As the election date draws closer, the trade of small arms is on the rise and the Home Ministry is preparing to release a security plan within the next few days.
Nepal Police, Armed Police, and the National Investigation Department all admit in the report that the profusion of small arms poses a great threat to free and fair elections.
Our porous border with India makes it easier to smuggle firearms. Police say that party members and criminal gangs with political protection possess large amounts of illegal guns and the condition is likely to get worse as increasing number of people with criminal backgrounds join politics.
Police say 90 per cent of the firearms available in Kathmandu comes from illegal workshops in the Indian state of Bihar and sell for far more than their original price.
According to the police, three levels of middlemen operate in smuggling guns to Kathmandu. Indian nationals contact underground gangs in the country and bring the arms through Bhagalpur in Uttar Pradesh and Ramvareti in Bihar. Groups in the Tarai then assume responsibility for transporting these contraband items into Nepal through Gaur and Birganj.
The third group hires drivers as mules to bring in the guns to Kathmandu and other areas. They hide the arms in sacks of rice, sugar, and cement which come in hundreds per truck into the Valley, making it impossible for police to manually check each bag.
There are 40 APF border outposts and numerous checkpoints along the border, but they are severely understaffed and can’t cover the 1,000km border.