Bhubaneswar,October8: With the festive season just round the corner, several gun-toting criminals are throwing open challenge to Commissionerate Police in Bhubaneswar.

There has already been a spurt in the number of firing incidents which has now emerged as a major headache for senior police officials.

Be it the firing on private bus owner Pritam Jenamani at Khandagiri last Sunday or the firing on ‘Lassi’ stall owner in February, criminal activities have visible increased.

Many believe that lack of intensive drive against illegal firearms has led to the rise in crime graph in the capital city.

Though Commissionerate Police had launched a massive drive against illegal firearms under operation ‘Black Smoke’ in 2013, the campaign has now been shelved.

Similarly, the quick action team of the Commissionerate Police, which was earlier assigned the job of taking on illegal firearm rackets, seems to have gone into hibernation with no visible results.

However, Police Commissioner, Satyajit Mohanty informed that a special drive has been launched, and a list of 500 criminals has been prepared. The special squad and quick action team officials have also been instructed to launch a crackdown on illegal firearms, he added.

“During the special drive last week, we executed 84 NBWs and booked 114 persons under section 110 of the CrPc. Similarly, checking at several prominent places in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar is also being undertaken,” said Mohanty.

Former Odisha Police DG, SN Tiwari on the other hand stated that most of the criminals procure firearms from Bihar in trains. Hence, special action needs to be taken at regular intervals to put a check on the easy movement of firearms, he added.