Deadly, Unobtrusively

"Use what you can procure easily without attracting suspicion. Avoidfancy things that will attract attention to you."

That is the instruction imparted by Al Qaeda and other Pakistan-basedterrorist organisations to their trainees. Even before Al Qaeda startedimparting this instruction, Palestinian terrorists had been following this ontheir own.

Till the early 1980s, Palestinian and ideological terrorist groups had a fascination for sophisticated explosives such as the RDX and othermilitary-grade explosives and SEMTEX, an explosive made by a factory in the thenCommunist Czechoslovakia, which had a very weak vapour density, thereby makingit difficult for dogs to detect its presence.

The action taken  by the security agencies of the world to make itdifficult for the terrorists to get them made the terrorists turn to nitrogenousfertilisers, which were easy to procure without creating suspicion. The firstmajor instance of the use of fertilisers was the unsuccessful attempt made byRamzi Yousef of Pakistan and some of his associates to blow up the New YorkWorld Centre in February,1993. They drove into the garage of the Trade Centre a truck loaded with about 1,500 pounds of urea nitrate  and hydrogen-gascylinders  and tried to cause an explosion. The explosion was not verysuccessful. It killed six persons and caused some damage. The investigationrevealed that Ramzi and his associates had learnt this modus operandi inPakistan.

In 1994, an unidentified group of Palestinians had planned to blow up theIsraeli diplomatic mission in Bangkok by using a truck filled with nitrogenousfertilisers. The truck broke down near a traffic signal. They abandoned it thereand ran away.

In 1995,  Timothy J. McVeigh, an American national not belonging to anyterrorist organisation, blew up the  Federal office building in OklahomaCity with a truck bomb carrying a mix of  5,000 pounds of fuel oil andfertilizer, killing 168 people.

Following this, the security agencies in many countries started closelymonitoring the purchase of nitrogenous fertilisers in large quantities bypersons who are not known to be farmers. Some countries also laid down that apermit issued by the police would be required  for the purchase of largequantities of fertilisers. All sellers of fertilisers were advised  to lookout for suspicious transactions and immediately alert the police.

In 2003, a suspected sleeper cell of Al Qaeda in the UK  reportedlypurchased 1200 pounds of fertilisers from a  shop. The seller  did notalert the police. However, the owner of a warehouse where the cell had kept thefertiliser got suspicious and alerted the police, who arrested the members ofthe cell. Since then, fertiliser manufacturers in the Western countries havereduced the percentage of ammonium nitrate, which is used for bomb-making, inthe fertilisers manufactured by them. In May,2006, the Canadian police arresteda group of Pakistanis and others, who were planning to cause an explosion byusing  nitrogenous fertilisers. (Please see TheCanadian Crisis )

Since then, instances of the use of nitrogenous fertilisers by terroristgroups has come down in the Western countries, but have increased in India. Inmany of the explosions caused by jihadi terrorists in different parts of Indiasince 2004, the explosive material consisted of a mix of ammonium nitrate andfuel oil. It was this mix, which was reportedly used in the explosions in thesuburban trains in Mumbai in July,2006, and in the subsequent serial blasts inUP, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.

After the police and security agencies in the West started monitoring thesale and purchase of nitrogenous fertilisers, Al Qaeda and other jihadiorganisations in Pakistan started advising the trainees in their camps to useincendiary devices instead of explosive devices. These incendiary devicesconsisted of gas cylinders and other inflammable material such as gasoline. OnAugust 3,2004, the British Police arrested Dhiren Barot also known as Bilalal-Hindi on a charge of helping Al Qaeda. He has since been convicted by aBritish court and jailed for 30 years. He is a Gujarati Hindu migrant from EastAfrica, who had embraced Islam. Lecture notes recovered from his possessionreportedly said inter alia: "Make use of that which is available at yourdisposal and  bend it to suit your needs"  He claimed to havelearnt this in a training camp in Pakistan. He advocated the use of incendiarydevices, instead of explosive devices. Such incendiary devices were used in theterrorist attack on the Samjota Express near Delhi on February 18, 2007. A carwith gas cylinders was also sought to be used by Kafeel Ahmed also known asKhalid Ahmed ,  an Indian Muslim from Karnataka, when he along with an Arabaccomplice tried to blow up the Glasgow airport in the UK on June 30,2007. Theattempt failed, but he died of burns.

For causing explosions, terrorists have now been increasingly usingperoxide-based liquids which could be converted into an explosive material. Manyarticles of common use such as certain items of cosmetics and cleaning solutionshave a peroxide component. It is easy to procure them in any super-market ordrug store without causing suspicion. It is difficult to detect them. They couldbe easily carried into aircraft and other modes of transport. They are light andeasy to carry on a person. They are cheap and affordable for terrorists who donot have much funds at their disposal. Whereas an ammonium nitrate-fuel oil IEDmay cost around US $ 60 or more, a peroxide-based one could cost  around US$ 25 only or even less.

The peroxide-based improvised explosive devices (IED) used by the foursuicide bombers --three of them of Pakistani origin trained in a terroristtraining camp in Pakistan's tribal belt-- for their attack on the Londontransportation system on July 7, 2005, attracted much attention and comment, butthat was not the first time it was used. Palestinian terrorists were the firstto have used a peroxide-based IED in Israel in 1980. It was used for the firsttime outside Israel in London by Palestinian terrorists in 1994 in an attemptedattack on the local Israeli Embassy. In 1995, Ramzi Yousef, then living secretlyin Manila after his involvement in the explosion in the New York World TradeCentre in February ,1993, had planned to use it for blowing up a number offlights  originating from South-East Asia. An accidental fire in hisapartment, where he had kept some liquid, alerted the Manila Police, and he ranaway to Pakistan, where he was subsequently arrested and handed over to the US.Peroxide-based explosives were reported to have been used by Al Qaeda in some ofits post-9/11 terrorist strikes in Bali, Casablanca and Istanbul.

While the use of the peroxide-based IED by the suicide bombers on July 7,2005, was devastatingly successful, a similar use attempted by another group inLondon on July 21, 2005, was not successful. The bombers of July 7, 2005, hadprepared the peroxide-based explosive in the bath-tub of a flat used by them.Some quantity had remained unused after the successful strikes of July 7. Thisquantity was sought to be used by the bombers of July 21, but the IEDs failedbecause the explosive material had disintegrated. The use of peroxide-basedliquids for fabricating an explosive material has two draw-backs. First, theycan accidentally cause an explosion or a fire while the explosive material isbeing prepared from the peroxide-based liquid, thereby killing the bomber oralerting the police. Second, they quickly disintegrate if not used immediatelyafter fabrication. Whereas ammonium nitrate -based explosives can be kept storedfor days and even months without any disintegration, one cannot similarly storeperoxide-based  explosive material.

In August 2006, the London Police discovered a plot by a group of terrorists,many of them Pakistanis, to blow up a number of US-bound planes by takingliquids capable of being converted into explosives into  the aircraft andfabricating the explosive inside the aircraft. The Pakistani authoritiesarrested Rashid Rauf, a British resident of Pakistani (Mirpuri) origin, onsuspicion and found in his possession some bottles of hydrogen peroxide liquid.He claimed that he had bought them in a drug store for use as an injurydisinfectant. Investigation revealed that he was related by marriage to MaulanaMasood Azhar, the Amir of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM). His interrogation alsoallegedly gave the tip-off regarding the London plot. He managed to escape fromcustody while being tried before a Pakistani Anti-Terrorism court. He isabsconding.

Peroxide-based liquid explosives lend themselves to easy use for acts ofsuicide terrorism. Peroxide-based explosives were reported to have been used inmany of the suicide attacks in Pakistan last year after the commando action inthe Lal Masjid.

In its issue of August 19, 2008, Paul John of the Times of India basedin Ahmedabad, has reported as follows:

"The Students Islamic Movement of India has been experimenting with a new concoction  using hydrogen peroxide to make liquid bombs. Prototypes of  liquid bombs were first experimented in Vagamon hill resort in Kerala where a SIMI camp was held in December,2007, to impart terror training to its cadres. The camp was organised by Kerala SIMI Secretary  P.A. Shivli. Experiments with hydrogen peroxide were revealed in the statement of SIMI General  Secretary Safdar Nagori during interrogation after his arrest by the Indore Police on March 26 this year."

The SIMI terrorists arrested by the Gujarat Police had planted over 10 IEDswith ammonium nitrate and mechanical timers in Ahmedabad which exploded on July26 causing death and destruction. They had also planted 25 IEDs with integratedcircuits in Surat all of which failed to explode. A question was raised whethera 100 per cent  failure of 25 IEDs was possible. The Gujarat Police havenot given any reasons for this failure so far. While they have revealed that theAhmedabad IEDs had ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, they have not said what wasthe explosive material in the Surat IEDs. If the terrorists had experimentedwith a peroxide-based explosive in Surat, a 100 per cent failure is possible dueto the disintegration of the explosive material if it had been fabricated muchin advance and kept in storage. That is what happened in London on July 21,2005.

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd),Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai.