The home ministry has postponed its earlier order asking private owners to surrender their firearms and ammunitions to the nearby police stations or authorised dealers before December 27.
The revised order will remain effective until further notice, said an official announcement on Thursday.
“There will be a ban on the movement of licenced firearm holders with their arms as well as handling those in and around the polling centres in the election areas from December 27 to January 7,” reads the statement.
It, however, said the district magistrate concerned can direct the licenced firearm owners to deposit their arms at any time for the sake of maintaining the law and order during the January 5 election.
Earlier on December 23, the home ministry issued the ban order. The ban was imposed on carrying legal firearms from December 27 to January 15 for holding the January 5 parliamentary polls.
The arms and ammunitions will remain in the custody of the police stations or the dealers until January 15 as per The Arms Act 1878, the order said.