It has been an uphill task for the police to curb the free availability of low-intensity explosive material, like gelatine sticks and ammonium nitrate, which have been used in terror attacks in the city repeatedly. The detonator wire that led to an accident in a private school on Friday also came from explosives used at a construction site.
Ammonium nitrate, a major component in fertilisers, was earlier sold freely. However, now it can be sold only by licence holders with proper documentation. The restriction was imposed after a series of bomb blasts across the city in 2008 in which ammonium nitrate was used.
However, this has not plugged pilferage. Biju Thomas of Udupi, a licenced explosive dealer, was arrested in May 2014 after investigations established that he was allegedly the main supplier for the Indian Mujahideen. Security agencies recovered 14,000 kilos of illegally stocked ammonium nitrate from his stockyard in the coastal region. He is the alleged supplier of the explosive material used in the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium blasts of 2010.
Besides the coastal Karnataka belt, most ammonium nitrate is brought into the State through Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, claim police officers. Most dealers in the coastal belt of the State and Kerala operate in cohorts, an officer said.
In their charge sheet in the 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts, police claimed that the terror module broke into a fertiliser shop in Kerala to procure the material. “Any break-in into a fertiliser store is the simplest way to get hold of a sizeable quantity of the explosive material. Not all stores in the city have a CCTV camera, leave alone anti-burglary systems or a security guard,” a senior officer lamented.
Gelatine sticks Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur districts in Andhra Pradesh are the main base for gelatine sticks and detonators, which is used to blast rock. The rocky terrain of the districts is marked with numerous stone quarries. It has given rise to a local industry for detonators and gelatine sticks.
People operating stone quarries in and around Bengaluru and the mining industry in Ballari import gelatine sticks and detonators from Kadapa and Anantapur. Prior permission is a pre-requisite for carrying out any blasts, but many quarries around the city are illegal. Hence, they people involved neither seek permission nor procure explosives the legal way, an officer said.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Alok Kumar said that they have been co-ordinating with their counterparts in the neighbouring states and have maintained a strict vigil at the inter-state borders to prevent smuggling of these explosive materials.
