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MUMBAI / WASHINGTON, Dec 3: Indian police on Wednesday claimed to have discovered and defused explosives at Mumbai’s main railway station, left by militants who struck the city last week.
“This is part of the same consignment which the terrorists had brought on Wednesday night when they were attacking and running helter-skelter, some of the material had been left behind,” anti-terrorism chief K.P. Raghuvashi said.
The situation was “under control” and a bomb disposal unit had defused the devices, he told AFP.
The explosives were similar to others left by the militants elsewhere in the city during the attacks, reports said.
Indian television quoted police sources saying that “improvised explosive devices” were found among baggage that belonged to victims gunned down when militants launched attacks across the city last week.
They were similar to devices found outside the Taj Mahal and Oberoi/Trident hotels and Leopold’s cafe, three of the main targets of the attacks that left 188 people dead and around 300 injured.
They appeared to have been left “in the hope that they would go off later,” the television quoted police as saying.
FBI agents
US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that FBI agents were working with Indian police to provide assistance and gather evidence about the Mumbai attacks.
“The FBI is looking into any evidence it can get,” Mukasey told reporters at the Justice Department. Other US officials have said the FBI is part of a team investigating the attacks.
Mukasey said he believed the United States had jurisdiction in cases of violence against Americans in connection with acts of terrorism. Six Americans were killed in the attacks at two luxury hotels and other landmarks.
Mukasey said he did not yet have enough details to say whether any charges eventually would be brought in the United States.
Asked about the lessons learned from what happened in India, Mukasey cited the need to get the best intelligence possible about where attacks might occur and to increase security appropriately.—Agencies
