Forty-eight hours of rainfall may have saved dozens of lives by degrading the explosive material used in the six improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted on a crowded road in Pune on Wednesday, a forensic expert associated with the investigation told The Hindu.
Though the detonators went off, he said, humidity absorbed by the explosive material (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil mix) prevented the bombs from exploding.
Pune registered 83.9 millimetres of rainfall on Wednesday and 18.1 mm the previous day, with humidity hovering at over 90 per cent, meteorological records state. In April 2010, two bombs planted outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore fizzled out in near-identical circumstances, while a third failed to detonate. Bombs planted in Bangalore in 2008 and a car-bomb parked outside the Delhi High Court last summer also fizzled out because of humidity-related degeneration in the ammonium-nitrate based explosive.
Sources in the Mumbai Police said unexploded bombs found in Pune on Wednesday and Thursday bore some similarities with the devices used by the Indian Mujahideen, which has carried out multiple terror strikes in which hundreds of people have been killed since 2005.
However, a senior police officer said it would be “wrong to attribute responsibility to a group on the basis of the bomb-type alone, because these devices are easy to fabricate.”
Though classified as a low explosive, the ammonium nitrate-fuel oil mix has been used to lethal effect by insurgents and terror groups around the world —notably in 1995, when a car-bomb in Oklahoma killed 168.
Ammonium nitrate is widely used in India as a fertilizer; its sale is largely unregulated.
In its first three strikes — the bombing of Varanasi’s Ashwamedh Ghat in February 2005, the July 2005 explosion on the Sharamjeevi Express and serial explosions at a Delhi market in October 2005 — the Indian Mujahideen used military grade explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate or PETN.
However, in its subsequent operations, among them the attacks on the Mumbai’s mass transit system in July 2006 and the bombing of the German Bakery in Pune in February 2010, the Indian Mujahideen used ANFO devices.
Keywords: Pune explosions, Pune blast, Junglee Maharaj Road, Balgandharva Theatre, Dena Bank branch, McDonald joint
I wonder though, if this act of terror is another by-product of Gujarat riot then why do we not see such attacks in Gujarat, why Mumbai ro Pune every time! Last I checked both those places are not part of Gujarat state...
God is only saving , Governement is hopeless ,cannot do any
thing.After blast they can do post martom service.
What the security agencies are doing taking salaries??
After sept 11th attack in US no single incident happened.They are
leaving presidents for security checks.In india due to selfishness and
bribary and due to vote bank politics these are happenings.
These durty politicians and selfish employees should die in such
blasts, then only the country will develop
As a common man, I really dont mind about the type of explosives used. Rather, I am concerned about the safety and I would expect the intelligence team to use their "Intelligence" to safe guard the society.
If it was not for rain what would have happened to the poeple of the town after the explsion?How many times India have been rocked due to such explosion in major cities and sending shockwaves across the country.Well, as per evryone ,raingod has played it;s part and what about the concerned authority.Why don't the government let such things happen ,not initiating a crack down policy on the perpetrators, being trapped in the vote bank politics?It is really pathetic.
Though the detonators went off, he said, humidity absorbed by the explosive material
(ammonium nitrate and fuel oil mix) prevented the bombs from exploding.
~ so, there is God.
When the city Police commissioner is so inept to claim the explosions to be an act of mischief (without even caring to wait for the investigations to be completed) naturally you must thank your stars and the rain gods to have saved the day for the citizens of pune. But for how long we would keep on hoping for divine intervention to save us. When would we learn to take control of our destinies? Is it not the right time to make a beginning by getting rid of the incompetent people from the high positions of responsibilities?
Why the Media is leaking out the details and why the intelligent people leaking the information to media on the reasons for low intensity of blast?
Just to get TRP's? Should not media be knowledgable enough to publish/telecast the information in best interest of the country?
Any media/print etc sharing such information should be banned and sealed without any delays..
God did save us where our security failed.
Pray for more rain..so that we can be safe..our intelligence is good for
nothing.
Rain is always a blessing for humans....
It is the rain god which can save the people of the country.
What happened to the Intelligence network and security of the country?
Hail the home minister.He may pass the bucks to the local authorities.The fact that the CCTV cameras in the vicinity of the occurrance were not functioning shows that the local police department is so lax in the security consciousness or otherwise.The previous HM is now FM.God only can save India,as in the case of Pune,where the raingod came to our rescue.
Well, we need all the information, so that the people who placed the bomb can be more careful next time.
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