August 01, 2008	Friday	Rajab 28, 1429

SRINAGAR, July 31: Indian troops defused a bomb on Thursday on a key Kashmir highway used daily by people to reach a cave-shrine high in the Himalayas, officials said.

Discovery of the bomb came after the Indian cities of Bangalore and Ahmedabad were hit by a string of blasts last week that left 50 people dead and scores injured.

“Our men detected a powerful bomb planted on the pilgrimage route,” Prabhakar Tripathi, spokesman for the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, told AFP. He said the bomb was defused in Manigam, 35km east of occupied Srinagar.—AFP