The 'Indian Mujahideen', an outfit that claimed the responsibility for the July 26 terror bombings, is just a front of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the Gujarat police said Saturday.
"You remove S and I from 'SIMI' and you get IM, for Indian Mujahideen," Gujarat Director general of Police PC Pande told reporters in Ahmedabad.
"Indian Mujaheedin is only a second version of SIMI," he said, after announcing that the banned outfit was behind the serial bombings here.
Pande said the front organisation was put up after the SIMI was banned.
Ahemdabad's Joint Commissioner of Police Ashish Bhatia said: "After the arrest of Safdar Nagori, SIMI got divided into two groups - hardliners and moderates. The hardliner group is Indian Mujahideen."
An email from 'Indian Mujahideen', sent to media organisations minutes before the 22 blasts, had claimed the responsibility of the attack. As many as 53 people had died in the synchronised bombings.