Bomb found at Mumbai station

2006-03-11 12:51

Mumbai - Police have found a bomb at a railway station in Mumbai, India's financial hub, four days after a series of deadly blasts in a holy Hindu city, which were blamed on Islamic militants.

Police discovered the device inside a bag on a platform of the commuter railway station in central Mumbai on Saturday and took it away to a nearby beach to be dismantled.

"It hasn't yet been disclosed what sort of bomb it was," a police spokesperson said. "It was lying in an unattended bag."

The discovery came after 23 people died on Tuesday in three blasts in the northern holy Hindu city of Varanasi at a railway station and a crowded temple.

It also came on the eve of the 13th anniversary of a wave of 13 bomb explosions in Mumbai's financial district that killed around 260 people in what was seen as a reprisal for Muslim deaths in Hindu-Muslim riots.

The police spokesperson said there had been no arrests in connection with the bomb found on Saturday and that it was too early to say who planted the device.

Police say they suspect pro-Pakistan Islamic rebels fighting New Delhi's rule in Indian Kashmir were responsible for the explosions in Varanasi.

Cities across the country including Mumbai were put on alert after the Varanasi bombings amid fears of further attacks and retaliatory violence against Muslims in the mainly Hindu country.

Police were searching a number of railway stations, according to media reports, but police said they had not closed any of the stations which take the bulk of Mumbai's commuters to work.

In August 2003, two car bombs killed nearly 60 people in Mumbai. Police believed those blasts were the work of pro-Pakistan Kashmiri militants.

- SAPA