Among those arrested as part of a special police operation that began last night and was continuing today, were SIMI leader in Madhya Pradesh, Safdar Nagori and his brother and chief of the operations in Andhra Pradesh Kamruddin.

The outfit's top leaders in Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra were also nabbed, police sources said, adding that intelligence agencies had been keeping tabs on the activities on the banned Islamist group here for quite

sometime.

Describing the operation as a "big achievement for the police," Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in Bhopal that "weapons and computers have been found.

Investigations are on into SIMI's plans to expand its network in the state...This is a major achievement and SIMI's network will be eradicated".