It was as early as April 13 that an alert sent by Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta had, in fact, acknowledged the problem. “Some of the issues that concern us fall in the areas of manufacture, supply, transport and storage of explosives in the Naxalite-affected areas,” the order said. “Serious concern has also been voiced about the free diversion of substances like potassium chlorate and ammonium nitrate, which used in conjunction with sulphur and fuel oil acquire explosive proportions.”

“When RDX was used, it was easier to decode the fingerprints on the attack,” says a senior intelligence official who is investigating the Hyderabad attack, “but when explosives like these, the ones commonly available and stolen, are used, our job gets incredibly difficult.”

These explosive heists have been reported by Deputy Chief Controllers located in Kolkata, Rourkela, Vadodara, Bhopal and Vellore. What’s more shocking is the fact that all these offices have sent in identical comments that add up to nothing: “No reply received from police authorities regarding retrieval.”

Only in one case in the last two years, after 51,000 m of detonating fuse were stolen from an explosive manufacturer in Krishnakiri, Tamil Nadu, were the police able to recover 14,250 m, barely a third of the loot.

“This is the major impediment we face,” Chief Controller of Explosives M Anbuthan told The Sunday Express. “Even after major thefts from licensed magazines, some located in terrorist and Naxalite-affected belts, we never hear from the state police. The result of the investigation must be shared with the licensing authority but we have been left completely in the dark.”

... contd.