Bike spark plugs being used to trigger IEDs

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 30

Security forces have stumbled upon the use of commonly available spark plugs in automobile engines being used by terrorists and Naxals to detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

A motorcycle spark plug with two electric cables attached to it was recovered on Monday by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) from a site where a large IED was detected during anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh.

“This is for the first time that such a contraption has been recovered, which shows improvisation is being done with easily and cheaply available material and that technically savvy minds are at work,” an ITBP officer said. “It is also possible that such items may have been used in other parts of the country to trigger IEDs,” he added.

IEDs are increasingly being used by Maoists in India and these have been a major threat to the Army as well as paramilitary personnel deployed in anti-terrorist and anti-naxal operations in Jammu and Kashmir, north-east as well as Maoist-affected areas in Central India. Scores of personnel have lost their lives to IEDs.

How it works

• Experts say plugs may have been used to ignite detonator embedded into IED
• Intense heat generated in spark channel causes the ionised gas to expand quickly like a small explosion
• It in turn sets off the thermo-chemical reaction chain that causes the explosion
• Wires attached to plug would have been connected to a battery for power source to produce spark