Two men were arrested on Tuesday for alleged complicity in the Malegaon blasts and police in Mumbai indicated there could be a link between the attacks in the textile town and the July 11 train bombings here.
Salman Farsi and Farooq Iqbal Maqdoomi, both Unani practitioners, were arrested on Tuesday morning, Anti-Terrorism Squad chief K P Raghuvansi said. Farsi (35) was arrested from a house in suburban Govandi while Maqdoomi (33) was arrested from Malegaon, 300 km from Mumbai.
Both men, alleged activists of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India, were booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and produced before a special court that remanded them to police custody till November 21.
"Salman is the neighbour of Mohammed Ali, an accused in the July 11 train blasts," Raghuvanshi told reporters, adding the explosives used in both attacks were similar.
"We will confront the Malegaon accused as well as the July 11 accused to arrive at a conclusion," he said.
According to police, the seven bombs that went off onpacked suburban trains on July 11 were assembled at Ali's home at Shivaji Nagar in Govandi. Raghuvanshi said Salman and Farooq have criminal records of a "similar" nature and used to travel to Malegaon regularly.
Raghuvanshi said only Shabbir had allegedly gone to Pakistan to be trained in terrorist camps. The other accused were involved in planning and executing the blasts, he said.
To a query whether the ISI was involved in the blasts, Raghuvanshi said he was not in a position to comment on this. He noted that the accused are yet to be interrogated.
According to a report from Malegaon, Farooq is son of a high school teacher and a resident of the town's Islampura locality.
He was under surveillance due to his links with SIMI and has been detained by police for questioning on four occasions. Salman is the uncle of Noorul Huda and practiced Unani medicine at Govandi in northeast Mumbai.
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