Indian police arrest 10 for serial blasts

AHMEDABAD (AFP) - Indian police announced Saturday the arrest of 10 people over a string of blasts that killed 49 people last month in western Ahmedabad city.

The “mastermind” of the July 27 attacks, which also left 160 people injured, was an Islamic cleric arrested in the northern Indian city of Lucknow, said Ahmedabad police chief P.C. Pandey.

“It rarely happens that the mastermind of such a conspiracy can be arrested so soon after an attack of this scale,” he told a news conference in the textile-producing city in Gujarat state.

All the 10 aged between 20 and 25 have been formally charged with murder and for “waging war against the state,” Pandey said.