Bomb found during Sri Lanka's biggest Buddhist pageant
COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka police Sunday defused a powerful bomb near the route of a major Buddhist festival in the sacred city of Kandy, officials said.
Police removed the three-kilogram bomb from an abandoned building near a path taken by the Kandy Perahera, or pageant which moves through the city's streets, officials said.
"The bomb was found following a tip off," said a police official in Kandy, 72 miles (116 kilometers) east of here by road.
"A search operation is under way to see if there are more bombs."
The festival attended by tens of thousands of local and foreign tourists involves the parading of Buddha relics carried in a golden casket placed on a decorated elephant.
The pageant which starts after sunset Sunday will go ahead, officials said.
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court had been highly critical of police security arrangements in Kandy where the sacred Temple of the Tooth, a relic shrine to the Gautam Buddha, is located.
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