PESHAWAR: The city police on Wednesday foiled a major terror bid by defusing a 10 kilogramme explosive device in the limits of Gulbahar police station here. A police official told Dawn that the bomb was recovered in the Chonabhati neighbourhood. The official said that the improvised explosive device planted in a water-cooler was placed in a taxi and the driver alerted the police about suspicious pacl(age.

He said that the taxi driver told police that there were two commuters who hired his taxi from fruit market and one of them disembarked near Jamil Chowk on the Ring Road, while the other also left saying that he would return after purchasing something from the market, but he did not return.

The official said when police checked the water-cooler an IED weighing about 10 kilogrammes was hidden inside it.

A bomb disposal unit defused the bomb, which could have caused huge losses if it had gone off. The police official said that the Counter-Terrorism Department had registered FIR and started investigations, adding that the taxi driver had been detained for questioning.Bureau Report