Gujarat police have arrested a key aide of Dawood Ibrahim [Images] and a main accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, the police said in Ahmedabad on Friday.

The accused, Ijju Ibrahim Sheikh, absconding for over a decade, was on Thursday arrested from a hotel in Andheri, Mumbai.

A police team from Valsad, Gujarat, following specific information about his whereabouts, arrested him.

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The police said they arrested Sheikh for his role in transporting RDX, which landed off Porbandar's coast in Gujarat and was shifted to Mumbai via trucks.

"Sheikh, a native of Valsad, is a notorious person. He has been absconding since the blasts and his arrest is a major breakthrough in the case," an officer said.

Sheikh has been brought to Valsad under heavy security and the police will seek his remand after producing him before a local court.

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The police were under the impression that he fled to Middle East after the blasts, but will now verify his whereabouts for the past several years.

The police got wind of Sheikh's role while interrogating Umarmiyan Bukhari, another key aide of Dawood who was deported from Dubai in December and handed over to the Gujarat police in connection with arms smuggling cases.

Sheikh has at least six cases pending against him in Gujarat. The cases mostly relate to illegal smuggling of arms and ammunition.

Over 250 people were killed and around 1000 injured when Mumbai's underworld carried out a series of bomb blasts on March 12, 1993.