The United States and Pakistan will begin working together on a new fertilizer formula that could be a significant technological step to limit the ability of terror groups to make improvised explosives and car bombs using the ingredient.
According to CNN, an agreement to try to make a product more inert was reached last week after Pakistani officials from Fatima Group, a major fertilizer manufacturer, met with Pentagon officials.
“Such a long-term solution would be a true scientific breakthrough,” Lt Gen Michael Barbero, the head of the Pentagon’s Joint Improved Explosive Device Defeat Organisation, said.
Barbero met with Fatima representatives to urge them again to take steps to control fertilizer inventories. The meeting itself was a step forward since Pakistan previously had stopped the US military from talking directly to the company.
Fatima Group is a Pakistani-based producer of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN). It was developed as a non-explosive alternative to ammonium nitrate, long a key ingredient in homemade bombs used widely in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. But it can be converted into an explosive mixture.
The channel reported that Pakistan and the United States would now work on a “reformulated” CAN product in hopes of reducing its effectiveness in homemade bombs.
The company has suspended sales of CAN fertilizer products in the border provinces to 228 dealers in the area.
It is also working on plans for more readily visible bagging of CAN in hopes the Pakistani border control agents will stop smuggling when they see it. Barbero is still pressing for colour dying so it can more readily be identified.
The news channel said “Fatima may have its own economic reasons for trying to improve its practices”.
A US unit of the company, Midwest Fertilizer, has proposed building a plant in Indiana that promises 2,500 construction and 309 permanent jobs. Midwest issued $1 billion in bonds to finance the plant, but Indiana Governor Mike Pence suspended state support after learning of Barbero’s longstanding criticism.
