Police in Punjab fought a valiant battle on Monday with terrorists while their Bihar counterparts are busy unravelling the "Lotus" brand of clock mystery.

The "Lotus" brand of analogue clocks are the most sought after electronic gadgets for the operatives of Maoist and terror outfits active in Bihar and Jharkhand.

The startling fact came to the fore during investigation into the recent huge haul of explosives from Khemnichak locality under the jurisdiction of Ram Krishna Nagar police station in the city. The explosives were subsequently defused by the personnel of bomb disposal squad of the National Security Guards from Delhi and Calcutta.

The members of the raiding team headed by city SP (east) Sudhir Kumar Porika were taken aback after the recovery of 52 pieces of lotus-brand of analogue watches from a private lodge at Khemnichak in which the explosives were stored allegedly by the operatives of banned Naxalite outfit, People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a breakaway faction of the CPI (Maoist).

Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Vikas Vaibhav said similar brand of watches was earlier used in the 2013 serial bomb blasts in Bodhgaya and Patna. The clocks made in Gujarat's Surat and supplied across the country were found in abundance during a raid at a lodge in Ranchi, Jharkhand, in the aftermath of Patna blasts, which took place on October 27, 2013.

Vaibhav, a 2003-batch Bihar-cadre IPS officer then posted with the national investigation agency (NIA) that probed the two serial blast cases, said: "The analogue clocks of this particular brand are in great demand as they are of low price and easily available in market. "

The alarm-fitted clock of lotus brand costs anything between Rs 50 and Rs 60. The possibility of their links with the main dealers of the watches of that state cannot be ruled out, the SSP said.

He revealed that the PLFI operatives, who are mainly active in Jharkhand, had easy access to such watches there. "In all the cases, bombs were made in Jharkhand and subsequently transported to Bihar. While the SIMI operatives headed by Haider, a native of Aurangabad, used the bombs in Bodhgaya and Patna serial explosions, the PLFI activists had stored the explosives at Ram Krishna Nagar for their operations," he said.

Vaibhav, who was appointed SSP of Patna soon after he returned from central deputation in June, said the same analogue clocks were found in a Bahadur Housing Colony flat in the Patna City area on March 31 night. The flat was being used by PLFI activists to keep the explosives. Over a dozen people allegedly associated with PLFI were earlier arrested in connection with the Bahadur blast case, he added.

Sources in the NIA revealed that apart from the blasts in Bihar and Jharkhand either carried out by the SIMI or PLFI, no evidence of the use of Gujarat-made lotus brand of clocks has been found. In Hyderabad blasts, the suspected IM operatives had used digital watches. In 2008-Jaipur blasts, clocks of Ajanta brand were used, an investigating officer told The Telegraph.