The small magnetic bombs, also known as sticky bombs, can be attached to a vehicle and exploded using a remote control or by setting up a timer. One such suspected use of a sticky bomb left four dead and 22 injured in an attack on a bus in Jammu’s Katra last month
File image of Amarnath yatra. PTI
Late last month a Pakistani drone was shot down in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district. The unmanned aerial vehicle was carrying sticking bombs as part of a major terror plot aimed at the Amartnath Yatra.
According to News18, the timely intervention of the police foiled the major terror attack. Police had received inputs that the terrorists might use sticky bombs to attack the Char Dham Yatra buses.
The modus operandi was also used during the Katra bus incident in May where four people were killed and 22 were injured. Top intelligence sources had told News18 that the mysterious blast inside the vehicle was a terror attack and a sticky bomb was used for the blast on the bus heading to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine base camp.
What are sticky bombs?
Sticky bombs, also called magnetic bombs, are small in size and can be attached to a vehicle.
The bomb can be remotely denoted and can also be set off using timers. According to a senior J&K police officer, it is a coin-shaped magnet at the bottom of a small container that enables the attacker to attach the bomb to a metal surface, usually a vehicle.
Unlike remote control sticky bombs, these bombs have a timer of about 5-10 minutes, which gives the attacker enough time to flee.
The terrorists often attach these sticky bombs onto a vehicle when it stops at a traffic signal or for any other reason. During the Katra bus attack, the sticky bomb was attached to the fuel tank of the vehicle.
Security forces are conducting drills to guard against it and drivers of buses and other vehicles are being trained in spotting such bombs.
Where were sticky bombs used earlier?
According to a report by NDTV, the earliest known use of these “sticky bombs” was during the Second World War by the British forces. According to Imperial War Museum (IWM), that bomb resembled a grenade – a spherical glass flask containing a filling of nitro-glycerin.
The bomb was covered with a stockinet type of material impregnated with a strong adhesive derived from birdlime. The entire assembly was then enclosed in two thin metal hemispheres that were hinged at the bottom and spring loaded, the IWM further said.
The hinged protective cover was removed before throwing the grenade, which had a five-second delay after the lever was released.
In recent years, the bomb was used during the recent war in Afghanistan where it was deployed in crowded traffic of Kabul and mounted a pressure on the US forces in the country present before August last year.
In December 2020, a “sticky bomb” attack killed Kabul’s deputy provincial governor.
The “sticky bombs’ emerged on the terror scene in Kashmir in February last year when these were recovered from Samba of Jammu region, indicating initiation of a new phase of terrorism in the union territory.
It was the first such recovery of “sticky bombs”, used largely in Afghanistan and Iraq. In India, it was used by suspected Iranian terrorists who targeted the vehicle of an Israeli diplomat in February 2012, resulting in injury to his wife.
Threat to Amarnath yatra
One of the most prominent Hindu pilgrimages will start on 30 June. The 43-day-long journey to the Himalayan shrine is scheduled from two routes – the traditional 48-km Nunwan in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam and 14-km shorter Baltal in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal. The pilgrimage was suspended for the last two years due to the COVID pandemic.
About three lakh pilgrims are likely to take part in the pilgrimage, which is expected to end on August 11.
With the increasing use of sticky bombs in the region, security forces are reshaping their standard operating procedure for the pilgrimage, officials said.
According to them, interrogation of arrested terrorists and their sympathisers and other evidence suggest that while some “sticky bombs” have been recovered by security forces, many of them may have found their way into terror groups in Kashmir Valley.
It has been decided that vehicles of pilgrims as well as of security forces will be secluded during their movement, the officials said.
Instructions have also been issued to the security forces as well as those managing the pilgrimage not to leave vehicles unattended.
With inputs from agencies
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