BOMBAY: The team of forensic experts which visited the sites of the various bomb blessing Bombay have picked up samples to deter mine the nature of the explosive material used.
A team of Army bomb experts are on the job also since March 12, it was reliably learned. Although, the bomb experts feel that either Semtex or TNT could have been used, only extensive tests in laboratories can determine the exact material.
There are fair chances that the deadly and all powerful “Semtcx” plastic explosive may have been used in the bomb blasts since the magnitude of devastation caused indicate the use of a highly sophisticated kind of explosive material. Semtex is now used commonly by many militant outfits worldwide.
Among the infamous cases of bombing wherein this deadly substance was used was the bombing of the Pan Am and the Air India flights. It was after much pains taking investigation that explosive experts had arrived at the conclusion that Semtex had been used in these bombing cases.
An idea of the deadlines of this material can be gauged from the fact that only 200 grams put in a radio cosmetic player was used to blow up the Pan Am Boeing 747 Killing 259 persons in 1988. Because it is a combination of two high powered explosive sub stances, one among them being the highly reactive RDX, Semtex is a very powerlul substance, What makes it attractive to militants, according to explosives experts, is that very small quantities can be used to create explosions of high magnitude. This makes the final bomb a small product indeed and very easy to hide.
Another factor is that Semtex is an odorless substance which cannot be detected by sniffer dogs or X-Ray machines, Thus, it can be smuggled in easily. The material is also very pliable and putty like, so it can be molded into any shape to avoid detection.
Militant outfits from the Middle East countries are already in possession of this material. One of the active groups from Libya has been using Semtex for many of its bombing operations for some years.
The world first came to know of this plastic explosive when the then President of Czechoslovakia, Vaciav Havel, had revealed at a press conference in London that his country’s regime had sold Libya 1,000 tons of Semtex .
Article extracted from this publication >> March 19, 1993
