Patna, July 9: Markets flooded with “illegal” pint-sized cylinders give a scary picture on how the state is sitting on time bombs.

Two days after 10 serial blasts created havoc in Bodhgaya, a recce of the state capital and other districts found that miniature LPG cylinders have flooded the markets in Bihar.

These cylinders were used in triggering the blasts in the temple town on Sunday.

Cylinder bombs, which according to police sources, were first improvised into deadly explosives by Maoists.

This despite tall claims the state government is helpless in stopping the sale of the “illegal” small-sized LPG cylinders.

All the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used in the Bodhgaya blasts were made out of two-and-half-kg LPG cylinders.

“The tiny cylinders are be ing sold everywhere in Bihar and the country. It is cheap and easily available. The government has no control over the sale of the illegal cylinders weighing two, four and five kilograms. These cylinders are made locally as well as brought from Delhi, Meerut and Bhopal. They are openly sold everywhere,” a police officer told The Telegraph.

On November 20, 2010, two cylinder bombs weighing 5kg each, was recovered from Lo nda village under the jurisdiction of Dumaria police station, a Naxalite-dominated area in Gaya. It was recovered days before the Assembly elections.

The bombs were attached to wires and buried in the middle of the road. Fortunately both were defused.

Central Reserve Police Force personnel had nabbed two Maoists, who were sitting by the roadside waiting for the right moment to trigger the explosives.

“We know that selling small-sized cylinders is illegal. But many things are illegal and yet they sell. We get these cylinders from Delhi, Bhopal and Meerut. Filling them with liquid petroleum gas is easy. I have legal connections of commercial LPG cylinders (19.2kg). I use it to fill and refill the smaller ones. The smaller ones sometimes carry ISI marks on them but they are fake. Jine ke liye karna padta hai (We have to carry on with the business to survive),” a Patna-based cylinder storeowner said.

Police officers believe since the unauthorised cylinders are easily available in the market, terrorists often use them to carry out explosions.

“The use of cylinder bombs has been noticed lately. Earlier, the police used to recover landmines in the form of can bombs from Maoists. In Bihar, cylinder bombs were first recovered in 2010. Maoists mostly use 5-kg cylinders and convert them into IEDs,” another police officer said.

He added that cylinders improvised into explosives could be triggered in two ways.

“First, through circuit spark by sitting at a distance. Second, by using the pressure technology. An empty cylinder is stacked with a lot of gunpowder and chemicals such as ammonium nitrate. A little pressure on the cylinder, say, the pressure of a vehicle, could trigger the explosion. Maoists have been using this technology for quite sometime now. The advantage is that pressure bombs are impossible to defuse because it doesn’t have electrical connections. Anyone can buy a cylinder from the market and convert it into a bomb,” the officer explained.

In Patna, a 2-kg cylinder is sold for Rs 450, while a 5-kg one is sold for Rs 750. The cost of refilling is around Rs 100/kg in Patna. The sale of small cylinders is rampant in Patna City, Saidpur, Langartoli, Policelines and Dariyapur. Ramna Road in Gaya is the epicentre from where the illegal cylinders are supplied to other parts of the district.

“Cylinders weighing two, two-and-a-half, four and five kilograms are openly sold here. We bring them from Meerut and Patna. Students and bachelors mostly use them,” a cylinder storeowner on Ramna Road said.

On the authenticity of the cylinders, officials in gas agencies preferred to stay mum on the issue. However, state food and consumer protection minister Shyam Rajak said he was “helpless”.

“Officials at the gas agencies are hand-in-glove with those selling illegal cylinders. At present, there is a lot of confusion prevailing over the sale of small LPG cylinders. There are a few small-sized cylinder brands, which can be purchased from authorised outlets. We are trying to stop the sale of illegal cylinders,” the minister told The Telegraph.