Explosives found in crowded Indian rail station
MUMBAI, March 11 (Reuters) - Police recovered several powerful explosives from a crowded railway station in India's financial capital on Saturday, days after twin blasts in one of Hinduism's holiest cities killed 15 people.
The explosives were hidden in the toilet of the Byculla station in southern Mumbai, used by hundreds of thousands of commuters every day and close to the heart of the city.
An official at the bomb squad control room said crowds of people were cleared from a nearby beach where the explosives were destroyed with a controlled blast.
Mumbai police chief A.N. Roy said police were on high alert after Tuesday's blasts in the holy city of Varanasi that killed 15.
"Besides the explosives, we also found bomb-making material," Roy said.
Mumbai, a metropolis of more than 17 million, has been hit by a series of bomb blasts in the past decade-and-half.
More than 260 people died in a string of bomb blasts in 1993, blamed on groups avenging Muslim deaths in widespread religious rioting after Hindu zealots razed a 16th century mosque in northern India.
In 2003, two almost simultaneous car bombs killed about 60 people.
Most terror attacks in India are blamed on Muslim militant groups waging a rebellion against the Indian rule in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir
The explosives were hidden in the toilet of the Byculla station in southern Mumbai, used by hundreds of thousands of commuters every day and close to the heart of the city.
An official at the bomb squad control room said crowds of people were cleared from a nearby beach where the explosives were destroyed with a controlled blast.
Mumbai police chief A.N. Roy said police were on high alert after Tuesday's blasts in the holy city of Varanasi that killed 15.
"Besides the explosives, we also found bomb-making material," Roy said.
Mumbai, a metropolis of more than 17 million, has been hit by a series of bomb blasts in the past decade-and-half.
More than 260 people died in a string of bomb blasts in 1993, blamed on groups avenging Muslim deaths in widespread religious rioting after Hindu zealots razed a 16th century mosque in northern India.
In 2003, two almost simultaneous car bombs killed about 60 people.
Most terror attacks in India are blamed on Muslim militant groups waging a rebellion against the Indian rule in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir
posted by Marko at 3/11/2006 05:56:00 AM
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