The Madhya Pradesh Police and Central agencies are expected to interrogate arrested top SIMI leadership to find out whether they were involved in a series of terror attacks — from Aurangabad arms haul to Samjhauta Express blast to links with Lashkar-e-Toiba.

The linkages between the proscribed SIMI activists and the LeT was evident in the 7/11 Mumbai serial blasts, Malegaon mosque blasts and Aurangabad arms haul, while it is suspected that a SIMI module provided the logistics for assembling the bombs that exploded aboard Samjhauta Express on February 19, 2007. The bombs were assembled in Indore a month before the Samjhauta attack. The Haryana Police, which is investigating the case, believes that SIMI was behind the incident. The unexploded bomb found in the Samjhuata incident was wrapped in a newspaper printed from Aligarh, another SIMI hotspot.

Talking to The Indian Express, MP Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Surendra Singh said it was too early to talk about the involvement of the arrested SIMI leaders, including Safdar Nagori, in the Samjhauta Express blasts. “There is a possibility that the material for the Samjhauta bombs may have been procured from Indore. It was during interrogation of SIMI general secretary Ehtesham Siddqui, accused in the 7/11 blasts, that details of the May meeting of the top leadership in Ujjain (Nagori belongs to this place) came out. Specific details will only come out only after interrogation of the arrested SIMI leaders,” he said.

The Central agencies and Maharashtra Police are looking to unravel the 7/11 blasts and the attack on a Barelwi sect mosque at Malegoan. Mohammed Ali Sheikh, in whose house the bombs for 7/11 were allegedly assembled, is linked with Malegoan attack main accused Shabbir Batterywala and Noor Ul Huda. Both the Malegaon accused and Sheikh belonged to SIMI and were trained by the LeT in Pakistan. Besides, three days before the Aurangabad arms haul on May 10, 2006, 12 SIMI activists met at Noor Ul Huda’s wedding in Malegoan.