Thiruvananthapuram: The district police are planning a drive against unauthorised stocking and illegal diversion of explosives for criminal purposes, official sources said.

Recently, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan directed District Superintendents of Police to bring to book those who illegally acquire and trade explosives.

Incidents of violence involving the use of locally made bombs have been on the increase in the district. Early last month, the Neyyatinkara police arrested three persons on the charge of transporting bombs made from crude and locally available material. Twenty-two "throw down" type bombs packed with iron filings and nails were seized from them. Locally made bombs were used recently during a spat between two groups belonging to the same community in the coastal area of Kadhinamkulam.

This year, a member of a criminal gang was killed in Kazhakuttom when he accidentally set off a bomb he was carrying in a bag. Last year, several residents, including children, were injured in Kazhakuttom area when they accidentally set off bombs stashed away by criminal elements.

According to the police, explosives acquired legitimately for quarrying and making firecrackers are being diverted into the hands criminal elements, fundamentalist organisations and political parties with xenophobic tendencies.

Unauthorised manufacturers of fireworks, who illegally procure explosives from smugglers based mostly in Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, are known to divert the incendiary substances to criminal elements in the district.

Last year, the Excise Department seized a huge quantity of explosives near the Amaravila checkpost. The police at Balaramapuram made a similar seizure in 2005.

Nitro-glycerine-based explosives are also being secretly traded in the State despite a ban on the possession and sale of such substances by the Chief Controller of Explosives in 2004. The ban was imposed chiefly to prevent such lethal substances from falling into the hands of extremist organisations.

The covert trade is conducted by an illegal network involved in the smuggling of explosives and detonators from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu into Kerala. There are 16 explosive manufacturing units in Andhra Pradesh and four in Tamil Nadu. The illegitimately procured explosives are used largely for unauthorised granite mining operations.

The Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) has given license to 36 persons in Kerala for selling explosives. Nearly 1,200 persons have PESO authorisation to buy and use explosives. Official sources said there have been instances in which the licences issued by the PESO were misused for facilitating the illicit trade in explosives.

Lawbreakers in the explosives trade often legitimise their unlawful transactions by manipulating records to show that the volatile substances have been sold only to those with buyer's licence.

Large-scale mining of granite has triggered a huge demand for explosives in the district. Many of those having permits for quarrying find it easy to buy explosives from the black market given the delay and difficulty in getting clearance from various Government departments for procuring an explosives licence.

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