Bogus Bomb Detector
Pakistan is country that has possibly faced the most number of suicide bomb attacks, suicide bomb explosions, timed explosions, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) etc. over the past several years than any other country in the world. Just couple of days back, a massive suicide bomb attack took place when a suicide bomber entered a major government hospital in Quetta and detonated his bomb. The resulting casualties were high with many more seriously injured. This morning saw another explosion in Quetta which was aimed to target a high government official, the second such explosion to hit the city within four days.
However, the irony is that with all these attacks taking place for over a decade now, the country continues to use more than 15000 of a new variant of handheld device that has a radio-like antenna meant to swivel and point at vehicles carrying bombs. This device was manufactured in the country and is displayed at sensitive locations such as airports, government installations and hotels. This is despite it being proven as a scam internationally. The good side is that many of the original creators of the device are currently serving long prison sentences.
When a senior interior ministry official who asked to remain anonymous was asked about this device, he stated that it serves merely as a deterrent -- it is good for the police and security personnel to have something in their hands! When pressed on whether insurgents may now be wise to the deception, he conceded that they were savvy and were probably aware by now .
Observers believe that official silence over the matter may be linked to the enormous sums of money involved in this business. Powerful people make money out of such scams and one just cannot offend such powerful people even if it means endangering lives.
The country had initially imported devices such as the ADE-651 produced by ATSC (UK) and Sniffex produced by Homeland Safety International, but later on took to manufacture the item locally. The locally manufactured item is called “Khoji” which translated into English roughly means “locater” or “finder.”
According to the user manual of the detector, the device claims an accuracy of 90% using the principles of “radiesthesia” which experts consider as junk science. The manual further boasts it can detect explosives from a distance of 100 meters even if the explosives were hidden behind walls or metal barriers by detecting the interference between the magnetic field of the earth, the explosive and the human body.
A Pakistani physicist, who trained at the US’s MIT, dismissed the device as a mere hoax. There was no way through which explosives could be detected by electromagnetic means he added. Another professor of chemistry at the University College of London echoed the Pakistani physicist saying the claims were “laughable.”
People will go to any length to acquire wealth even at the cost of other people’s lives.
