BHOPAL, India, March 28 (Reuters) - Indian police said on Friday they had arrested 13 senior members of a banned Muslim group, the Students' Islamic Movement of India, on suspicion of involvement in a series of bomb blasts around the country.

Leader Safdar Nagori and 12 others were all arrested in the city of Indore in the central state of Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, senior police officers said.

"They are all known faces and we are investigating their links in recent bomb blasts in different parts of the country, including Mumbai," Madhu Babu, a senior police officer said on Friday by telephone from Indore, about 200 km (125 miles) west of the state capital, Bhopal.

SIMI, a hardline Muslim students' group, was banned in 2001 for allegedly trying to stir up religious unrest over the U.S.-led war on terror.

Police say the group is suspected of involvement in a series of bomb blasts in India, including the Mumbai train bombings in July 2006 that killed more than 180 people. (Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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