July 22: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad reached Mumbai from Andhra Pradesh on Friday morning with two suspects, allegedly belonging to the Indian Mujahideen, to probe their involvement in the recent bomb blasts. Around a dozen men are believed to have been involved in the blasts. “The officers are interrogating the two about their IM links and are also probing where they were when the blasts took place,” he said.

The Andhra Pradesh police, however, said that no one had been arrested from the state. The IM, which was formed by the Bhatkal brothers in Karnataka, had been inducting members from Andhra Pradesh. “Mansoor Ali Peerbhoy, the chief of IM’s media cell, who was arrested by the Crime Branch in 2008, was taken to Macca Masjid in Hyderabad by Bhatkal who had also shown him the footage of the Macca Masjid blasts of 2007 after which he decided to join the outfit. The organisation has recruited several youths from the state similarly,” said the source. Meanwhile, the Mumbai police have reconstructed the sequence of events before the blasts at two of the three sites with the help of CCTV footage.

An officer probing the case said, “The sequence of events that led to the blasts at Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House on July 13 has been reconstructed with the help of CCTV footage. We have now got the actual picture as to what had happened on that fateful day.” CCTVs at Dadar could not capture the blast, said the official, adding, “But the investigators have possession of CCTV visuals of seven days prior to the blasts at Opera House.”