BOMBAY/NEW DELHI, 12 March 2006 — A day ahead of the 13th anniversary of the Bombay bomb blasts of 1993, police defused a powerful bomb found at a suburban railway station in Bombay, and averted a major incident.

Police found the cache of explosives yesterday at Byculla railway station, four days after a series of blasts in ancient city of Varanasi blamed on militants.

There was panic at the railway station following the discovery of explosives.

Officers discovered explosives and components for making an explosive device inside a bag on a commuter railway station platform in central Bombay, said city police commissioner A.N. Roy.

“Some explosives and some parts which can be used for making an IED (improvised explosive device) have been found at Byculla railway station on top of a toilet block,” said Roy.

“It contains about two kg of explosive.”

He said the explosives were found during a security sweep that was put in place after 23 people died Tuesday in blasts in Varanasi.

The discovery came on the eve of the 13th anniversary of a wave of bomb blasts in Bombay that killed around 260 people in what was seen as a reprisal for Muslim deaths in Hindu-Muslim riots following the demolition of the historic Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, by Hindu fanatics.

Roy said there had been no arrests in connection with the explosives found yesterday and it was too early to say who put them in the station.

Hundreds of thousands of people pass through the station every day and Roy said all stations in the city were being searched.

Police say they believed the bomb would have been a rudimentary device made from ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

Eight Suspects Held Over Blasts

Investigators have detained for questioning eight people suspected of being involved in the Varanasi bombings, police said yesterday.

The police had earlier released sketches of two male suspects believed to have planted another bomb at a store which failed to explode.

“On the basis of the sketches, police have detained eight people, including two suspects ... whose appearance is similar to the sketches,” Yashpal Singh, police chief of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh said.

The suspects were held after a raid at a guesthouse in Hardoi, about 80 km from Lucknow.

The suspects will be paraded for identification before witnesses.