Explosive made easy

A number of unscrupulous traders from Old Dhaka are supplying the chemicals being used in manufacturing crude bombs that are exploded during hartals and blockades in the capital.
Ingredients like sulphur and potash that are widely used in agriculture, industries and other chemical factories are the main raw materials of the bombs, according to detectives.
Police have learned that a number of chemicals stores at Mitford, Becharam Dewri, Gendaria, Shyampur and Lalbagh are selling those substances to around 50 gangs, thanks to absence of strict monitoring of such stores.
The detectives said they were yet to detect and arrest such traders as people engaged in the supply chain were not acquainted with each other.Chief of Bomb Disposal Unit, Sanwar Hossain, of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said, "Police have failed to detect the suppliers as makers and users of such bombs who were often arrested did not know exactly who had supplied the ingredients."
He added at least eight to 10 people were used for carrying the ingredients from a chemicals store to the makers.
Quoting a recently arrested bomb-maker, Sanwar said the arrestee was involved in producing crude bombs for around two years. He received sulphur from several people at different spots at Bangshal in Old Dhaka but did not know any of those suppliers.
Law enforcers recovered 672 cocktails, six IEDs [improvised explosive device] and 5.7 kg sulphur from different parts of the capital from October 25 to December 3, he said, adding, they had found sulphur was commonly used to manufacture cocktails.
"To detect the suppliers of sulphur and other chemicals, we are going to launch a massive drive to verify stocks in the stores of traders and industries which use those as raw materials."
"If we find any anomaly at the stocks of the stores, the persons concerned will be rounded up for interrogation," Sanwar, also additional deputy commissioner, said.
He added, "We wrote to the industrial ministry requesting for information on the importers, traders and users of sulphur. The ministry has recently provided us with the information."
Against the backdrop of recent spate of cocktail explosion, the law enforcers over the last few weeks arrested almost all the members of 50 bomb-makers' gangs that were on the list of detectives.
However, the level of cocktail explosion has yet to come down as hartal pickets are now engaging party activists to produce cocktails.
Quoting recently arrested bomb-makers, a top detective said the masterminds of such cocktail attacks now engaged their party people to make crude bombs keeping the supply chain undisclosed.
Intelligence reports placed before a cabinet committee meeting on law and order have meanwhile stated that several chemicals importers and traders who have hobnobbing to blockaders and hartal pickets were behind the supply of the chemicals, said a source in the meeting held on Wednesday at the home ministry.
Additional Secretary Main Uddin Khandaker of the ministry said several law-enforcement and intelligence agencies had been working to find out the suppliers. A massive crackdown would soon be carried out on the makers and users of such bombs, he added.