.303 Rifles to Give Way to New-Age Weapons in Assam

Guwahati, Oct 11 : The vintage .303 rifle may soon be a thing of the past for Assam police with the British-era Lee Enfield rifle being replaced by self-loading rifles (SLRs), Indian National Small Arms System (Insas) and AK-series rifles as part of the modernisation drive.

The home department has also been contemplating to dispose of these vintage rifles commissioned in 1895 in the British army. Such a move, however, will take time, as it will need the Centre’s approval.

Most likely, the .303 rifles will be handed over to the forest guards who use .315 rifles.

A senior official of the modernisation wing of Assam police told The Telegraph that the .303 rifle being inadequate to fight modern-day crime — where militants and sometimes criminals are armed with sophisticated weapons — it was being replaced by modern-day rifles.

At present, the state police use .303 rifles only for non-operational duties like road patrolling and guarding. “Most of these rifles are being used by the homeguards,” the official said, adding that the police stations were being supplied sophisticated rifles like SLRs and Insas for the last few years to replace the .303 rifle. Police stations are also being provided AK-series rifles.

The .303 is a bolt-action rifle where the firing chamber needs to be reloaded each time, whereas the SLR is a semi-automatic rifle, which has the ability to fire multiple shots.

The Insas and AK-series rifles are gas-operated rifles, having fully automatic firepower.

Compared to an SLR and an Insas, the .303 rifle has less magazine capacity with a maximum of 10 rounds.

The need to modernise the state police force was stressed during the 39th All India Police Science Congress held here in January this year. In fact, several experts who attended the meet were of the opinion that the World War I era .303 rifle should be replaced with modern rifles to fight the new face of terror — sophisticated weapons and gadgets.

Assam police director-general, Sankar Barua, said stress had been laid on modernising the police force to tackle modern-day crimes and track down criminals, as vintage rifles were no match for terrorists and criminals.

“Gone are the days when the officer-in-charge of a police station could identify known criminals under the jurisdiction of the particular police station. Nowadays, an investigating officer may have to fly to a foreign country to catch a criminal. We are training our men on this line,” the DGP said.

Modern equipment are also being procured in a phased manner, he added.

“We have already procured several modern equipment, including sophisticated rifles,” the DGP said. The official of the police modernisation wing said the process to arm the police force with Israeli Uzi and German MP5 submachine guns was also on. “These guns will be used only on special operations,” he said.