Homemade bomb items readily sold

Step-by-step instructions on the Internet

PETALING JAYA: The incident where a homemade bomb was placed under the car of a nurse in Kapar on Sunday is a wake-up call on how easy it is to make an improvised explosive device (IED).

In fact, making your own explosives is easy enough via numerous videos and text instructions floating around the Internet.

Selangor CID chief Senior Asst Comm Fadzil Ahmat said it was alarming that information to make IEDs was easily accessible on the Internet.

“People can even view step-by-step instructions on YouTube.

“We are monitoring the situation, and no one should attempt to make their own bombs as they would end up in serious trouble,” he told The Star yesterday.

Checks revealed that most materials for a homemade fertiliser bomb can be sourced from hardware stores.

The daily googled for the type of materials needed, and armed with a shopping list, managed to secure all of them within three hours.

They included a fertiliser used for house- hold plants, batteries, wires, pipes and other items that were obtained for less than RM10 per piece.

Materials needed to build a detonator, such as light bulbs and alarm clocks, could be sourced from convenience stores or shopping centres.

In total, less than RM80 was spent to purchase items for the homemade explosive.

The most difficult item to obtain was the fertiliser, which can be found at plant nurseries and farming supply businesses.

Checks with several plant nurseries in Seri Kembangan and Sungai Buloh showed that most have stopped selling fertiliser that can be used in an IED and have instead switched to organic fertilisers.

Still, it was not impossible to get a 1kg bag of the required fertiliser for about RM7 while a 50kg bag was going for about RM150 a piece.

A couple of traders The Star spoke to did not bat an eye when we asked for larger amounts of the fertiliser, which could then be used to make a car bomb.