Pak militants hide charges in bomb squad institutions
1 Feb 2014 5:51 AM IST
But the most shocking place that Brig. Basim Saeed has heard of such a device being planted was inside a hollowed-out book made to look like a Quran, Islam’s holy book.
A soldier who went to pick up the book from the floor was killed when it exploded.
‘Normally if that book is lying somewhere on the floor, you tend to pick it up immediately just for respect,’ said Saeed, the chief instructor at a school training Pakistani forces how to detect the so-called improvised explosive devices, which have become increasingly popular in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the insurgency in Pakistan’s northwest, near the Afghan border.
The Associated Press was the first foreign media outlet to be allowed access to the facility, according to the Pakistani military.
Saeed and other instructors at the military’s Counter IED, Explosives and Munitions School say it is important to constantly come up with new ways to prevent such homemade bombs because that’s exactly what the militants are doing.
‘Terrorists are also very brainy,’ Saeed said. ‘They are using different techniques to defeat our efforts also. So we need to be very proactive.’
The Pakistani military has sharply ramped up efforts to deal with such devices in recent years as they have emerged as the militants’ preferred weapon. So far, 4,042 soldiers from the army and Frontier Corps have been killed and more than 13,000 wounded in the war on militants in the country’s northwest since 2002, according to the Pakistani military. The homemade bombs account for most of the casualties.
The US military, which in the past has said Pakistan hasn’t done enough to restrict the use of certain fertilizers used in bombs in Pakistan and targeting foreign and government troops in Afghanistan, welcomed the bomb squad school, which formally opened in 2012 on a military base in the northwestern city of Risalpur.
‘We’re very encouraged by the efforts that we understand the Pakistanis are taking there,’ said the head of the Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organization, Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson.
The Pakistani military also has moved to restrict the availability of calcium ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers frequently used in Afghanistan, and to develop a fertilizer dubbed CAN+ that would work on Pakistan’s soil but not detonate. And it signed an agreement with the US last year designed to help the two countries work together to fight the roadside bombs by sharing information in areas such as militant tactics and funding. US experts are to travel to Pakistan to supply it with hard-won knowledge earned in Iraq and Afghanistan. Separately, the British military has provided instruction.
A soldier who went to pick up the book from the floor was killed when it exploded.
‘Normally if that book is lying somewhere on the floor, you tend to pick it up immediately just for respect,’ said Saeed, the chief instructor at a school training Pakistani forces how to detect the so-called improvised explosive devices, which have become increasingly popular in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the insurgency in Pakistan’s northwest, near the Afghan border.
The Associated Press was the first foreign media outlet to be allowed access to the facility, according to the Pakistani military.
Saeed and other instructors at the military’s Counter IED, Explosives and Munitions School say it is important to constantly come up with new ways to prevent such homemade bombs because that’s exactly what the militants are doing.
‘Terrorists are also very brainy,’ Saeed said. ‘They are using different techniques to defeat our efforts also. So we need to be very proactive.’
The Pakistani military has sharply ramped up efforts to deal with such devices in recent years as they have emerged as the militants’ preferred weapon. So far, 4,042 soldiers from the army and Frontier Corps have been killed and more than 13,000 wounded in the war on militants in the country’s northwest since 2002, according to the Pakistani military. The homemade bombs account for most of the casualties.
The US military, which in the past has said Pakistan hasn’t done enough to restrict the use of certain fertilizers used in bombs in Pakistan and targeting foreign and government troops in Afghanistan, welcomed the bomb squad school, which formally opened in 2012 on a military base in the northwestern city of Risalpur.
‘We’re very encouraged by the efforts that we understand the Pakistanis are taking there,’ said the head of the Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organization, Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson.
The Pakistani military also has moved to restrict the availability of calcium ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers frequently used in Afghanistan, and to develop a fertilizer dubbed CAN+ that would work on Pakistan’s soil but not detonate. And it signed an agreement with the US last year designed to help the two countries work together to fight the roadside bombs by sharing information in areas such as militant tactics and funding. US experts are to travel to Pakistan to supply it with hard-won knowledge earned in Iraq and Afghanistan. Separately, the British military has provided instruction.
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