KOCHI: Ammonium nitrate is a common form of nitrogen fertiliser used for farming, but the same fertiliser could be a deadly explosive as was evident from the controlled blasts that brought down the three apartment buildings at Maradu on Saturday. It was a cocktail of ammonium nitrate with emulsion explosives that demolished the buildings with such precision.
The sale of ammonium nitrate was totally unregulated in the country till 2011 and it was the Mumbai serial blasts in the same year that forced the Union Government to come out with a law banning the open sale of ammonium nitrate.
Experts say explosives made of ammonium nitrate are largely being used as an alternative to dynamite or plastic explosive to blast rock for mines and road construction. A senior police officer said: “It’s a very simple explosive to make and terrorists were using this deadly mix of ammonium nitrate to trigger attacks in the country.”
Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) Department of Applied Chemistry Head and Professor K Girish Kumar said ammonium nitrate was easy to handle compared to RDX or plastic explosive. “As an explosive, ammonium nitrate is convenient for use. It’s more of a chemical that can be used for controlled explosion where explosives like RDX is hard to control,” Girish Kumar added.
As per a Union Government report, ammonium nitrate is a necessary major ingredient for manufacture of explosives and it has been declared as a deemed explosives vide notification no. G.S.R. S.O. 1678(E) dated 21/07/2011.
Sale of ammonium
The sale of ammonium nitrate was totally unregulated in the country till 2011 and it was the Mumbai serial blasts in the same year that forced the Union Government to come out with a law banning the open sale of ammonium nitrate.