KARACHI, Jan 4: In view of recent reports that fertilizer is being used to make bombs, the federal government has asked the fertilizer manufacturing units to extend full corporation to the investigating teams if and when they start looking into their affairs, Dawn has learnt.

Well-placed sources in government said directives issued in this regard asked the manufacturing units to let the local and foreign investigating officers examine their accounts. The order specifically said: “If any (local) investigating team or foreign investigators want to examine their ledgers and seek information on their distributors, they may please cooperate with them”.

The government has taken this step following the bomb blasts at different places in the country — including the one that took place in front of the US consulate in Karachi — in which the bombs used contained fertilizers.

The step has also been taken in view of a raid on Dec 14 in which the police recovered, from a Volkswagen car (A-2951), 250 bags of fertilizers, grinders, silver powder, chemicals and detonators, which could be used in making bombs.

Police claimed that 10kg of explosive material had been found from the car, which had been seized during a raid at a godown in Kathiawar Society, on Ameer Khusro Road in Tipu Sultan police limits, and arrested three suspects — Asif Zaheer, Sohail Noor, and Mohammad Yusuf.

Mr Asif was also involved in the Sheraton bomb blast of May 8, in which 11 Frenchmen and three Pakistanis were killed. The investigating teams had interrogated the suspects, picked up recently, who divulged how they made bombs using fertilizers.

The investigators had contacted some of the manufacturing units, who being in the private sector excused themselves from extending assistance to the investigating agencies. The police and rangers, who had been investigating into the cases of terrorism and bomb blasts, had sent a report to their provincial governments.

This report was re-routed to the federal government, requesting it to issue instructions to the fertilizer units and their distributors to extend full cooperation to the investigating teams.

The sources told Dawn that the foreign investigators — including the Federal Bureau of Investigations which had been providing technical assistance to the local investigators — had expressed their concern over the distribution network for fertilizers in the country. The sources said the investigators had suggested that a check must be put on utilization of fertilizers after sale.

The distributors of chemicals and fertilizers, especially in Karachi, are expected to be associated with probes into various bomb blasts as the investigators thought they could be helpful in tracing out the culprits.

The fertilizer manufacturing firms and the distributors, on the other hand, have expressed their concern over the steps being taken by the government which will give a free hand to the local and foreign investigators in making inroads into their affairs.

They said the step would not only hamper their sale but also have an adverse effect on the national economy, which is agriculture-based.