The reason that they are apparently popular in Afghanistan and the like is that everyone cooks with them, so the sight of a pressure cooker in the car is not suspicious.
A pressure cooker operates in home-cooking, as I understand it, because it has a lid that is unlike any other lid used on a pot or pan. It clicks into place, and is clamped down until
its job is done. A roommate o* mine once splurged and brought one home so he could make his own tahini using chickpeas.
BUT regular pressure cookers ONLY operate like anything else on your stove, with a steady HEAT SOURCE underneath them.
So I don’t understand the use o* them 4 these kinds o* terrorism, which use no heat source and contained pressure.
I think they’re used because o* the tightness o* the lid and its containment o* what’s inside: in the terrorist’s case, explosives which are detonated electronically.