By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Two suspected skilled bomb-makers associated with the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were arrested Monday in connection with the July 26 serial bombing here, police said.
The two, identified as Umar and Salim, are residents of Ahmedabad and are connected with the banned SIMI, police said.
With this, the total number of people arrested in the case has gone up to 21. All arrests have been made by teams led by Crime Branch officers V.R. Toliya and M.J. Chavda.
Umar and Salim had been arrested in 2001 here for participating in a SIMI programme.
Police said that the two have been involved with SIMI from a young age and have been trained to make bombs.
They later trained young recruits at Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara. They also regularly attended terror plot meetings and were part of the July 26 conspiracy, police said.
The alleged mastermind of the blasts, Mufti Abu Bashir, has been in police custody and so is SIMI leader Safdar Nagori and four others from Madhya Pradesh.
At least 56 people were killed when 21 bombs went off within a span of one and a half hours on July 26 evening here.