NIA's West Bengal detonator seizure case: Ammonium Nitrate common between Birbhum seizure & Beirut Blast

Kolkata, Apr 7: National Investigation Agency ( NIA ) has arrested two suppliers of explosives and Gelatin sticks in the West Bengal detonator seizure case, the agency said on Saturday (Apr 1). Recently, the news was brought up yet again, however, in context of the Beirut blast of 2020 and the damage made by Ammonium Nitrate.

 

 

 

 

The two accused have been identified as Merazuddin Ali Khan of Bokaro and Mir Md. Nuruzzaman of Birbhum. The two were held on Friday (Mar 31), from Raniganj and Kolkata regions in West Bengal. Notably, the agency made its first arrest in the case in January 2023 with Rintu Sk. As per NIA, one accused, Nuruzzaman had supplied 27,000 kgs of ammonium nitrate to Rintu Sk while the other accused Merazuddin had supplied electric detonators and gelatine sticks to Rintu Sk.

 

 

Further investigations are underway to establish the sources of pilferage of the explosives and other bomb-making materials, including detonators and gelatine sticks are in progress, said the NIA. In June 2022, a Tata Sumo car, which was found transporting around 81,000 electric detonators was intercepted by Kolkata Special Task Force. The cache of detonators was seized and Ashis Keora, the driver of Tata Sumo was arrested.

 

 

 

 

Recently the news was yet again brought to the forefront by Author Anand Ranganathan, where he compared the incident of Beirut Blast of 2020 and the extensive damage caused due to Ammonium Nitrate, the same material that was seized from Merazuddin Khan and Mir Mohammed. Ranganathan tweeted, "The NIA has arrested from Kolkata, Merazuddin Khan and Mir Mohammed for smuggling 81,000 detonators and 27,000 kg of Ammonium Nitrate. This is the 2020 Beirut footage of the explosion caused by 2,500 tons of Ammonium Nitrate. It produced an earthquake of 3.3 magnitude."