KATHMANDU, APRIL 23

Despite the government's call to submit licensed weapons until the local level elections are completed, the response from licence holders is not encouraging.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had recently appealed to licencees to submit licensed firearms - both small and large - to the nearest police office 15 days before the commencement of civic polls slated for May 13. There are only 20 days to go for the elections.

However, the government has received only 924 weapons from across the country.

The appeal was made to licencees for safekeeping of weapons to prevent their potential misuse during elections.

Earlier, the Election Commission had issued a directive to the MoHA, urging it to keep the licenced arms in the custody of police until the local level polls were over. The licensed weapons are provided by the district administration offices to persons on the basis of risk of security threat to them in accordance with the existing law.

Kathmandu DAO alone has issued firearms licence to around 5,000 people. There are around 34,000 licensed firearms across the country.

Joint-secretary Phanindramani Pokharel, MoHA spokesperson, said licecees who failed to submit their firearms would be kept under constant surveillance to ensure that the weapons legally possessed by them were not misused. 'In the event of misuse, they would be liable to legal action, in addition to revocation of the licence,' he warned.

The MoHA has prohibited any person other than security personnel from carrying and using firearms, explosives, toxic substances, batons, spears, khukuris, rifles and pistols. It said the move was part of security arrangements for elections so as to hold the polls in a free and fair manner.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 24, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.