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Illegal arms business: MP’s Sikligar community under police gaze
Police in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, in recent months, have arrested many members of the Sikligar Sikh community for manufacturing and providing arms and ammunition to anti-social elements, including gangsters in Punjab and even Maoists
Police in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, in recent months, have arrested many members of the Sikligar Sikh community for manufacturing and providing arms and ammunition to anti-social elements, including gangsters in Punjab and even Maoists.
Traditionally ironsmiths, the community that once earned praises and were called ‘patriots’ for providing weapons to the army of Tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh has gone astray since. A section of the community honed their skills and shifted from making farm tools and sharp-edged weapons to firearms, said police officers of Punjab and Madhya Pradesh (MP).
Punjab director general of police Dinkar Gupta said MP has emerged as a hub of illegal firearms as in the past seven months, at least six people of the Sikligar community, settled in four districts of MP, have been arrested for supplying arms to criminals in Punjab.
“In January, police arrested two Sikligar members from Khargone for supplying illegal .32 calibre country-made pistols and they informed that the kingpin of the gang was in contact with one Akashdeep Singh, the prime accused in the drone module busted by Punjab police in 2019,” said the DGP.
Not only Punjab, but the MP Police, which recently arrested 10 sympathisers and suppliers of illegal weapons to Maoists, found magazine of AK 47 made by Sikligars from the house of one of the accused, Ghanshyam from Gondia in Maharashtra.
Some of the Sikligars are wanted in more than six states. According to MP police, a section of Sikligars living in at least 40 villages of Khargone, Khandwa, Barwani, Burhanpur and Dhar districts manufacture illegal arms.
“Earlier, they used traditional methods to make weapons but now they have set up lathe machines to make automatic guns. Not only in manufacturing, they have adopted technology in marketing the weapons through WhatsApp and YouTube channels. Despite regular raids, they are not ready to give up this work,” said HN Mishra, inspector general (IG) of police, Indore division.
In July first week, Punjab Police arrested two brothers — Sweety Singh and Sumer Singh — from Umrethi village of Barwani for running a Youtube channel (Azad Group Munger) where they showcased guns and fixed deals. “This is a new modus operandi which we have seen for selling weapons,” said Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, SSP, Kapurthala.
Members from the community say the families ignored for years and many of them have also been implicated wrongly in criminal cases. There are about 35,000 Sikligars in Madhya Pradesh, according to the community leaders. They used to live in Punjab and Rajasthan initially, but after the Independence, arms manufacturing was declared illegal and many of them shifted to western Madhya Pradesh near the Narmada river for farming. “But they didn’t get the promised land and jobs. They were not able to live a respectful life,” said Gyani Dileep Singh, head of MP Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
MP Sikligar community vice-president Jitender Singh said, “I won’t deny the fact that some Sikligars have chosen the wrong path and in at least 40 villages, the illegal weapon business has flourished. The youth are mostly uneducated and have no land for farming. They can’t start a business as banks don’t give them loans.”
“More than 400 people are either in jail or facing charges under the Arms Act. This is the fact which we are not shying away from accepting, but the reasons behind this should also be discussed,” he added.
In 2003, then MP chief minister Uma Bharti promised to help the community through education and skill development, but nothing happened. MP home minister Narottam Mishra said, “We won’t allow anyone to malign the image of MP. It is a social problem and we have been making efforts to bring them in the mainstream for years. Now, we are doing strict planning to address this issue once and for all.”
