Audit of explosive-making firms should be compulsory: Experts
Following the incident of Udaipur railway track blast case in November this year, security experts have opined that regular audit of every unit of the explosive manufacturing companies should be made mandatory by the government.
The forensic examination of the blast that occurred on November 13 has exposed the loopholes in the monitoring of explosives supply chain and there have been many instances that these explosives had been used for anti-national activities in the past. The security experts have opined that terrorists or Maoists have illegally obtained the explosives and they used it for their anti-national activities.
Former special director of Intelligence Bureau Yashovardhan Azad (retd) said that there is a provision of regular audit of these companies but the implementation part seems to be lacking. “The government needs to get a manufacturing and supply audit done regularly and strictly,” he said.
The experts also flagged that the explosive used in Udaipur rail track blast was a Superpower 90 detonator and it was manufactured by Nagpur-based Solar Explosives Ltd whose name had cropped up in 2016 for supply of explosives worth `1,600 crores to ISIS in Syria.
Reiterating that there was an urgent need of a regular audit of the explosive companies and the supply chain, counter terrorism expert Dr Rituraj Mate said that the area where the explosion took place is under the jurisdiction of the Zawar mines police station in Udaipur and it was suspected that Maoists have bases in such areas.
The Rajasthan police have nabbed some youths in this blast case and the initial probe revealed that the accused were upset as they were not given compensation or a job, after their land was acquired by the Indian Railways and Hindustan Zinc Limited. Since Udaipur was also the place where a beheading incident occurred post the controversial statement of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and a surge in radicalisation in a particular community, the possibility of the ISIS exploiting the faultlines cannot be ruled out, Dr Mate said.