Kalashnikov rifles may be made in India

NEW DELHI: The legendary Assault rifle Kalashnikov (AK) is set to make a ‘legal’ entry into India.
 
The Russian firm making the AK rifles, Izhmash, is in advanced talks with a reputed Indian industry group to start manufacture in India of the latest AK-100 series. This is the lighter, though deadlier version of the assault rifle born a few months after World War II ended.

“We are carrying on negotiations with one major Indian private company. It has a licence from the government of India for small arms manufacture,” said Alexander A Zavarzin, foreign economic activity director of Izhmash, an open joint stock company where the Russian government is the majority stakeholder.

“We hope the first samples of the Kalashnikovs will be produced in the territory of India this year,” he added. Initially, the Indian company will assemble the rifle and later even most parts will be made here. India would then become the second country outside Russia to manufacture the assault rifle after a Latin American nation.

Izhmash representatives have been travelling around India over the past few years, meeting chiefs of state polices and others. Everywhere, they see people holding AK rifles “but officially we have never been supplying them to India.”

These illegal Kalashnikovs were brought from countries such as Bulgaria or captured from terrorists.