MUMBAI: The Mumbai police have concluded from their investigations into the July 11 serial train blasts that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) conceived the terror attack.

It was planned and executed through terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad, which in turn used the now banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and their own modules, Police Commissioner of Mumbai, A.N. Roy told the media on Saturday.

Mr. Roy said the Mumbai Police and the Anti-Terrorist Squad solved the conspiracy of the terror attack in which 181 people died and over 700 were injured. Fifteen people were arrested, of whom 12 were directly involved in the blasts. He said the investigators were yet to find concrete evidence against the remaining three, who could be released if found to be not involved. But the investigation was still on, and more details were to be established.

The Mumbai police have identified as principal conspirator a top functionary of the LeT, Azam Cheema, who also runs a terrorist training camp at Bawahalpur in Pakistan. Many of those arrested had received training in the use of arms at Bawahalpur on more than one occasion, Mr. Roy said.

The police said Cheema's three executive planners in India were Faizal Sheikh, a resident of Mira Road near Mumbai, Kamaluddin Ansari, who was arrested from his home in Madhubani district of Bihar, and Ehtesham Siddiqui, Maharashtra secretary of SIMI and a resident of Mira Road. The trio is among the arrested.

Seven teams of two militants each — one Pakistani and one Indian — were formed to plant seven bombs on as many trains. The police have arrested four of the Indians, but three are still at large. "We expect to nab them soon," the Commissioner said.

All but one of the Pakistanis escaped. He perhaps could not get down from the jam-packed train compartment, and died in the blast at the Khar station. His badly mutilated body remained unclaimed. Mr. Roy said police had got the face reconstructed and conducted DNA tests on the body. Investigators learnt from narco-analysis tests on one of the arrested persons that it was the body of Salim, a resident of Lahore, Pakistan.

Mr. Roy said 11 Pakistani militants in three groups had reached India via three different routes — from Nepal in the north, Bangladesh in the east and from across the Gujarat border with Pakistan. One Pakistani died in an encounter with the police at Antop Hill shortly after the July 11 blasts. Nine of the 11 escaped and might have left the country.

One of the Pakistanis, Ahsannullah, is suspected to have brought 15 to 20 kg of RDX, the main explosive used in the bombs, while the other material, ammonium nitrate and nitrite, as well as the pressure cookers in which the explosives were packed, were procured locally.

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