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Investigation agencies suspect that the Mumbai blasts were a coordinated attack by the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Indian Mujahideen.

Their preliminary assessment is based on the recent inputs that senior IM leaders have regrouped and have been on recruitment drive for the past six months.

Involvement of 13 Indian Mujahideen militants, whose name figured in the September 13, 2008 Delhi serial blasts, cannot be ruled out, said an investigation agency official involved in the probe.

"Intelligence agencies along with the Delhi police are trying to trace those 13 IM men. Their involvement in the Mumbai attack cannot be ruled out, as the group is regaining its lost strength," said an official of the National Investigation Agency. In its chargesheet in the 2008 blasts, the Delhi Police said the IM was backed by the LeT.

The agencies suspect IM's hand because the three blasts could have involved at least 10-12 people — two each for the three sites and two or three as a back up and for coordination.

They claim that only an established outfit having experienced leaders could gather such a large team to plan and execute serial blasts. "Serial blasts require a large number of people for detailed planning, reconnaissance and execution. To assemble such a team, one needs an experienced leader with resources and old associates," an official explained. The intelligence agencies are scrutinizing details of persons who visited terrorists lodged in the Tihar jail in the recent past. Currently 20 militants from the Lashkar, eight from the HuJI and 10 from the IM are lodged in the Delhi jail.

According to the agencies, several factors hint at IM's involvement in the Mumbai attack — such as the use Improvised Explosive Devices, which cause less causality but are easier to assemble and handle.

Besides the use of timers to execute coordinated blasts, another factor is the selection of targets — crowded market places like Karol Bagh, Connaught Place in Delhi and now Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House in Mumbai — to cause maximum impact with minimum use of explosives.

One more indicator is recruitment of fresh and young people, without any criminal or terror past, to act as 'foot-soldiers' for placing the bomb at selected sites.

Another senior NIA official, however, said the involvement of the banned outfit SIMI could also not be ruled out. About 10 SIMI men were arrested from Madhya Pradesh and Kerala in June. "Those arrested SIMI men may also provide us some clue to the Mumbai attack. Though they were interrogated by the state ATS earlier, we can again question them," the official said.