A policeman carries a bag containing explosives at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on Wednesday. (PTI)

Mumbai, Dec. 3: Eight kilograms of RDX were found at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus this evening just as chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was visiting the station.

Police said the explosives, with timer-devices of the kind used by the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Kashmir, were packed in two bags, 4kg in each.

The bombs, they added, could have gone off within eight minutes and 32 seconds to a maximum of 194 days.

The bomb-disposal squad later defused the devices, kept in the station’s parcel wing, near platform number 15.

Joint commissioner of police Rakesh Maria said the RDX was part of the five bombs planted in Mumbai by the terrorists who attacked the city last week.

“The bags were found among abandoned luggage of persons who had been injured or killed in the attack on the night of November 26. The RDX was part of the five bombs planted by the terrorists. Searches are now being conducted on the (entire) station premises,” Maria said.

Deshmukh, whose resignation as chief minister has been accepted, was on a tour of the station where two terrorists had gone on a killing spree last Wednesday night. He was escorted out immediately.

Within minutes, security forces surrounded the station. Fire engines and medical teams were put on stand-by.

Before the bomb was discovered, Deshmukh met railway officials and commuters, visited the spots at the station that bore marks of last week’s attack and promised to take all the steps necessary to make the station safe.

Police said the bombs were spotted late because investigators misunderstood what Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested, told them during interrogation.

“He had said they (the 10 terrorists) had planted five bombs. Three bombs were found last Thursday, two had been placed at the Taj and another near the Oberoi. It was thought that all (bombs) had been accounted for,” Maria said.

The other two bombs were initially thought to be those that went off in two taxis, one of them in Vile Parle.

Today, Maria said the taxi bombs were meant to kill the drivers so they wouldn’t tell the police about the terrorists and, therefore, not part of the five planted in the city.

K.P. Raghuvanshi, the new chief of the Maharashtra anti-terror squad, said the timer devices failed to work despite being sophisticated because of faulty assembling.

“Kasab has told us the bombs planted by the terrorists around Mumbai were assembled aboard hijacked trawler Kuber. The timing devices were like the ones commonly used by the Lashkar in Kashmir,” he added.

The pink packing material found in the Kuber was similar to that used to wrap the RDX bomb kept near the main entrance of the Taj, Raghuvanshi said, adding that the strings on the timers were also like those found on the trawler.