Bomb-making 101: Laws needed for legal chemicals

You have to put laws in place to regulate how they are sold and monitor who is buying them: FBI

KARACHI: It’s not only narcotics that Pakistani security agencies have to battle. Since the ‘War on Terror’ began, the movement of “precursor chemicals” that are later used in improvised-explosive devices (IEDs) is also a focus for these agencies.

David Carrol from the FBI says that in Pakistan the most common chemicals that are used in IEDs are ammonium nitrate, calcium ammonium nitrate, and potassium permanganate but what makes this especially challenging is that most of the bombs made with these materials tend to be used in fertiliser and for other legal necessities.

“What you have to do in Pakistan depends on legislation. You have to put laws in place to regulate how they are sold and monitor who is buying them,” Carrol said when asked how Pakistan can deal with catching a legal substance that can be used for illegal activities.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2012.