Homegrown terror outfits change the face of terror

SLEEPING OVER TERROR: Intelligence inputs indicate that trained agents are being remote controlled from across the border.

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Keywords: HUJI, Terror

Muzaffarnagar: The recent serial blasts in Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow that killed over 14 people and injured many others could have been averted, but in a shocking revelation the intelligence agencies failed to build on the leads available to them.

Some of the inputs which the intelligence agencies had were that at least six separate batches of fresh recruits from Uttar Pradesh were sent to Chittagong and Rajsahi camps in Bangladesh in 2006 for training in mass destruction.

Their 15-20 days training involved manufacture of bombs from locally available explosives, like ammonium nitrate, potassium permanganate and sulphur. The recruits were also taught the use of clocks as timer devices and detonators for bomb blasts.

To make matters worse regarding the intelligence agencies’ failure, none of these are new techniques. As far as 10 years ago, top Lashkar commander Abdul Karim Tunda used the same material and methods in the serial blasts in and around Delhi.

"The intelligence inputs provided is inadequate and insufficient and local police is understaffed in the state,” terror expert Ajay Sahni said.

Intelligence inputs indicate that many of these trained agents are now being remote controlled from across the border to carry out frequent terror attacks. Terror groups like HUJI are now increasingly using locally available explosives to trigger blasts.

So, a CNN-IBN team took a reality check on the easy availability of such explosives in the state. At a shop in UP’s Bulandshar, sulphur is available for Rs 100 per kilogtram. The team even managed to get 100 grams of ammonium nitrate from a local shop in Muzaffarnagar. The same shop sold potassium permanganate as well.

Walliullah, who is allegedly the main architect of the Varanasi blast, used a combination of ammonium nitrate with urea, a detonator and a clock as a timer inside a pressure cooker to trigger blasts at the Sankatmochan Temple last year.

“Such substances are easily available. To increase the lethality they are put inside a pressure cooker,” SP, Meerut, Rajesh Pandey said.

It's a lethal combination of the local sleeper cells and the locally available explosives which terrorist organisations like HUJI are increasingly using. But despite the increased threat perception there does not seem to be any plan of action to contain the free sale of such explosives.