BENGALURU: The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has instructed rifle shooters travelling to Thiruvananthapuram for the National Shooting Championships later this month to carry permit letters from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ensure that airlines don’t offload them for carrying arms and ammunition.
Acutely aware of incidents of airlines refusing to oblige shooters without ‘proper permits’, the NRAI recently issued an advisory asking the participants to avoid a leading airline before making an immediate U-turn.
“All the shooters participating in the 65th National Shooting Championship being held at Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) from November 20 to December 9 are hereby advised to avoid travel through the said airline,” the NRAI said in a message to the participants.
“As per the information received from DGCA, there may be a problem for carrying arms and ammunition through this airline,” it added.
On Friday, NRAI secretary Rajiv Bhatia said the earlier advisory stood cancelled. “We removed it within hours after issuing it. We have issued a fresh notice,” Bhatia told TOI.
The latest note on the NRAI website on November 2 says: “Shooters who are travelling by air with weapons and ammunition for participation in the NSCC are advised to apply for DGCA permit to avoid any inconvenience. Shooters must download ‘gun carry letters’ from our website www.thenrai.org.”
A federation official, who didn’t want to be named, pointed out that shooters often faced problems due to the ignorance of a few airline officials manning the check-in counters.
Sources said shooters travelling to Thiruvananthapuram from most parts of the country would have faced trouble if they were told to avoid the airline.
“Those travelling from Delhi and Mumbai wouldn’t face much of a hassle as there are Air India flights but shooters from other cities would have struggled to reach Thiruvananthapuram,” they said.
“Shooters travelling from Bengaluru could also face trouble as they don’t have much of a choice to fly into the Kerala capital. With Air India, they travel via Mumbai or Delhi with a 10-hour stopover,” the sources added.
