Huge ammonium nitrate haul at Anakapalle

ANAKAPALLE (VISAKHAPATNAM): In one of the largest hauls of explosive ammonium nitrate in the region, the Anakapalle rural police seized nearly one tonne of the illegally procured material and arrested one person at VV Ramana Colony near Bavulwada gram panchayat in Anakapalle mandal late on Wednesday night. Ammonium nitrate is commonly used in fertilizers but also acts as an oxidizing agent in explosives.
The culprit, 46-year-old N Venkateswara Rao, was arrested under various sections of the Explosive Substance Act of 1908 and produced before the Anakapalle court, which sentenced him to remand. Around 950 kgs of the explosive material was found in a building near a quarry site without any valid documents and permissions, police sources said. While sources in the police department did not rule out the involvement of a few others in the illegal trade as they felt that it could not have been the handiwork of just the accused, they said prima facie there did not seem to be a terror angle to the recovery of the explosive material as ammonium nitrate is used for blasting purposes in the nearly 250 minor and major quarries in and around Anakapalle mandal.
Police officials said that since the bags were found near a quarry site, they would be questioning the owners of the surrounding quarries in addition to and other suspects.
According to the police, Venkateswara Rao of Anakapalle mandal had allegedly procured the material in 15 bags from a shipping agent in Vizag and stored them in a building at VV Ramana colony and was trying to supply the material to a few stone quarry owners in the mandal.
Rao, a former quarry worker who specializes in blasting operations in quarries, had been supplying the explosive to stone crushers for the past three years by procuring the material from Vizag traders.
The material was seized as a result of police stepping up focus on the illegal storage and transport of ammonium nitrate as in most of the deadly terror strikes in India, security cops have found its use as the basic explosive to wreak havoc. Even Maoists rely on this chemical in their Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) for inflicting maximum damage.
The latest seizure comes even as there is a heated debate underway, especially after the twin blasts at Hyderabad in February, to regulate the sale and use of the chemical whenever a huge consignment arrives at Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT), which is one of the major handlers of this explosive at around 1.25 lakh tones per annum.