J&K Police to get US-made firearms for anti-militancy operations
🔴 The force had invited global bids on the Government e-Marketplace portal, expressing its intent to purchase modern assault rifles and pistols some months ago, officials said in a statement on Tuesday.
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The grenade attack took place in a busy market at the foot of the Amira Kadal Bridge. The police said they had secured “vital clues” from CCTV footage in the area. (File)The Jammu and Kashmir Police has decided to equip personnel of its counter-insurgency force, the Special Operations Group, with American Sig Sauer assault rifles and pistols.
The force had invited global bids on the Government e-Marketplace portal, expressing its intent to purchase modern assault rifles and pistols some months ago, officials said in a statement on Tuesday. A number of arms manufacturers responded to it, but the choice fell on the American ones, they said.
Sources said the force initially intends to procure 500 Sig Sauer 716 rifles and 100 Sig Sauer MPX 9mm pistols for the SOG, besides the personnel deployed for security of protected people.
The plan is yet to get approval from the concerned authorities. If the proposal is approved, the UT police might be the first in the country to be equipped with these state-of-the-art weapons.
The Indian Army personnel guarding the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China are already equipped with Sig Sauer assault rifles, which have a highly effective 7.62×51 mm cartridge as compared to the intermediate 5.56×45 mm cartridge of the INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) rifles used by the police.
The induction of the American assault rifles will assist the police in functioning “extra successfully” in engagements with militants, officials said.
In October, 2017, the Indian military started the process to accumulate around 7 lakh rifles, besides 44,000 mild machine weapons and almost 44,600 carbines.
In 2019, India signed a contract with Sig Sauer for 72,400 assault rifles at a value of around Rs 700 crore.
(With inputs from PTI)
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