Why 2012 will be no different for security agencies

The year 2011 was a mixed year for security agencies fighting terrorism. There was a great deal of calm at first and then a spate of incidents which included attacks and also major bids being foiled.

The New Year, according to the agencies is going to be no different. Terror groups are going to be around and the job of wading away terror strikes is going to be very much part of the list of every police man on the job.

The groups that are most likely to create a ruckus this year would be the Indian Mujahideen, Babbar Khalsa International and the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami.

These are the primary groups which would be in focus and interestingly all these groups are the products of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba which has now decided to take the world stage. While the Lashkar is going to use a lot of its time and resources on bigger events such as the 2012 Olympics, it would be the above mentioned groups which will keep our agencies busy.

...

The areas to keep a watch out would be Punjab, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Kerala. These groups are very strong in these areas and there would be increased focus on these states to prevent any sort of ruckus emerging out of there.

Towards the end of 2011, there was a spate of arrests by the Delhi police. Although they are still piecing together the evidences against those men, the most important find was that the shifting of the base from Azamgarh to Bihar.

The Indian Mujahideen would continue to be India's biggest headache as it is home-grown terror. They still have a determined set of youth and compared to the rest of the groups the recruitments among this group has been the highest. They have managed to stir up the passions over and over again which is helping them a great deal with recruitments.

From areas in Pune, Azamgarh and Delhi, they have moved into Bihar and it appears that they have a very strong module operating out of there. Only a part of their module had been busted following the arrests by the Delhi police.

...

Intelligence Bureau officials say that a major part of them still exist in Bihar and there is a need to step up operations. In the year to come they would activate more modules of theirs in Bihar and try and carry out strikes.

The Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami- Their presence in India has been on and off. However, going by recent developments, they have been taking over the job of the Lashkar a great deal. There were signs of them in Kashmir following the Delhi high court blasts.

They have a very strong presence in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar. They had even threatened to blow up Delhi recently and this only went on to show their intent. The re-growth of the IM could be largely linked to the growing presence of the HujI in Bihar.

With the Lashkar shifting its operation from the Pakistan border to Bangladesh, it was very obvious that the HuJI would have a greater role to play. They have been experts at infiltrating both into West Bengal and Bihar and these skills indirectly helped the IM set up a proper base in Bihar.

...

They would try and work with the IM indirectly, the IB says. They would look out for each other in terms of technology, man power and also logistics. However their area of operations would not be similar and the HuJI is looking to focus more on Kashmir, Kerala and also Andhra Pradesh.

The Babbar Khalsa International- Once a formidable force, it went out of favour over a decade back only to return with the help of the Lashkar. Their area of operation would be mainly Punjab and Delhi. The haul at Ambala in which a large chunk of RDX was seized pointed directly to this outfit.

During investigations it became clear that they had planned a huge Diwali blast in New Delhi. Sources in the Delhi police say that there have been many shocking details that have come out while probing the BKI and its future operations.

Their plans range from a series of bomb blasts, abductions and also fidayeen strikes. The Lashkar which had been training and also sheltering them finally gave them the go ahead to carry out operations in India.

This year they would attempt to carry out many strikes in a big way and this is what security agencies need to keep a watch on.