Arms were for extremists: VS

Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan today said the state government had enough indications that the arms seized by Customs from a container at the Kochi port on Tuesday was meant for religious extremists. He, however, did not elaborate.

Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan today said the state government had enough indications that the arms seized by Customs from a container at the Kochi port on Tuesday was meant for religious extremists. He, however, did not elaborate.

8220;We already have alerts from the Centre that some communal madmen are shifting their bases to Kerala. My government will do everything to thwart them,8221; VS said.

His Home Minister, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, however, maintained that he would not disclose anything concerning this for the moment, since a high-level probe involving various agencies is already on. Police sources say the guns appeared to have been brought for use as training weapons.

The Customs has now opened and rummaged all 810 cartons in a container that came from Dubai last week, recovering 86 sophisticated air rifles and pistols. These were being imported as knocked-down plastic furniture. The sender was a Dubai-based export firm. Each rifle and pistol carton had a copy of the Koran packed in them as well.

The guns were produced by three of the world8217;s top manufacturers8212;Walther, Beretta and Gamos. Police sources say these are far more powerful than the locally available brands. Experts from the Kerala Police and the Navy have now been deputed to inspect the seized weapons to ascertain if these could be converted for lethal use.

Customs sources said considering the way the guns were concealed and brought in, it is possibile that this was only a test effort to see if more potent arms could be brought in using the same method. According to them, normal imports of these guns was possible, and there was no need to disguise them.

Two IGs and a DIG have begun the state government probe under the ADGP Intelligence, though not much headway has been made. The man to whom the container was addressed, O R Koya, an imported goods trader in Chavakkad, has vanished and the police and Customs raids on his home fetched no results.