Jhola is one of the villages in the district notorious for the manufacturing of illegal weapons. Jhola is one of the villages in the district notorious for the manufacturing of illegal weapons.

The UP Police claim to have launched a crackdown against the illegal gun-runners following areport on Thursday, which revealed that the sophisticated replicas of top quality weapons made in the makeshift gun factories of the badlands of UP and Bihar had boosted the firepower of criminals in Delhi Interestingly, the ammunition for these tamanchas and kattas is leaked to the criminals through the network of licensed arms dealers and weapon holders in Muzaffarnagar.The district police have arrested 100-odd people for manufacturing, possessing and supplying illegal weapons."We have arrested around 100 people from different places with illegal weapons this month. The factories they run are mostly of makeshift type, which are erected anywhere they want, even in sugarcane fields," said B. B. Singh, the district's senior superintendent of police, under whose jurisdiction 21 police stations operate.However, the police are up against not just the manufacturers and suppliers of illegal arms, but also the prevailing mindset in this belt that associates guns with power and glamour.One of the most fertile belts of north India, with sugarcane fields stretching over a vast horizon, Muzaffarnagar has the biggest jaggery trading market in Asia.But the district has also earned the crown of being the crime capital of the state, with a flourishing illegal arms industry where well-made copies of international firearms are churned out in factories operating with impunity from any place, from nondescript pucca houses to sugarcane fields.The Muzaffarnagar police have seized 57 illegal arms and 227 live cartridges in a special drive against arms traffickers and busted four illegal arms factories at Shahpur, Budhana, Purkazi and Kotwali.The sophisticated country-made weapons - .315 bore and 12 bore - manufactured here reach the hands of criminal gangs across a large part of north India.Most of the murders in the national capital over the past few days were executed with these sophisticated illegal weapons, mostly trafficked from Muzaffarnagar and Munger in Bihar, the Delhi Police mentioned in their recent report, shared with their UP counterparts.In a region where possessing a gun is considered a status symbol, even a necessity at times, it is not difficult for criminal gangs to source arms and ammunition.Muzaffarnagar, with a nearly three million population, has as many as 15,456 people holding gun licences while there are 16 arms dealers, according to police records.Through this network, ammunition is leaked to criminal gangs, since the bullets made in ordnance factories can be used in these sophisticated country-made guns."The problem is that the bullets used in these illegal arms are ordnance factory produced legal ammunition that gets leaked to these criminals from arms dealers," Singh said.Muzaffarnagar, being just around 135 km from Delhi, is a major hub for criminals operating in the Capital to procure firearms.This part of western UP also shares borders with Haryana and Uttarakhand, which the state police believe is a major reason why the trafficking of illegal arms becomes easy.The threat from criminals of the neighbouring states has found repeated mention in the Delhi Police's coordination meetings.A recent report on 'easy availability of high quality firearms' by the Delhi Police stated that efforts to curb the easy availability of illegal arms should be intensified in places such as Muzaffarnagar and Munger.Following their interaction with the Delhi Police, the UP Police have issued a directive to all the arms dealers to keep a record of the sale of ammunition and also of the buyers.The police claim to be tightening noose further, but the trafficking of illegal weapons continues to be a problem.According to sources, the UP Police have executed more than 230 encounters in the past 12 years, but many of the notorious criminals not only continue to operate in their bastions but have, in fact, spread their tentacles to other areas as well.The police have not been able to catch gang leaders such as Sushil Mooch, Vinod Bawla, Satyender Barwala, Pradeep Thakur and Bram Singh Kathal.Residents of Jhola village, around 40 km Muzaffarnagar town, say the reason for this failure is that the police target only selected areas that have traditionally been notorious even as the criminals have spread their activities.Another factor is the people's predilection for revenge killings in this belt. "Here crime is glamorised and killers are seen as heroes by many people due to lack of proper exposure to knowledge," said Rayees Ahmad, a teacher in Jhola, a village known for manufacturing of illegal country-made pistols.Ironically, prosperity, rather than poverty, is behind such revenge killings, which in turn, helps illegal arms factories proliferate."People here kill their blood relatives for land and are ready to give away supari of lakhs of rupees to criminals to exact revenge," Sajid Ali, former village head of Jhola, said.The police claim first-time criminals are another emerging nuisance in Muzaffarnagar. A group of college students recently robbed a family driving on Muzaffarnagar-Meerut highway on gunpoint.The guns and bullets, no prizes for guessing, came from the district's illegal arms bazaar.