Hyderabad: Sleuths of the East Zone task force recovered an antique cannon (artillery gun) possibly belonging to the 17th century from a plot of land while it was being dug for construction. The canon is suspected to belong to the Mughal era.

According to the commissioner’s task force the artillery gun, possibly used by the Mughal Army during its attack on the Golconda Fort here, was found during digging for construction. Following an alert that the gun, weighing around 800 kg was found by workers employed by a contractor named Lateef at Nayapool in Mirchowk the police came and took possession of it.

“The cannon was probably a part of the artillery accompanying the forces of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb when he attacked Golconda Fort and succeeded in the second attempt in 1687 by defeating the last Qutub Shahi ruler Abdul Hassan Tanisha,” said additional DCP N. Koti Reddy. The gun is 6.5 feet long and has a bore of four inches. It is made of alloys. It is quite advanced by the standards of those times, said Mr Reddy. Officials said it would be handed over to the Telangana department of archaeology.