NEW DELHI: A BSF jawan arrested last weekend while trying to sell an AK-47 to terrorists in Rajouri has told interrogators  an army major gave him the weapon.

The arrest has uncovered a huge, flourishing underground arms bazaar in Jammu and Kashmir, with growing evidence of the involvement of security personnel.

Defence sources admit security forces have access to weapons mostly seized during operations or recovered from militants. These include Kalashnikovs, pistols, and grenades.

The sources say the underground arms market supplies to, among others, criminal gangs in north India. Six months ago, a constable was arrested by the BSF while trying to sell weapons to terrorists.

In the latest case, the jawan, Javed Iqbal, named a major posted with the Rashtriya Rifles as the man who handed him the weapon. The major is yet to be named in the police FIR.

Iqbal was working with the BSF’s intelligence branch. He was trying to sell the AK-47 when an officer alerted police. A trap was laid and Iqbal agreed to sell the weapon for Rs70,000.

While insisting that the case is ‘isolated’, army and BSF officers admit that security agencies generally do not show all the weapons seized during anti-terrorist operations. Such weapons are “held back” and used “appropriately”. In J&K, that could mean many things, including planting the weapons on suspected terrorists who may be arrested or killed.