .“The various parts of the firearms are manufactured in Bihar while they are assembled in Munger. They can be easily purchased starting at Rs 20,000,” said Naithani.