More than 25 suspected Students Islamic Movement of India activists have been held in Madhya Pradesh in connection with the serial blasts in Mumbai suburban trains as state police tightened the noose around functionaries of the banned outfit.
Nearly 15 people have been taken into custody in Bhopal and Indore, while similar operations were on in other districts, including Ujjain, Khandwa and Burhanpur, a senior police officer told PTI in Bhopal.
Though no formal arrests have been made in connection with the blasts, SIMI activist Imran Ansari of Indore, a close confidant of top functionaries of the banned outfit, was arrested in Bhopal for an offence in Surat, he said.
Ansari will soon be handed over to a team of Gujarat police, he said.
No conclusive evidence was received connecting the SIMI activists in Madhya Pradesh to the blasts in suburban trains in Mumbai, though Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorist Squad was trying to find clues linking the terror attack to the banned outfit, the officer said.
Madhya Pradesh has been a hub of operations for around 350 SIMI activists, of whom nearly 65 were arrested when the previous National Democratic Alliance government imposed a ban on it in 2001, police said.
Since re-imposition of the ban in February 2006, a sharp vigil was being kept on the activists, he said, adding 12 members of SIMI, including two women, were arrested for circulating inflammatory material in Khandwa in May 2006.
Most SIMI functionaries had gone underground and efforts were being made to trace them, even as a contact was being maintained with the Maharashtra police about every development, police said.
In several places, police teams were carrying out search operations and questioning SIMI sympathisers to squeeze out its activists, they said.
Apart from the special operation against the banned organisation, the Madhya Pradesh police were thoroughly investigating four e-mails, including those sent to TV channels claiming responsibility of the blasts and the one carrying life threat to President A P J Abdul Kalam.