A police team from Maharashtra's Thane district is verifying the claims of 11 residents of Mumbra town, who were detained near Tripura's border with Bangladesh, officials have said.
The 11, detained in the wake of seven blasts in Mumbai's suburban trains that killed about 200, claimed they were sent to deliver religious discourses in Tripura's minority-dominated areas.
Thane Commissioner of Police D Sivanandhan told PTI that a team was verifying the addresses provided by the men and that 'things would become clear very soon'.
A team of the Anti-Terrorism Squad has also gone to Tripura to bring back to Mumbai the men who had reportedly left this city immediately after the blasts.
One of the detained, Mohammed Sheikh, a 33-year-old Mumbra resident, has claimed to have worked with a software giant in the US before returning to India in 1999.
Another man, Wajid (33), is an engineering diploma holder who worked with a reputed company in Mumbai, officials said.
"They belong to a town from where several persons have been booked for the 2002-03 blasts," an official added.
"We are making no presumptions about their motive. But we want to interrogate them and rule out any possibility," a senior ATS official said.
Meanwhile, eight more persons were detained at Udaipur in south Tripura.
They were staying in Chhanban Masjid at Udaipur. "We detained them on Saturday night after we got a tip-off," Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Udaipur, Pinaki Samanta said.
Those arrested were brought to Radhakishorpur police station for interrogation.
However, police did not find any evidence of any subversive activity from them, he said. They identified themselves as activists of Tablgh-e-Jamat, a religious organisation.
Samanta said they entered Udaipur on June 22.
Two of them have passports and had visited different countries.
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