11 charged with deadly Indian bombings

AHMEDABAD, India, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- The man who allegedly planned deadly bombings in the Indian state of Gujarat was arrested Saturday.

After Mufti Abdul Bashar Kasmi was detained in Uttar Pradesh, police announced 10 members of the Students Islamic Movement of India had also been arrested, nine of them residents of Gujarat, The Times of India reported.

The coordinated bombings in Ahmedabad three weeks ago killed 57 people. Police in Gujarat say that SIMI's terrorist wing has carried out similar bombings in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Jaipur, using the name Indian Mujahedin.

Officials said the investigation of the Ahmedabad bombings involved unprecedented cooperation between police in different Indian states and national intelligence agencies. But Gujarat police reportedly had trouble convincing their colleagues in Uttar Pradesh that Bashar was involved.

Bashar allegedly took over command of SIMI's terrorist wing after Safdor Nagori, the previous leader, was arrested in March.

In 2002, a Muslim mob set a train carrying Hindu pilgrims on fire in Gujarat. The riots that followed left more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslim, and thousands of Muslim families homeless.