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Three bags filled with nearly 145 kg of highly explosive ammonium nitrate were found in an abandoned car in Dafi area here today, police said.
The explosives were found by police on a vehicle checking drive at National Highway here under Lanka police station, circle officer of Bhelupur area Shalini said.
The car was coming from Allahabad and when the driver saw policemen checking vehicles, he abandoned it, parked it on a side lane and fled from there, she said.
When police saw him fleeing, they checked the vehicle and found the explosives, the officer said.
No one has been arrested so far and police are trying to trace the owner of the car and the driver.
Varanasi is the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
