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Amid fears that a `bomb culture' is beginning to take roots in Kerala, the police have been cracking down on illegal diversion of explosives for criminal activities. In the last two weeks, crude explosive devices were found abandoned in the State-owned transport buses at Kochi and Kozhikode.
The highly secretive `Operation Sasthra', initiated by the Special Branch Police in May, had already succeeded in unearthing considerable quantities of explosives, according to top police officials. More importantly, it has exposed how easily explosives, legitimately acquired for quarrying and other purposes, can be diverted for criminal purposes, the police said.
The use of locally assembled bombs has been on the rise in the State. These improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have been used to settle political scores and, as in Marad just a few months ago, in communal incidents as well. The Marad flare-up had seen the use of country bombs as well as explosives packed into soft drink cans.
Deaths in bomb-related violence have also been on the increase. As many as 46 persons were killed and over 300 injured in country bomb explosions between 2000 and 2002, according to the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB). The largest number of cases under the provisions of the Explosive Substances Act was registered in Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Thrissur districts.
In 2002, for example, 101 cases were registered under the Act in Thiruvananthapuram, 86 in Kannur, 59 in Kozhikode and 34 in Thrissur district. The least number of cases was reported in Kasaragod, Wayanad and Idukki.
The SCRB figures show that 94 CPI(M) activists, 69 from the BJP and seven from its affiliate organisations, 18 Congress men, six from the IUML and four belonging to the National Development Front (NDF) have been arrested on charges of violating the Explosive Substances Act during the same period. Senior police officials who spearheaded the `Operation Sasthra' said the massive State-wide hunts had led to large-scale seizure of country bombs, illegally stocked gelatine sticks, cordex fuses and chemical charges in the past few months.
As many as 150 people, many of them owing allegiance to various political organisations, had been arrested. The operation led to the registration of 86 cases under the Explosive Substances Act. More than half of these cases were based on seizures from just two northern districts, Kozhikode and Kannur.
The Director General of Police, P. K. Hormese Tharakan, told The Hindu that the `Operation Sasthra' had revealed that IEDs found in the State were ``low grade and made entirely of locally available material''. While the lethality of even crude bombs could not be ignored, ``there was no evidence of any one in the State having acquired sophisticated arms or high grade explosives,'' he added.
The police suspect that the bombs were left in the buses by some criminal gang which had an axe to grind against some rival group. "Both the bombs were discovered with letters implicating known offenders. It is also likely that the second incident involving the discovery of another bomb in bus at Kozhikode could be a ploy to divert the investigation into the Kochi incident", an official said. Another senior police officer said that explosives meant for quarrying and for making fireworks could be easily diverted to criminal elements and religious fundamentalist outfits in the State. At present, there were 2,595 licensees entitled to stock, sell and use explosives. They include large numbers of those making fireworks for religious bodies and festivals as well as those involved in quarrying. Given the difficulties of monitoring the activities of so many licensees, diversion of explosives was not easy to detect.
More than 400 cases of violation
of the Explosives Act, which are yet to be cracked, are now under the active
investigation of the police. This also included the suspected testing of
a "timer-triggered" explosive device in Wayanad in 2001.
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