Indian police investigating the Bombay train bombings arrested three men today and said they were the first suspects to be held in connection with the attacks.

Their heads covered by black hoods, the three men were led into court in Bombay and identified by police as Khaleel Aziz Sheikh, Kamal Ahmed Ansari and Mumtaz Ahmed Chowdhury. A judge remanded them in custody for ten days.

Hundreds of people, most of them petty criminals from Bombay's underworld, have been detained since the bombings on July 11 in the hope of finding traces of the perpetrators but today's arrests were the first to be treated with any significance by Indian officials.

Two of the suspects were arrested in the eastern province of Bihar, which lies near India's borders with Nepal and Bangladesh, according to the Bihar police chief, Ashish Ranjan Sinha. NDTV, an Indian news channel, said the third man was picked up in Bombay. Police said they would release more details later today.

The arrests come after ten days of speculation, threats and hoaxes, punctuated by suggestions from Indian investigators that the bombings were probably carried out by Kashmiri separatist groups with funding and political support from Pakistan.

Today the leader of the bombing investigation in Bombay added a further note of mystery by saying that the suspects were part of a "big conspiracy":

"We have definite evidence that these people are linked to terrorist activities. They have connections with groups in Nepal and Bangladesh, which are directly or indirectly connected to Pakistan," said K.P. Raghuvanshi, who declined to give further details.

The Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf, maintained his country's innocence in a speech to MPs today, in which he accused India of behaving strangely after the bombings. Ministerial talks between Delhi and Islamabad were suspended last week.

"I want to tell the people of Bombay that the reaction of the Indian government to the blasts was strange," said General Musharraf. "There should not be any blame game. There should not be unsubstantiated comments.

"I want to assure the Government of India that Pakistan will cooperate with it to identify the terrorists, if you give us proof. We will remain with you on this issue."

Indian cities have been in a state of high alert since the bombings after a slew of threats and hoaxes. Two days ago, a claim of responsibility for the attacks, believed to have been made by a little-known Kashmiri group, was found to have been false.

Meanwhile, police are investigating a death threat e-mailed to the website of the Indian President A.P.J. Kalam and have warned of the likelihood of more attacks against crowds at Indian landmarks and historic monuments. A homemade bomb was found and safely defused on a bus in Bangalore today.

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