Antiquated rifle being phased out

AHMEDABAD: The city police has begun phasing out the antiquated.303 rifle, often compared to the Lee Enfield guns used in World War-I, as part of its comprehensive anti-terror plan. In its place, the police will only be armed with much lighter automatic weapons like carbines, AK-47s and INSAS rifles.
City police commissioner Sudhir Sinha has also decided to deploy four commandos trained in antiterror tactics in all the police control room (PCR) vans.The city police had deployed 28 PCR vans after the July 26, 2008 serial bomb blasts. These vans used to have only 3 constables, including the driver and two constables with .303 rifles. The .303 rifles will be phased out gradually. This is a part of the lessons learnt from 26/11 when Mumbai police found itself suddenly fighting the LeT fidayeens with .303 rifles.
None of the 85 police stations had automatic weapons and they had to rush to their headquarters to fetch the automatic weapons. This wasted nearly 2 hours, by which time the damage was done.