Children are increasingly being used in the smuggling of arms in Bihar's Munger district, notorious for manufacturing illegal firearms, records available with the juvenile courts there indicate.

According to official figures made available, out of 145 cases registered in the district under the Prevention of Arms Act against children in the last five years, 55 related to smuggling of weapons and the rest possession of illegal firearms.

In 2005, according to figures received from the juvenile courts in Munger, nine out of 23 cases filed against children related to gun-running.

Similarly in 2006 and 2007, of the 25 cases filed in the juvenile courts, children were found involved in the smuggling of arms in 16. This figure almost doubled in the period between 2007 and September, 2009.

Out of eight cases filed against children under the Prevention of Arms Act, five cases related to unearthing of illegal mini gun factories and arms deal.

Most of these cases were reported from the Mufassil police station here in Munger, the sources said.

The Munger police has this year uncovered 48 illegal mini gun factories and seized a huge quantity of cartridges of different bores apart from 65 pistols, 170 magazines and arms-making materials.

The sources said several hundred pistols and carbines could have been fabricated from the materials seized from just two such illegal gun factories at Shadipur and Dilawarpur localities in the district.

While 60 illegal gun-making units were unearthed in the past four years in Munger, 48 such factories were spotted by the police this year alone, official sources said.

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