New Delhi, May 24: The CRPF today foiled an attempt to blow up a peace bus carrying 22 Pakistani passengers near Srinagar, reports our special correspondent.

Minutes before the bus was to leave for Muzaffarabad at 6.45 am, CRPF personnel and the force’s dog squad detected and defused 20 kg of explosives kept in a tin.

Home ministry officials believed Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists planted the explosives to derail the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process. The weekly bus service started in April 2005 as a confidence-building measure between the two countries.

“This is the third attempt this year by the terrorists to sabotage the bus service on this route,” said A.P. Maheshwari, inspector-general (operations).