Bomb defused on Kashmir pilgrimage route: Police

Indian troops defused a bomb yesterday on a key Kashmir highway used daily by hundreds of Hindus to reach a revered 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.
Detection of the explosive also came after troops thwarted a rebel bid last week to attack a convoy of Hindu pilgrims returning from praying at the mountain grotto in mainly Muslim Indian Kashmir.