Guns recovered from Howrah possibly UP-bound, says cops

The police investigation revealed that the guns which were recovered from platform number 8 of Howrah Station on Saturday were probably being transported to Uttar Pradesh.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) found some country-made guns kept in a bag lying on platform 8 of Howrah station. The passengers soon alerted the policemen and the RPF jawans reached the spot and moved the passengers to a safe distance.

The jawans opened the bag to find 18 country-made guns which were kept inside the bag. Soon after the incident, the RPF started inspecting the whole station area. The senior officers of the RPF suspected that there could be some other bags kept inside the station in which arms were kept. But no such bags were recovered after thorough inspection. The CCTV footages were also scanned.

The investigators came to know that there were some frequent trains which passed from the platform number 8 just after the bag was spotted.

The destinations of those trains were Uttar Pradesh. The investigators suspected that somebody dropped the bag for a carrier to take the arms to Uttar Pradesh.

Not so long ago, one gangster was arrested from Howrah Bridge. Police nabbed Abu Bakkar Siddique, a Kerala based gangster, who came to Bengal for purchasing gun in cheap rate.

Police later learnt that he had gone to Murshidabad to buy guns. It should also be recalled that the seizure of firearms in South 24 Parganas have been frequent occurrences in the recent past. South 24 Parganas police unearthed many an illegal fire arms factory – some of which were situated in Rabindranagar, Panchur, Beghampur and some other places. Huge armoury – one shot guns, 9mm and 7mm pistols, gunpowder were recovered from those places. The owners of the houses where the factories were running – were arrested. People from Bangladesh, Bihar's Munger and Katihar frequently come here to join illegal arms making factories.

In Howrah station on Saturday, police suspected that the culprit could not get onto the train with those guns due to the presence of security and he dropped the bag in the station.

It will also be recalled that the investigative agencies found that the arms which were used in Dhaka's Gulshan attack, were made in Malda.

On the night of July 1, 2016, five militants took hostages and opened fire on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan Thana - an affluent area with many embassies in Dhaka. 29 people were killed, including 20 hostages (18 foreigners and 2 locals), 2 police officers, 5 gunmen, and 2 bakery staff.