Number of Indian Mujahideen members held for terror attacks rises to 20

With the arrest of a group of suspected Indian Mujahideen members from Karnataka for allegedly placing bombs in Ahmedabad and Surat, the number of people held by Mumbai Police in connection with the recent terror attacks has risen to 20, Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor said in Mumbai on Monday.

Gafoor said that those arrested include four "top notch software professionals who had sent the three terror e-mails prior to the blasts".

Gafoor also alleged that 10 of those arrested were among those who placed explosives in Ahmedabad and Surat. They had travelled from Karnataka to Pune and then to Surat and Ahmedabad, he said. The serial blasts in Ahmedabad July 26 killed 57 people and injured over 100.

The arrested men include Mohammed Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy, 31, who works as a principal software engineer in a multinational corporation; Mobin Kadir Shaikh, 24, senior technical advisor in an IT firm and Asif Bashiruddin Shaikh, 22, a mechanical engineer.

They were told to send the emails minutes before the blasts in Ahmedabad and Delhi, which they did, Gafoor said.