Pune blast shows advance in terror technology: Experts

GANDHINAGAR - The material used in Saturday’s Pune blast that killed nine people is substantially different from what was used in the deadly serial blasts in Ahmedabad in 2008, and shows a worrying advance in terror technology, according to forensic experts.

The team from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) here who are in Pune to assist the police in the blast probe say RDX was the main explosive used at the German Bakery in Pune, and it is substantially more lethal than the ammonium nitrate used in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in 2008.

The FSL team has picked up over two kg of material from the site of the Pune explosion for detailed analysis.

The analysis will not only help investigations into this particular blast but also provide insight into the evolving use of technology by terrorists, highly placed sources at the FSL here said.

These sources have reasons to believe that tech-savvy brains are assisting the terror network as is emerging from the upgradation in technology being put to use to carry out the blasts.

RDX — or cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, to give it its chemical name — is far lighter than the ammonium nitrate that would have to be used for an equivalent blast. In Pune, two men are suspected to have carried the RDX in their backpacks and left them inside the crowded German Bakery before going out and triggering the blast.

In contrast, for the 2008 blasts carried out in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in the country, ammonium nitrate had been added to fuel oil to create a lethal mix termed ANFO which was further fortified with iron shrapnel inside and placed in close proximity to cooking gas cylinders to magnify impact.

This technique was used to deadly effect in the Ahmedabad blasts particularly those carried out at hospitals where the injured victims of previous blasts were being brought in for treatment.

Police investigators in Gujarat are closely looking at the seizures of ammonium nitrate, gelatine sticks and detonators from various parts of the state over the last two days though preliminary indications point to it being organised pilferage by quarry operators.

“We are exploring all angles and will be able to arrive at some definitive conclusions only after a more detailed interrogation of those arrested in this connection,” a senior police officer of Gujarat said.