M A I N   N E W S

Punjab terrorists reveal skills acquired in Pak
Vijay Mohan/Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 30
Pakistan is now training terrorists to assemble bombs with material available easily in the market. This was revealed in the course of interrogation of terrorists arrested recently in Punjab.

“The source or origin of explosives like RDX, Semtex or detonators and timers can be traced from their residue,” a police officer explained. “But with devices assembled from commonly available items, which normally would not attract any attention, it becomes next to impossible to trace the sources and makes it that much more convenient for anti-social elements,” he said.

Use of RDX required cross-border smuggling, secrecy, concealment and transport. But the new technique does away with such inconvenience, the terrorist is said to have told his interrogators.

The interrogation revealed how terrorists were trained to use sulphur and potash-based products (both chemicals are commonly used in agriculture and industry), as well as silver paint and sugar in a specific proportion in a drum or a pipe and how an acid-filled capsule was then added to trigger the explosion. These devices do not require detonators and timers and the heat in the open causes the acid to leak out from the capsule, resulting in an explosion.

What the police fear is that if such devices, which otherwise would be low intensity in nature, are combined with flammable liquids like petrol or with nails and metal fragments, the damage inflicted by them could be far more substantial.

Such devices would, however, be cumbersome and not easy to carry surreptitiously or be placed in inhabitated areas without attracting attention.

“Though revival of large-scale violence, as witnessed in the state earlier, is ruled out for the time being, there are chances of isolated incidents aimed at creating panic or provoking communal friction and we need to guard against this,” said a senior officer.

Police sources claim that both Thailand and Malyasia are among countries being used for training terrorists in the use of computers for communication or for personal contact. One of the arrested terrorists was trained in the use of e-mail there.