Who wants a big bang? Soft bombs are the in thing now

Forget high-grade explosives or fancy detonators, take a trip to the neighbourhood hardware store or pharmacy and you’ll find all the ingredients for making a soft bomb displayed on the shelves. This advice is provided in a 39-page memo circulated by the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba three years ago. And it seems militants are using the advice from a memo recovered from a top Lashkar militant in Srinagar. It read like an ‘Idiot’s Guide to Bomb-making’. After Thursday’s blasts in Bangalore, it was clear militants have now shifted their focus to easily available material as security agencies have been blocking the acquisition or supply of high-grade explosives such as RDX or C4. In almost all the blasts set off recently, militants have relied solely on simple bombs — crafted from ingredients as innocuous as nail polish removers and... [read full story]