The bombs used in the low-intensity serial blasts which rocked Pune’s bustling Junglee Maharaj Road on Wednesday had tested positive for the deadly Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil (ANFO), according to the forensic scientists.
In the light of the findings, it has emerged that it was sheer luck that averted a major catastrophe as four of the six bombs had failed to explode completely, thereby reducing the intensity and the magnitude of the blasts.
Miraculously, with the exception of Dayanand Patil, who was wounded in the explosion, there were no injuries or casualties.
With the tests confirming the presence of ANFO, and the investigators seeing the blasts as the handiwork of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), the death toll resulting from the blasts could have eclipsed even the Pune German Bakery blast of 2010, had the perpetrators fully succeeded in their plans.
According to police sources, using ANFO in Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) is a favourite tactic employed by the terrorists. Compared to RDX and other explosives, IEDs made of Ammonium Nitrate are of low intensity. But it causes maximum havoc in the small radius where it has been placed. “ANFO was used in the July 2011 serial blasts in Mumbai in which an ANFO IED was used. The shock waves of the blasts are so powerful that it atomises everything that comes in its vicinity. Only the head was found of one of the victims at Zaveri Bazaar identified as Kisan Shivsadan (35) who was standing close to the bomb,” said a senior police officer.
Hence, the police suspect that the bombs were strategically placed at crowded locations in Pune to cause the maximum number of human casualties.
And for those formally trained in bomb making, putting together an ANFO IED is comparatively easy, owing to the unrestricted availability of its key ingredient-- ammonium nitrate-- which is normally used as a fertiliser.
The detonation of the ANFO occurs in two stages -- first by the blasting cap and then by the dynamite. When the IED is activated either using a timer device or a wireless signal, it sets off the blasting cap which is a small explosive that is set-off by a small spark which detonates the dynamite. The dynamite in turn causes the ANFO to explode. All this happens with in a fraction of a second and those witnessing the blast would hear only one deafening sound. Experts believe that either the ammonium nitrate was not of good quality or its ability to explode was dampened by the moisture caused by the rains.
Based on the examination of the two unexploded bombs, police believe that only the detonators exploded in the four of the six bombs.