'Fundamentalists, anti-socials behind arms smuggling'

Kannur, Jan 10: Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan today said fundamentalist forces and anti-social elements were behind the Kochi arms smuggling and said stern action would be taken against those involved.

Speaking at a meet-the-press programme, the Chief Minister said stringent security measures would be taken in the wake of Centre cautioning the state to ensure that it did not become a hub of anti-socials and fundamentalist forces.

Mr Achuthanandan was reacting to the seizure of a huge cache of firearms from a container which arrived from Dubai at the Cochin Port yesterday.

On the raids against pirated CDs, he said there were complaints that the police were seizing all the CDs from video libraries without verifying whether it was pirated or not. This attitude of police would only mar the image of the government, he added.

UNI