The Hyderabad police have arrested 10 persons in connection with previous cases relating to possession and circulation of 'Jehadi' literature and CDs and conspiracy to create terror and incite communal passions in the city.   

Though these persons were taken into custody following the bomb blasts in the city on August 25 that claimed 42 lives, the city police disclosed their arrests only on Wednesday. 

Incidentally, these are the first such arrests announced by the police after the twin blasts but the cases for which they were detained pertain to the year 2004.

The arrested youth include Shaik Maqsood, Shaik Fareed, Sajju, Abdul Rawoof alias Chor Imran, Mohammed Naseeruddin alias Naseer, Mohammed Abdul Raheem, Abu Sami and three others who were detained on the basis of the confession of a suspect Abdul Sattar, who was caught at the Indo-Bangladesh border after the Mecca Majid blast on May 18 this year. 

The accused have been booked under Section 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting the waging of war against the Government of India) of the Indian Penal Code. Four of the arrested persons were wanted by the Special Investigation Team in pending cases.

The police said that cases were earlier booked against them on charges of conspiring to create terror and incite communal passions. They were plotting to cause an explosion at Ganesh temple near Secunderabad railway station on Ganesh immersion day in August 2004.

They had also planned to eliminate BJP leaders, including the then state unit president N Indrasena Reddy in another case registered on the eve of BJP national executive meeting in the city in January 2004. Both the plots were unearthed by the police in time before the accused could carry out their subversive activities.