Telangana On High Alert After 11 Sophisticated Firearms Disappear From Army Base
Weapons stolen from Telangana Army facility.
Telangana Police are investigating the theft of a cache of sophisticated weapons and ammunition from a highly secured armoury belonging to the Madras Regiment in the Secunderabad Cantonment area, with authorities suspecting the involvement of personnel from within the premises. Officials said Tuesday that 11 weapons — four AK-203 assault rifles, one 5.56mm INSAS rifle, six 9mm auto pistols and a 6.35-bore civilian pistol — were reported missing, along with approximately 1,800 rounds of ammunition and 21 magazines.
The theft was detected around 7:50 am on Monday when personnel opened the "Kote and Battalion Magazine," an ammunition storage facility, and found its door locks broken. According to a complaint lodged by a Lieutenant Colonel of the Madras Regiment's 20th Battalion, the weapons and ammunition had last been physically accounted for at 6 pm the previous evening, meaning the theft likely occurred sometime overnight. The complaint stated that the exact circumstances and timing of the disappearance were not immediately known. Army authorities said they moved quickly to secure and seal relevant areas of the facility and alerted the chain of command once the breach was discovered.
Malkajgiri Police Commissionerate registered a case Monday based on the Army's complaint, with the FIR filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita covering house-trespass and theft from specially protected places. As part of the investigation, four Agniveers — young soldiers enlisted under the Army's short-term recruitment scheme — were detained from the premises for questioning. Officials clarified that the individuals have been brought in strictly on suspicion for questioning and that no formal arrests have been made at this stage.
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The scale and nature of the theft have raised significant security concerns, given that the stolen weapons are neither small nor easily concealed — an AK-203 rifle weighs close to 3.8 kilograms and measures nearly a metre in length, while an INSAS rifle weighs around 4.3 kilograms, with the stolen ammunition alone estimated to weigh at least 15 kilograms. Investigators are examining whether the weapons could have been moved to a vulnerable section of the perimeter wall and passed to accomplices outside, though this remains an unconfirmed theory. A private CCTV camera near a location within the cantonment reportedly captured a motorcycle in the area in the early hours following the theft, though its registration number could not be clearly identified.
Given the sensitivity of the case, Military Intelligence has joined Hyderabad police in the investigation, and senior Army officials from Delhi are understood to be in the city as part of a parallel internal inquiry. The Army has re-verified its complete holdings of weapons and ammunition and reviewed documentation across authorized storage areas as investigators work to determine whether the theft involved insiders, outsiders, or a combination of both. Searches are reportedly continuing across the regiment and the broader Bollaram Cantonment area as authorities work to trace the missing weapons and identify those responsible.
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