Teenage shooter awaits gun license to participate in Asian Cup

Chandigarh, July 26: A teenage shooter from Haryana is struggling to procure a gun licence to import the weapon from Germany in time and take part in youth Asian cup in Indonesia in September.

The 15-year-old girl hailing from Jhajjar, Manu Bhaker, has claimed to have completed all necessary formalities for procuring the gun license.

"My daughter has been selected in the junior national team to take part in the youth Asian championship in September this year in Indonesia. She will be competing in the U-19 category in two events," her father Ramkishan said over the phone.

"While she does not require a license in the 10m category, but to be able to participate in 25m shooting event, she needs to procure her own pistol and needs a licence for the sports pistol," he said.

Ramkishan claimed they had applied for the license in May and the file is now lying in the office of Deputy Commissioner, who is away for a training programme.

"After receiving a communication from National Rifle Association of India about her selection for the Indonesia event, we applied for the license in May. To procure license, we had to apply in the Jhajjar's Deputy Commissioner's office," he said.

"Our file for licence, meanwhile, was sent to the Superintendent of Police's office in Jhajjar, who gave his recommendation and necessary clearance on June 27-28. Since then the file is lying in Deputy Commissioner's office as we were told that he is away on training programme," he claimed.

Ramkishan said that his daughter, who is a Class X student, has to procure the gun on rent from Germany and the procedure takes about 6-7 weeks, which will only begin once the licence is given.

"We only want that the procedure should be expidited and licence issued at the earliest," he said.

He said the girl is a budding shooter and was also part of the Haryana team in a championship held in December last year in Pune.

Meanwhile, Jhajjar's Deputy Commissioner was said to be on a training programme till August 11.

Jhajjar's Additional Deputy Commissioner, Amna Tasneem said that she had joined only last week and the matter has just come to her notice.

"I will look into it and expedite it," Tasneem said.

PTI