Two youths make guns at a workshop in Munger’s Vardah in June. Picture by Pronab Mondal

Munger (Bihar), July 14: Sweat dripping from his face and a rag tied around his head, a young man bangs away on his anvil, a pipe clutched in one hand, a hammer in the other.

In almost every home in this small town’s Vardah locality, the clanging of metal can be heard.

That’s the country’s largest illegal arms manufacturing centre where the frenetic pace of work was picking up in June when this correspondent visited the place.

The reason for the hectic work was the panchayat election in Bengal that was drawing closer. It is from here that almost all political parties in Bengal source arms in the run-up to the rural polls.

There are at least 2,000 men in this village involved in the manufacturing of the illegal arms in about 30 “units”, which are homes, spread across mainly Vardah and some adjoining localities like Daulatpur and Baisar.

Across Munger district, there are 35 villages where people make a livelihood from this trade, though the concentration is in the district headquarters itself.

They work through the year, supplying arms throughout the country. Many of their clients function under the patronage of political parties of various hues.

In June, though, it was the panchayat polls in Bengal — and the concomitant need for arms — that had this cottage industry in Munger busy.

“We supply arms, some of them pretty sophisticated, throughout the country,” said a middle-aged man who identified himself as an owner of one of the manufacturing ‘units’. “But now we are busy meeting the huge demand from Bengal.”

The “unit” owner said that at present the demand stood at nearly 25,000 firearms, mostly “single-shotters”, and that the supplies had already started.

“The lafda over holding the panchayat elections delayed the process of supplying arms, but now that the polls are set to be held, the supplies have begun,” the man explained. “But it is still to pick up and the bulk of consignments is yet to be despatched.”

Another “unit” owner explained that they manufactured not only the most-in-demand “single-shotter”, or a pistol where only a single bullet can be loaded at a time, but also 9mm pistols, carbines, self-loading rifles and even AK-47s.

The dealer said the “single-shotter” was the most in demand as it was the cheapest of the lot. “It’s cheaper than a bottle of local whisky,” the dealer said. “It sells for around Rs 300 a piece.”

But once it reaches Bengal, the price of the single-shotter rises to at least Rs 1,500 because couriers, transport contacts, middlemen and police have to be paid on the way.

A revolver similarly costs Rs 2,500-Rs 4,000 in Munger but at least Rs 13,000 in Bengal. An AK 47 sells for Rs 50,000-65,000 in Munger and costs Rs 2,00,000-2,80,000 in this state.

“We used to supply mainly rifles to Maoists as well as the CPM during the height of the Maoist movement in Bengal, but the pattern for the panchayat polls is different,” the dealer said.

“The Maoists needed rifles for combat purposes, but in the rural polls the goons need the single-shotter to flash it at rivals to threaten and intimidate them. They need not even use it.”

Most dealers, however, do not know which political parties have placed which “orders” as they deal only with the middlemen or the suppliers whose job is to transport the arms to their final destination.

“We really don’t know which political party has placed the orders for the arms,” a dealer said. “We deal only with the middlemen whom we know and trust. We don’t deal with unknown people for that would be running a big risk.”

The favoured route for gunrunners seems to be via Jamui, Deoghar and Giridih in Jharkhand and then to Asansol in Bengal — the distance of around 300km.

A Trinamul leader from East Midnapore said the need for arms for this panchayat polls had “gone up” since it was crucial for the party to have a decisive victory this time.

“Only if we win the rural polls with a thumping majority would we be able to establish our complete supremacy over Bengal,” the Trinamul leader said. “This is why we need the arms. We want to establish our hegemony in traditional Marxist strongholds as well.”

A CPM leader from Burdwan also agreed on the “greater” need for arms for this year’s panchayat polls.

“We have to hold on to our bastions,” he said. “The Trinamul has been using strong-arm tactics and bullying and threatening us ever since we lost the Assembly elections. Unless we fight back we will be banished from Bengal for a long time,” he said.

P. Kannan, the superintendent of police of Munger, said the spawning of the illegal arms factories in the district were for “historical” reasons.

He said that in the second half of the eighteenth century, the then nawab of Bengal Mir Qasim had brought in arms manufacturers from Afghanistan to battle the British.

Since then they have stayed on, making arms for a living. After Independence, Kannan said, given the skills of the workers, the Government of India formed cooperatives for them so that they could manufacture arms for the state.

But given the “porous” nature of these units, the government eventually shut almost all of them down but the skilled workers remained, manufacturing illegal arms for criminals and goons.

Kannan admitted that it was “extremely difficult” for his “meagre” force to control them. “We have conducted several raids and arrested a number of those involved in this illegal trade, but it’s a tall ask to control them altogether,” he said.