Cracking the Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts that killed 55 persons, Gujarat police on Saturday arrested its mastermind Mufti Abu Bashir and nine others and said that the network of SIMI [Images] was behind the explosions.

Exclusive: Breakthrough in Ahmedabad blasts case

"We believe that the network of SIMI was behind the blasts. Indian Mujahideen [Images], which claimed the responsibility of the blasts, is connected to SIMI," Gujarat DGP P C Pande told media persons in Ahmedabad [Images] on Saturday.

In India, we don't catch terrorists

Bashir was arrested in Lucknow on Saturday, he said, adding that he will be brought to Ahmedabad in a day or two and interrogated for more information.

Pande said there are indications that he might be linked with Hyderabad, Jaipur [Images] and Banglore blasts as well.

The one billion+ cannon-fodder

"Today is the big day for Gujarat police, which has been able to crack the Ahmedabad blasts case," said Pande.

Most of the nine people arrested in the blasts case are active workers of the banned organisation SIMI.

ISI's Indianisation of jihad

The arrests of Bashir and nine suspects were done with the help of Central Intelligence agencies and police of other states, Pande said.

"The planning of the blasts was done in Ahmedabad by the SIMI," Joint Commissioner of Police of city crime branch Ashish Bhatia, who is heading the inquiry of the blasts, said.

'Terrorism and riots are not interlinked'

A meeting was held at the house of Yunus Mansuri in Bapunagar area of the city to plan the blasts, Bhatia said.

They had purchased five pre-paid mobile cards for internal communications and they were traced after checking the records.

'The blasts are a proclamation by terrorists'

It was found that the calls which were coming to these five cards had stopped after July 26, the day of the blasts.

Bhatia also said police have indentified the shops from where the cycles used in the blasts were purchased. Explosives for the blasts came from Madhya Pradesh [Images], Bhatia said.

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"Those arrested were present during a training camp organised by SIMI in Halol in Vadodara distrct in January 2008. They were given training on how to survive in adverse conditions and were trained how to tackle police interrogation," Bhatia said.

"They were also taught how to drive motorcycle and fake an accident during the camp," Bhatia said.