Terrorism-related Incidents in Maharashtra 2006-2009

2009

• May 28: The Mumbai Police recovered 917 live cartridges and arrested one person in this connection. The Joint Commissioner of Police, Rakesh Maria, said that Mumbai-based Mansood Khan was arrested along with 500 live cartridges and another 417 were found atop a public toilet. All the live rounds were reportedly of firearms .30, .32, 9 mm and .375 and 12 bore. They are good quality foreign-made cartridges, Maria added.

• May 14: The Mumbai Crime Branch extradited an aide of underworld gangster Chhota Shakeel, identified as Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, from Bangkok. The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Nisar Tamboli, said that Bhullar was involved in a murder case and there was a red corner notice against him.

• April 22: Two persons suspected to be accomplices of the gangster Chhota Shakeel’s gang were arrested along with two firearms and six live cartridges recently near the J.J. Hospital in south Mumbai, ATS officials. The duo was identified as Manoj Dubey and Sunil Navner. "We received a tip off that the duo would arrive near the junction with firearms. Accordingly, we laid a trap and caught the accused," the officials said.

• April 17: A Mumbai-based private news channel received an email threat warning of at least five bomb blasts across the country during the parliamentary elections. The email was sent from indian.agentshubham@yahoo.com and has been traced to Lahore in Pakistan, Police said. "The email has been traced to the same person who had earlier threatened to blow up Taj hotel in south Mumbai and one of its properties in Chennai,'' said an investigator.

• April 10: The Pune Police arrested a gangster, identified as Asif Dadhi alias Asif Mohammed Iqbal Shaikh, from the Laltopi Nagar area in Pune. Asif was suspected to have links with radical Islamic groups, including the banned SIMI, and the underworld. The Police have recovered a pistol, two live cartridges and a mobile phone, all worth INR 54000, from his possession.

• January 5: An Indian Mujahideen (IM) cadre, identified as Anwar Ali Bagwaan, was arrested for allegedly obtaining two apartments for the outfit in Pune. Bagwaan also reportedly trained the IM militants on administering sedatives on persons they were planning to kidnap. The rent and cash deposit for the apartments were provided by the IM founder Riyaz Bhatkal and his brother, both of whom are still absconding. Bagwaan was produced before a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court which remanded him to Police custody till January 16.

2008

• December 3: Eight kilograms of RDX, fitted with a timer, was recovered by the bomb squad near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) in Mumbai. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Rakesh Maria, said the explosives were in two sets -one of four kilogram each.

• November 29: Forensic experts have determined that an e-mail claim of responsibility for the November 26 Mumbai terrorist attacks issued by the unknown group Deccan Mujahideen was first generated on a computer located in Pakistan. Based on studies of the internet protocol addresses used to send the mail, computer specialists at India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, found that the Russia-based e-mail address account was opened by a computer user based in Pakistan.

• November 28: The only militant arrested during the multiple terrorist attacks in Mumbai, identified as Mohammad Ajmal Amir, revealed during interrogation that boats in which they came from Karachi in Pakistan were arranged by an unidentified front man of mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, who runs several custom clearing houses in Mumbai. Dawood's gang arranged boats and transferred arms, ammunition and plastic explosives to it, which took the LeT militants for carrying out attacks in Mumbai.

• November 27: Mumbai Police sources said that they have preliminary evidence that operatives of the Pakistan-based LeT carried out the Fidayeen (suicide squad) attacks in Mumbai. The sole arrested militant, identified as Mohammad Ajmal Amir, is suspected to be a LeT cadre and a resident of Faridkot in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

• November 26: At least 166 civilians, including at least 22 foreigners, 20 security force (SF) personnel and nine terrorists were killed and more than 300 persons sustained injuries in the multiple terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Among those killed were chief of the ATS, Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police (east Mumbai), Ashok Kamte, and Inspector of the Anti Extortion Cell in Mumbai Police, Vijay Salaskar. The terrorists, who apparently came in by boats, struck at 10 places in south Mumbai including five-star hotels, hospitals and train stations. Among the locations attacked were: Oberoi-Trident Hotel, Taj Hotel, Nariman House, Wadi Bunder, Cama hospital, GT hospital, VT station, Leopold Cafe, Girgaum and Metro cinema. There were also reports of a low intensity blast in Ville Parle and grenade attack in Santa Cruz. An unknown outfit, Deccan Mujahideen, sent an email to news organizations claiming that it carried out the attacks.

• November 21: The Maharashtra ATS invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) against one more Malegaon bomb blast suspect, identified as Sudhakar Chaturvedi, besides 10 other suspects.

• November 20: The ATS decided to invoke the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crimes Act (MCOCA) against all 10 suspects arrested in the Malegaon blast case. At a press conference in Mumbai, ATS chief Hemant Karkare said, "There was no need for each of the accused to have more than one charge sheet as prescribed under the Act. There were other provisions which could be used to apply the MCOCA". The case will now shift to the special MCOCA court in Mumbai from Nashik and the investigation would be completed within 90 days, he added.

  The ATS is going to take custody of the Abhinav Bharat leader Sudhakar Chaturvedi from the Matunga police. Sudhakar Chaturvedi, national coordinator of the Abhinav Bharat, was allegedly involved in planning the Malegaon blast along with Lt-Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit. Chaturvedi was arrested by Matunga police on November 4 on charges of carrying a revolver without licence and possessing a fake ID of Deolali military cantonment.

• November 19: The Malegaon bomb blast suspect Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit was remanded to two-day police custody till November 21 by a Pune court in a case of forgery.

• November 17: A Nashik court extended the judicial custody for eight Malegaon blast suspects, identified as Pragya Singh Thakur, Shiv Narayan Kalsanghra, Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu, Ajay Rahirkar, Jagdish Mhatre, Rakesh Dhawde, Sameer Kulkarni and Ramesh Upadhyay, till November 29.

  A special POTA court in Mumbai acquitted two accused of the 2003 Mumbai twin blasts case, identified as Rizwan Ladduwala and Mohammed Hassan Batterywala. This followed an order passed by the Supreme Court on October 21 upholding the Central POTA review committee’s order discharging them from the provisions of the Act.

• November 16: An arrested Indian Mujahideen (IM) cadre from Mumbai confessed to the Ahmedabad police during interrogation that terrorist attacks in Indian cities are being financed though hawala (informal money transfer system) transfer from abroad. Amir Raza Khan, brother of Asif Raza Khan, played a key role in the hawala racket that secured funding from individuals and institutions for jihadi activities in India.

• November 14: A Nashik court remanded Malegaon blast accused Dayanand Pandey to police custody till November 26 and permitted police to conduct polygraph, narco-analysis and brain mapping tests on him.

• November 13: The Mumbai ATS recovered the laptop of Malegaon blast accused Lt-Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit. Most of the contents in the laptop are reportedly about Abhinav Bharat, an organisation of Hindu hardliners who actively participated in this blast. "Purohit is also a co-founder of Abhinav Bharat.'' said an ATS officer.

• November 12: The Mumbai ATS with the help of Uttar Pradesh ATS has arrested one more September 2008 Malegaon blast accused, identified as Dayanand Pandey alias Mahant Amritanand, the Peethadheeshwar (chief) of Sharda Sarvagya Peeth (monastery) in Jammu, from Rawatpur village under Kalyanpur police station in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. He reportedly belongs to Varanasi and is currently residing in Trikutanagar locality of Jammu Tawi in Jammu and Kashmir. He had left for Jammu in 2003 and returned to Kanpur a couple of days back. He has been charged under the specific sections of the Explosives Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

• November 10: A Nashik court remanded five Malegaon blast suspects, identified as Ajay Eknath Rahirkar, Jagdish Chintaman Mhatre, Rakesh Dattaram Dhawde, Sameer Kulkarni and Ramesh Upadhyay, to judicial custody till November 17. Rahirkar had reportedly given INR 1.95 lakh to Kulkarni, INR 85,000 to Upadhyay, and INR five lakh to various persons at the behest of Lt. Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit. Rahirkar also transferred INR 10, 73,200 through hawala (informal money transfer system) channels, said Public prosecutor Ajay Misar.

• November 9: The Maharashtra Police defused seven crude bombs in a grass heap at Majargaon village in Jalna district. The intensity of the bombs might have damaged a 100-feet area and no arrest had been made so far, said Superintendent of Police Sandeep Karnik.

  The Maharashtra ATS has arrested one more Malegaon blast accused, identified as Ramji, from the tribal-dominated Dangs district in south Gujarat. Ramji was employed as a "sevak" in Shabri temple and was alleged to have used Sadhvi Pragnya’s motorbike in Malegaon. He is reportedly linked to the Hindu Jagran Manch activist Swami Ashimananda.

• November 6: The Maharashtra ATS said that Lieutenant-Colonel Shrikant Purohit had confessed to being the mastermind of September 29 Malegaon blast. He also admitted to supplying the RDX and weapons to members of the Abhinav Bharat, a radical Hindu outfit. "I am the mastermind of the blast. I arranged for the RDX and weapons but I can't understand how the weapons reached Abhinav Bharat members," Purohit reportedly said in his confession.

• November 5: The Maharashtra ATS arrested another Malegaon blast suspect, identified as Lt Col Srikanth Purohit from Mumbai. Purohit was produced before a Nashik court, where he was remanded to 10 days of police custody and also allowed for narco-analysis tests. This is the first instance of an army officer being arrested in connection with a terrorist attack.

  Mumbai Police has identified two non-resident Indians (NRIs) as having provided part of the funds that sustained the operations of the Indian Mujahideen (IM). Both NRIs had bank accounts in the Gulf and these were being used to channel funds to IM members in Mumbai, the police said. The police have frozen both accounts and issued lookout notices against the two NRIs.

• November 2: The Maharashtra ATS arrested three Malegaon blasts accused, Ajay Eknath Rahirkar, Jagdish Chintamani Mhatre and Rakesh Dattaram Dhawade. Ajay Eknath reportedly handled the finances of the group behind the September 29 blasts.

• October 29: Two Malegaon blast suspects, Sameer Kulkarni and Ramesh Upadhyay, arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad were produced in a Nashik court and remanded to Police custody till November 10.

• October 26: The ATS of the Maharashtra Police arrested one more suspect, identified as Major Prabhakar Kulkarni (retired), from Pune for links to the September 29 Malegaon and Modasa blasts. Kulkarni was commandant of the Bhosala Military School and two other alleged former servicemen, Major Y.D. Sahasrabuddhe and Major Ramesh Upadhyay, assisted him in providing training in making and exploding bombs using RDX, the ATS officials said. The prime suspect, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, along with her two accomplices, Shivnarayan Singh and Shyam Bhavarlal Sahu, was said to have been in constant touch with Major Kulkarni. Kulkarni reportedly worked as the secretary of the Hindu Sainiki Sanstha.

  The arrested IM cadre, Mansoor Peerbhoy, a software engineer, who allegedly wrote the e-mails ahead of serial blasts in various parts of the country, has expressed his willingness to become an approver and help the investigating agencies. The Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said, "The application has been filed before the MCOCA court by his lawyer and we have been asked to file our say by November 4".

  The ATS of the Maharashtra Police arrested one suspect from Bhopal for his involvement in the September 29 blast in Malegaon and took him to Mumbai.

• October 23: The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested three persons on charges of being involved in the September 29 blast in Malegaon of Maharashtra. They were identified as a sadhvi (female saint) Pragnya Singh Chandrapal Singh, Shiv Narayan Gopal Singh Kalsanghra, and Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu. While Pragnya Singh was arrested from Surat in Gujarat, the other two persons were arrested from unspecified places in Madhya Pradesh. Subsequently, the Nashik Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court remanded the arrested to police custody till November 3. They have been booked under various sections of the Indian Explosives Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The ATS chief Hemant Karkare said that the Forensic Sciences Laboratory report had revealed "traces of RDX" in the September 29 blast in Malegaon.

• October 14: Mumbai Police claimed that three recently arrested terrorists belonging to the IM have confessed that they were part of the team that executed the blasts targeting the railway networks in Mumbai on July 11, 2006. Sadiq Shaikh, co-founder of the IM, who was arrested on September 24 in Mumbai; Arif Shaikh, who was held along with Sadiq; and Saif, who was held following the Jamia Nagar shootout in New Delhi on September 19 have claimed that they were the ones who caused the blasts in Mumbai's local trains on the orders of Riyaz Bhatkal of Karnataka. Five other men belonging to this module, as per their confession, are Mohammad Atif Amin and Mohammed Sajid, who were killed in the New Delhi shootout; Zeeshan, who was arrested after the shootout; and Saif's brother Dr Shahnawaz Khan and Abu Rashid, both of whom are absconding.

• September 23: The Mumbai police arrested five suspected members of the IM. While Afzal Mutalib Usmani (32) was arrested from Uttar Pradesh, Mohammed Saddik Shaikh (31), Mohammed Arif Shaikh (38), Mohammed Zakir Shaikh (28) and Mohammed Ansar Shaikh were arrested from their Mumbai residences. All the accused, originally from Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh, have worked with the banned SIMI, Joint Commissioner (Crime), Rakesh Maria told journalists. "They broke away from SIMI to form the radical group of IM. Saddik, was one of the co-founders of the outfit along with Atiq, killed in the Delhi encounter, and Roshan Khan, who is yet to be traced. The police are on the lookout for Khan", Maria added. The police have booked the arrested terrorists under the Explosives Act, Arms Act, various sections of the Indian Penal Code and for criminal conspiracy. The recovered items from the arrested terrorists include 10 kilograms of gelatin or ammonium nitrate, 15 detonators, eight kilograms of ball bearings, four fully active electronic circuits, one sub-machine carbine, two .38 revolvers and 30 cartridges of 9 mm carbine and eight cartridges of .38 revolver.

• September 11: The ATS in Mumbai charge sheeted six members of the Sanatan Sanstha, an organisation involved in the blast at a cinema hall in Panvel screening the movie ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ and for planting bombs in Thane and Navi Mumbai auditoriums, staging the Marathi play ‘Aamhi Panchpute.’ The organisation had claimed that the movie and the play showed Hindu goddesses in a bad light. The six persons, Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari, Vikram Vinay Bhave, Mangesh Dinkar Nikam, Santosh Sitaram Angre, Hemant Tukaram Chalke and Haribhau Krishna Divekar are in police custody.

• August 26: Gujarat Police arrested Tanveer Pathan alias Sameer, a suspected SIMI member, from the Mira road area in Mumbai for his alleged involvement in the planting of bombs in Surat. Police sources said Pathan's name was revealed during the interrogation of Sajid Mansuri, an accused arrested in connection with the Ahmedabad serial blasts case.

• August 22: Mumbai Police sources quoting information provided by Karimulla Khan Osan Khan, a key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, said that fugitive underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim, his relatives and other associates are living in Pakistan. Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Deven Bharti said "According to Khan, many of the absconding accused in the blasts case are living in Pakistan where they have been given various jobs." Dawood, who has stakes in many businesses in Karachi and lives in the city, is allegedly involved in construction projects across Pakistan, Bharti said. Dawood is allegedly protected at his Karachi residence by former Pakistani armed forces personnel and Khan has claimed that he had seen the gangster meet with ISI officials at his Karachi residence.

• August 21: The ATS of the Mumbai Police arrested Feroz Mehboob Pathan (32), a suspected to SIMI member and part of the recently neutralised sleeper module of the outfit, from the Ghorpade Peth area of Pune in connection with the July 26 Ahmedabad serial blasts.

  Maharashtra Police have arrested a key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, Karimullah Khan Osan Khan, at Nallasopara, a Mumbai suburb. Joint Commissioner (Crime), Rakesh Maria, told journalists that Khan (46) was a declared absconder and a red corner notice was issued against him in 1995. The Central Bureau of Investigation had announced a reward of INR 500000 for information on him. Maria said Khan was a close confidant of a blast convict, the late Ejaz Pathan, and was instrumental in overseeing the landing of RDX and other ammunition on the Shekhadi coast in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.

• August 2: Immigration officials at the Mumbai International Airport detained a passenger in connection with a blast in the Judicial Magistrate First Class court in Hubli in Karnataka in May 2008. The passenger Iqbal Shaukat Ali is alleged to be a SIMI activist. A resident of Belgaum in Karnataka, Ali had fled to Sharjah soon after his name emerged as one of the major suspects in the blast. Subsequently, he was remanded to four days of police custody.

• June 4: An explosion in the parking lot of a drama theatre in Thane injured seven persons. The explosive was wrapped in a plastic bag and was placed on a cycle. It exploded when staff of the theatre tried to remove it.

• April 10: Mumbai Police arrested two SIMI cadres from the Thane district. The duo, identified as Irshad Salim Khan and Israr Ahmed Abdul Hamid Tailor, are believed to be close to the arrested SIMI secretary-general, Safdar Nagori. Khan is a civil engineer by profession and was the former president of the outfit while Israr Ahmed is a computer professional.

• March 11: A senior cadre of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Dr Arif Abrar, who had surrendered before a lower court in Nagpur in January 2008, was granted bail by the 10^th Ad hoc Sessions Judge. Abrar who was lodged in the Nagpur central jail after police interrogation is expected to be released shortly. Defence lawyer A.M. Rizway stated that court found no incriminating evidence against him.

• February 16: An ex-Serviceman, Shailesh Jadhav, was arrested, from the Pune railway station when he was about to board a train for Jodhpur, for having alleged links with Pakistan’s external Intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Some classified documents pertaining to the Army were seized from his possession.

• October 15: The Mumbai Police claimed to have arrested an ISI agent recently. Police sources said that the agent, identified as Mohammed Qamar Shafi Afghani, was passing vital information to Pakistan. Afghani lived in the Govandi slums from where the Police had earlier arrested Mohammed Ali, another person accused in the July 11, 2006 Mumbai explosions case. Police seized Afghani’s passport, a CD, ration card and five credit cards, which were reportedly gifted by an ISI agent called Tayyeb. Afghani had visited Pakistan twice - in 2006 and 2007. Joint Commissioner of Police, K. P. Raghuvanshi, said, "We had information that Afghani had been clicking photographs and passing information on some vital institutions in Mumbai. We have got his remand till October 26.’’

  An anonymous e-mail threatening to blow up the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was received in Mumbai. Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), K.L. Prasad, said, "An NSE official has received the e-mail and I asked for security to be beefed up at the buildings immediately after being told about it."

• September 26: Mumbai Police found six low-intensity crude bombs near the Andheri railway station and arrested two persons in connection with the recovery. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Rakesh Maria, said the bombs were made of low-intensity explosives such as gunpowder in which nails, ball bearings and nut-bolts were used as shrapnel. Those arrested were identified as Rajeev Jaigovind Singh and Soumitra Badal Roy. Singh was carrying the bombs in a backpack while Roy was arrested following Singh’s interrogation.

• August 12: The Aurangabad city Police seized 29 kilograms of ammonium nitrate explosive abandoned by a man in an auto rickshaw near the Aurangabad railway station. Police said that the man, aged around 30, had earlier alighted from the Devagiri Express, running between Secunderabad and Mumbai Central, at around 2330 hours and boarded an auto rickshaw to reach the central bus stand.

• July 15: The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai Police in collaboration with the Kutch Police in Gujarat claimed to have neutralized a sleeper cell of Pakistan-based militant outfit Al Badr that was operating from the Bhendi Bazaar area of Mumbai since 2006. Pakistani national Mohammed Salim Memon alias Salim Malai and two other local operatives - Sultan Ansari of Nagpada and Irfan Lakhani of Mumbra - were arrested from different parts of Mumbai. Preliminary investigations revealed that Memon had been staying illegally in the Bhendi Bazaar area for more than 30 years. Memon was first arrested on May 8 by the ATS from Nagpada area while in possession of 30 fake credit cards which he was attempting to sell to unsuspecting people and had been released on bail later.

• July 12: Police in Pune arrested a person hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, who was working as a watchman, for suspected links with a terrorist outfit in his home State. "The person is in our custody since last evening and we are probing his alleged links with a terrorist organisation operating in Jammu and Kashmir," an unnamed Police officer said.

• May 25: A team of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh Police arrested a meat shop owner from Jalna in central Maharashtra on suspicion that he had carried the RDX packed in containers that were blown up in the May 18 bomb blast in Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh. The arrested person, Shoaib Faqruddin Jagirdar, is also a muttawali (custodian) of a local dargah (shrine), is suspected to have played a key role in sending four youth along with RDX from Jalna to Hyderabad.

• May 20: The Nagpur Police seized 6.9 tonnes of the ammonium nitrate-based explosive ANFO (Ammonium nitrate-fuel oil), the same type of explosive used in the Mumbai train blasts on July 11, 2006, from a quarry near Kuhi, about 45 kilometres from Nagpur. Five persons, including the quarry owner, were arrested.

• February 13: Abdul Qayyum Shaikh, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case and a key member of the fugitive underworld Dawood Ibrahim gang, was arrested at Panjrapole junction in Mumbai by the city Police.

• January 20: Four persons were arrested and 6.5 kilograms of TNT explosives were recovered from them in suburban Andheri of North-West Mumbai. Two of the arrested persons were identified as Sakhu Gaikwad and Gautam Telore from Igatapuri in the Nasik District.

• January 8: An alleged aide of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in Mumbai. The accused, identified as Ateek Ahmed, is a proclaimed offender wanted in several cases of murder, attempt to murder, riots, Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act registered in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

2006

• December 16: The Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai Police arrested Abrar Ahmed, suspected of planting bombs in the textile town of Malegaon on September 8. He is ninth person to be arrested in the case.

• November 21: The Maharashtra Police arrested one more person, identified as Hamid, for his alleged role in the Malegaon serial bomb blasts, from an unidentified location in the Yavatmal District.

• Ten members of the Pakistan-based gangster Dawood Ibrahim's gang were arrested by the Mumbai Police after having been deported from the United Arab Emirates. They were identified as Anjum Phajlani, Jameel, Sabir Shaikh, Salim Fruit, Sayyed Mehandi, Mustafa Ghulam, Khota Shakeel, Aziz Chaipani, Arif Bhaijaan and Shahid Qureshi.

• November 8: A cadre of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Imran Ansari, having alleged links with the July 11 Mumbai serial train blasts case accused Rahil Sheikh, was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

• November 7: Two Unani (traditional oriental medicine) doctors, Salman Farsi Aaimi and Farogh Iqbal Makhdomi, were arrested in overnight raids at Malegaon and Govandi in the Nasik District in connection with the Malegaon bomb blasts.

• November 2: The Maharashtra Police arrested Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah Ansari alias Batterywallah for his alleged involvement in the Malegaon bomb blasts. Ansari was already in the custody of Mumbai Police since August 2 for his alleged complicity in the Malegaon blasts.

• October 30: Maharashtra Police arrests Noorul Hooda Shamshul Hooda, a SIMI activist, in connection with the Malegaon serial bomb blasts of September 8, 2006.

• October 8: A suspected SIMI cadre, Nurullah Samsudoha, is arrested from the Jaffar Nagar area of Malegaon town.

• October 3: Maharashtra Police arrests Asif Khan Bashir Khan alias Junaid alias Abdullah from Belgaum in the Karnataka State in connection with the July 11, 2006, Mumbai serial blasts.

• September 28: Maharashtra Police arrest three persons, identified as Mohammed Ali of Govandi, Sajid Ansari of Mira Road and Abdul Wahid of Mumbra, for their alleged involvement in the 7/11 Mumbai blasts conspiracy.

• September 11: A bomb connected to a remote control device was found and subsequently defused outside the Lifeline Hospital at Nashik.

• September 10: Police seizes 29 boxes of detonators each containing 50 pieces, 11 boxes of gelatine, each containing 25 kilograms, 75 pieces of wire and five bags of ammonium nitrate, each containing 50 kilograms in Tembha village off the Mumbai-Nashik highway in the Thane District.

• September 8: Forty people were killed and 65 others sustained injuries in three bomb blasts at Malegaon town in the Nashik District.

• August 23: Two suspects in the October 2005 Delhi serial bomb blasts are remanded to custody of the Mumbai Police till August 28 by a local court in Mumbai. Firoz Abdul Latif Ghaswala and Mohammed Ali Chippa, who were lodged in a jail in Delhi, are brought to Mumbai and produced before a local court.

• August 22: Mumbai Police shot dead a suspected Pakistani terrorist and arrested another in an encounter at Antop Hill in Mumbai. Police also recovered one AK 47, some cartridges and a white powdery substance from the encounter site.

• August 18: Two SIMI cadres are arrested from the Wardha District on suspicion of their alleged involvement in terrorist activities. Police sources said that while Waqar Baig Yusuf Baig was arrested from Mahadeopura in Wardha city, Jitaullah Rehman Mehmood Khan was detained at Kazipur in the textile township of Hinganghat.

• August 13: Mumbai Police claim to have neutralized a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) module in the capital by arresting two suspected militants, identified as Shabbir Ahmed Mushiullah, a resident of Malegaon in Nasik, and Nafiz Ahmed Jamir Ahmed Ansari, a resident of Govandi in north-east Mumbai.

• August 12: The Anti-Terrorist Squad of Maharashtra Police arrests Ehtesham Siddiqui, an activist of the outlawed SIMI, in connection with the July 11 serial blasts in Mumbai.

• August 8: Three SIMI cadres were arrested in connection with the July 11 Mumbai serial blasts from Nagpur. They were identified as Shakil Warsi, Shakir Ahmed Nasi and Mohammad Rehan Khan.

• August 1: Police arrested a suspected agent of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's external intelligence agency, identified as Arif Lakhani, from Manmad in the Nashik District. Lakhani was allegedly sending military information to a Pakistani handler operating from New Delhi.

• July 23: Tanvir Ansari, a doctor, practising Unani medicine in central Mumbai, who Police said is an operative of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, was arrested in connection with the 7/11 explosions in Mumbai.

• July 20: Mumbai Police's Anti-Terrorist Squad arrests two persons in Bihar and one in Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra in connection with the July 11 serial blasts in Mumbai. Khalid Aziz Raunak Aziz Sheikh and Kamal Ahmed Mohammad Vakil Ansari, belonging to Basupatigaon in the Madhubani District, near the India-Nepal border are arrested from Patna in Bihar. Mobile phones and half kg of black powder are recovered from them. Police said the arrested have links in Nepal and Bangladesh and are part of a larger terrorist network.

• July 12: At least 350 persons are detained for interrogation in connection with the 7/11 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. Most of the detentions are made in Malwani, a north-eastern suburb of the metropolis.

• July 11: At least 200 persons are killed and 700 others are injured in seven bomb blasts targeting the railway networks in Mumbai. First class compartments of trains at Mira-Bayandhar, Jogeshwari, Mahim, Santacruz, Khar, Matunga and Borivli stations on the Western Railway are targeted in the serial explosions.

• June 20: The Mumbai Police, during raids at various places in south Mumbai and Andheri, arrested at least 13 unidentified persons who are involved in the circulation of counterfeit Indian currencies. The arrested are linked to the ISI in its plan to subvert the Indian economy. Reports added that most of the fake currencies are made in Bangladesh or Pakistan.

• June 1: Three suspected LeT terrorists are shot dead during an abortive attempt to storm the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu organization, at Nagpur.

• January 6: The Mumbai Police arrests three suspected LeT terrorists from Nagpada in south Mumbai and seized some arms and material used for manufacturing explosives from their possession.

• January 4: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrests Riyaz Siddiqui, an aide of extradited gangster Abu Salem, for allegedly supplying arms and ammunition to those who carried out the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.

Source: Compiled from English language media sources.