These persons were arrested between September 28 and October 5 at locations in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.
The arrested members of IM were planning blasts in the country’s financial capital during the ongoing Navratri celebrations, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gaffoor said.
Three of the 15 arrested are alleged to be part of the media wing of Indian Mujahideen which had sent threatening emails using wireless Internet connections in the city around the time the serial blasts were carried out at Ahmedabad and New Delhi, Maria said.
The three members of the media unit of the terror outfit were identified as Mohammed Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy, Mobin Kader Shaikh and Asif Bashruddin Shaikh.
“Ten of the arrested persons were involved in the making of bombs, carrying out surveillance and keeping them in Surat,” Maria said.
Over two dozen low-intensity bombs were found in various localities of Surat after the serial blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26.
“The crime branch launched one of the largest manhunts in the country to arrest these persons,” he said.
Peerbhoy was a computer engineer working in an multinational company in Pune, Shaikh was employed in an IT firm and Shaikh a qualified mechanical engineer.
The trio allegedly came to the city on five occasions prior to sending the first e-mail on July 26 in order to find unsecured wireless Internet sites, Maria said.
They would roam in a car to sites where wireless Internet was available and then send the emails at designated timings, he said.
The police have seized a laptop, six computers, a radio frequency detector, a wireless router, anaesthetic injections and tablets from the trio, Gaffoor said.
Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chaudhary, the driver of the vehicle in which they travelled to send the threatening emails, has also been arrested. “Chaudhary had taken a house in Surat on rent under a fictitious name prior to planting bombs there,” Maria said.
He is also alleged to have participated in the serial blasts in Hyderabad in August 2007 and planted a bomb which did not explode, he said.
A conspiracy meeting prior to the Hyderabad serial blasts, in which 40 people were killed, was held in Cheetah Camp in Trombay here. The meeting was attended by wanted IM head Riyaz Bhatkal, arrested IM members Mohammed Sadik Shaikh and Ansar Ahmed Shaikh, Maria said.
The explosives used in the explosions at Ahmedabad were sourced from locations in Mangalore and other places in south India, police officials said.
“Eight of those arrested were involved in the Ahmedabad blasts and we expect to get some good leads in the Bangalore blasts,” Maria said.
Source by oheraldo.in
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