Agartala, Oct. 5: A Tripura police squad today defused a bomb at Radhanagar in north Agartala, one of the sites where a blast last week injured had injured 20 people.

Police sources said a plastic bag, containing rice, four eggs and vegetables was lying next to a drain near Radhamadhav temple in Radhanagar from last night.

Informed by local residents, the bomb squad, guided by experts from the Union home ministry, opened the bag to find it stacked with rice, four eggs and vegetables.

As they peeled off the layer of rice and vegetables, the experts found an aluminium container with explosives, a detonator, a Samsung mobile set with SIM and a Sanyo battery.

A tribal youth of the area, Jagadish Debbarma, was arrested from the spot and is being interrogated.

“We seem to have found a real clue in the mobile set and the SIM card and it will be sent for analysis,” said K.V. Sreejesh, superintendent of police (West).

The home ministry team was led by Maj. Karam Veer.

The mobile set was fitted across the explosives with adhesive tape, to activate the bomb through vibration.

The experts defused the bomb in four hours.

“If detonated, this bomb could have caused major damage and loss of life. This bomb is also similar to the ones used in Bangalore, Delhi and Agartala,” said Maj. Veer.

A decision was taken to direct state BSNL and private mobile service providers to furnish full details of the connections given since April this year. The SIM card was found to be issued by Airtel in Aizawl.

“We needed these details to find the identity of the culprits behind the blasts,” a senior police official said.

He also said the mobile service providers have been asked to furnish details of calls made for three days before the serial blasts.

Chandrakant Sinha, a priest at the Radhamadhav temple, said, “I can’t understand, so many people come to the temple... why should they keep the bombs here?”

A fruit vendor who has his stall near the spot said he was not sure how long he could conduct his business from there.

“There was a bomb blast here last Wednesday and now a bomb has been found... how can I go on taking a risk after all this?” he asked.

An inspector-general of West Bengal CID arrived here this morning in connection with last Wednesday’s bomb blasts but the police headquarters here refused to disclose his name to the media.