A team of the Special Operations Group (SOG) and Lisadi Gate police have busted an illegal firearms factory operating for the past five years from a house in the Ashiana Colony here.The police have seized a huge cache of pistols, guns and equipment for making firearms.Six people were arrested during the raid while five others managed to flee the premises.Police said the raid was part of the ongoing statewide drive against illegal firearms manufacturing units ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls.Meerut Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Prabhakar Chaudhary said, "The factory has been running at the house from the past five years, while the house owners were supplying illegal firearms of different bores, ranging Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 for a gun, to criminals in nearby districts to influence the outcome of the upcoming Assembly elections."The SSP said the arrested accused were identified as Ayub, Amir, Anas Mohammad, Irshad, Haseen a.k.a Bhura and Amir. Rashid, the house owner, Shahzad, Israr, Shahid Ali and Isaf Ali fled the scene.The SSP said 35 different types of arms and equipment were seized from the factory. He said that all the accused were wanted in more than one criminal case.The data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2020 said that Uttar Pradesh accounts for half of the country's illegal weapon seizures.As many as 67,947 firearms were seized under the Arms Act in the country in 2020, with Uttar Pradesh topping the list with 32,776 seizures, the data said.