Within a space of weeks, two blasts caused by IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), have rocked courtrooms in Delhi and Punjab’s Ludhiana. The accused in the first is a DRDO scientist while the perpetrator of the second blast is suspected to have lost his life while assembling the bomb. India is well-acquainted with the potential for damage represented by these bombs, which are assembled with easy-to-obtain materials but can be high on lethality.
What Is An IED?
According to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an IED a “homemade” bomb or device that is used to “destroy, incapacitate, harass, or distract”. The use of such explosives is commonly linked with “criminals, vandals, terrorists, suicide bombers, and insurgents”, adds DHS, with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) noting that “IED production takes place outside government controls”.
The tag “improvised” may connote a rudimentary device, but DHS says that IEDs come in many forms and can be devised as a “small pipe bomb to a sophisticated device capable of causing massive damage and loss of life”. For example, the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 — which was the worst terrorist attack on US soil till that date, killing close to 169 people — had been caused by an IED.
The National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN) says in a note that an IED is a device that is “placed or fabricated in an improvised manner, incorporating
destructive, lethal, noxious, pyrotechnic or incendiary chemicals”.
IEDs are among the world’s oldest types of weapons, says UNODA. Further, DHS notes that the term IED came into common usage during the Iraq War that began in 2003 while NACIN says that the coinage IED can be traced to the British army in the 1970s to describe bombs made by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) “from agricultural fertiliser and SEMTEX smuggled from Libya”.
UNODA says that, every year, IED attacks “kill and injure more people than do attacks with any other type of weapon except firearms” and that the “proliferation of IED use is an unmistakable trend”.
How Easy Is It To Make An IED?
According to NACIN, “IEDs are inexpensive and can be easily manufactured, concealed and detonated”. They typically use commonly available material or chemicals and while the use of military materials is not unknown, they are “normally devised from non-military components”.
The key components in an IED, says DHS, include an “initiator, switch, main charge, power source, and a container” while the explosive material “may be surrounded by or packed with additional materials or ‘enhancements’ such as nails, glass, or metal fragments designed to increase the amount of shrapnel propelled by the explosion”.
Enhancements could also include other hazardous materials with NACIN saying that IEDs can be used for dispersing chemical, radiological, or biological material with such devices also known as ‘dirty bombs’.
DHS says that commonly available materials “such as fertiliser, gunpowder, and hydrogen peroxide, can be used as explosive materials in IEDs”. A frequently used material involves a mixture of ammonium nitrate. DHS pointed out that concern about the use of explosives created from liquid components that can be mixed at the site of attack is the reason behind restrictions on the amount of liquids that passengers can carry on flights.
Reports said citing investigators that the December 23 Ludhiana blast was “a possible IED attack” and that the device may have gone off while the suspected perpetrator was trying to assemble the bomb inside a washroom in the court complex.
Earlier, the blast at the Rohini court in Delhi on December 9 was caused by a low-intensity IED with investigators finding that ammonium nitrate was used to fashion the bomb that was assembled in a steel tiffin box. The 47-year-old DRDO scientist Bharat Bhushan Kataria who was arrested in connection with the blast is said to have triggered the IED using a remote control. But experts are reported to have said that the circuit of the IED was not been assembled properly and that had led to only the detonator going off and not the half kilogram ammonium nitrate-based explosive.
Police also said that easily available materials were used to make the IED and among the evidence collected from the residence of the accused were “similar screws that were used as shrapnel in the IED, and remnants of a black adhesive tape used in fabricating the IED”.
Are There Different Types Of IEDs?
Given that they are put together by hand, IEDs are “extremely diverse in design”, says NACIN, adding that their forma and function is “restricted only by human ingenuity”.
IEDs may contain different types of initiators, detonators, etc. and can be triggered by diverse methods, “including remote control, infra-red or magnetic triggers, pressure sensitive bars or trip wires”.
They can vary based on the type of explosive used, the method of assembly, and the method of detonation and while “the types of IEDs are infinite, NACIN says that they generally fall into three categories: package/container IEDs, which are typically made from mortar and artillery shells and can be thrown or concealed to be either “‘command-detonated’ by wire or remote device or ‘time-delayed’ and detonated by cordless phone from a car”. Then there are vehicle-borne IEDs (VBIEDs) that use a vehicle as the package or container and are “one of the most common types of IEDs in warzones”. The explosive vest — usually activated by hand — worn by suicide bombers is also classified as an IED.
What Are The Steps Taken To Combat IED Threats?
A report in 2017 citing data from the National Bomb Data Centre (NBDC) said that India had recorded the highest number of IED blasts in the two years prior. While NBDC said that India had seen 337 IED blasts in 2016, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had told Lok Sabha that “as such the data published [by NBDC] is not indicative that India witnessed the maximum bombing in the world in the year 2016 (sic)”.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2020, a total of 250 IEDs were seized in India, the bulk of it from terrorists, extremists and insurgents, etc.
MHA had further told Lok Sabha that the government was taking various steps to deal with IEDs, including the “training of security personnel on counter measures, standardisation of counter IED training and material, induction of sniffer dogs, back tracking of explosives and adoption of tactical measures by troops, etc.”.
Pointing to regulations put in place in 2013 by the European Union, NACIN says “the problem of IEDs… can be tackled and minimised significantly” by introducing effective controls on the possession and availability of important components like explosive charge and detonators.
Noting that the “popularity of IEDs is only likely to increase further with time due to the obvious advantages it offers to the terrorists”, CRPF said that the Institute of IED Management was established under it at Pune “to act as the nerve centre for imparting training to all CRPF and other police force personnel for countering and developing capabilities against IED menace”.
UNODA says that IED components remain cheap and easily accessible due to, among other things, “criminal networks and porous borders, and as a result of corruption and poor ammunition stockpile management”. It notes that in countries with strict weapons control rules, “IEDs seem to form an increasingly attractive alternative or addition to illicit small arms” even as the “spread of communications technology has greatly abetted IED knowledge-sharing”.
It says that “a traditional arms regulation approach“, that is, by way of regulating governmental production, trade, and use of IEDs through a multilateral agreement “may not yield results”. The focus, UNODA says, “should be on the capacity of governments to effectively bring together several policy strands for comprehensive national action” covering everything from commercial mining to military stockpile management and agriculture and aviation security for a “whole-of-government approach”.
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