The Home Ministry at the centre has sounded an alert at all small and major airports to tighten security and seize any suspicious powder or liquid any passenger may try to smuggle on any domestic or international flight.

The alert warns that the stuff may be a sophisticated explosive like the one used by a young Al Qaeda-linked Nigerian last week in a failed attempt to blow up a United States airliner flying from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Following US advice, the government does not want to take a chance as there may be other colleagues of the Nigerian ready with the mysterious powder that is odourless and hence cannot be sniffed out even by trained dogs.

The alert quotes US authorities pointing out that Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, (23) who was wounded in a blaze from the powder he had tied to his leg, had a new kind of explosive device that obviously made it through checks at Schiphol.

It specifically asks the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and State police chiefs to direct their security personnel at the airports to look for colourless and odorless PETN (pentaerythritol trinitrate) powder that can be used to make very powerful bombs on the spot.

The alert warns that the stuff will be hard to detect if carried in a sealed container and hence it is better to seize any powder material with passengers and rush it to the nearest laboratory for carrying out the necessary chemical checks.

Persons may also be detained if they are not able to satisfactorily explain the type of material in their possession or at least until the laboratory clears it as a non-explosive, the alert said.

Security authorities have been asked to intensify frisking to prevent anybody getting the explosive powder in any aircraft. They have been asked to scan for powders in not only the hand baggage but also in the checked-in luggage to ensure there is no fire or explosion in the luggage compartment.

Home Ministry sources said security men posted at airports are not trained to detect the new kind of explosives that can be manufactured on the spot by mixing two or more materials and hence the best course felt was to seize any powder or liquid that passengers are not able to identify properly.

Mostly, such explosives are prepared by mixing a powder substance with acid or some other liquid, but there are also certain substances that can blow up by just coming into contact with water or oxygen in air, the sources said. The terrorist has to just tear a little a sealed packet and leave it to explode, they added.

The alert, therefore, says a complete “No, no” if someone is carrying both powder and liquid that are not identifiable, but it says even the possession of unexplained powder should be questioned.

[Source]

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