Three of the 11 Muslim men from Maharashtra who were arrested in Tripura soon after the Mumbai blasts on Wednesday admitted to their links with the Student's Islamic Movement Of India.

The 11 were arrested soon after seven blasts in Mumbai's suburban trains killed about 200 on July 11.

The police, however, said they were not associated with the blasts, police said.

The 11, who were apprehended from a mosque in Dhalai district of Tripura on July 13, had no link with the Mumbai blasts because they had entered Tripura on June 23 last, the police said.

A report sent by the Dhalai district police to the police headquarters said that during interrogation by Mumbai's Anti-Terrorist Squad and Tripura police, the suspects said they had ties with the SIMI but had snapped the link after the outfit was banned in 2001.

A police official said, "We will investigate if they are still maintaining links with the SIMI."

The suspects had identified themselves as religious activists. Of the eleven, one is an electronic engineer who studied in Texas, another a textile engineer and yet another is a mechanical engineer.