Author: Vicky Nanjappa
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: August 26, 2007
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/aug/26hydblast2.htm
With the twin blasts rocking Hyderabad, the
issue pertaining to the sleeper cells in south India has gained importance
once again.
Several suspected terrorists in their narcoanalysis
tests have repeatedly confessed to the existence of sleeper cells in South
India, especially in Karnataka.
The narcoanalysis test conducted on Sameer,
one of the accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case arrested in Bangalore recently
revealed that there were several sleeper modules in South India, including
Karnataka. The tests had also revealed that the militant attacks are more
focused on South India when army patrolling is intensified on the Indo-Pak
border.
The narcoanalysis also spoke on the training
camps in the Indo-Bangladesh border. The Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which is alleged
to be conducting these training camps, pays around Rs 10 lakh for the larger
operations while for the smaller ones the payment ranges between Rs 3 to Rs
4 lakh.
Such blasts, according to Sameer, are aimed
at disturbing communal harmony and also to trigger Hindu-Muslim riots.
Senior police officers told rediff.com that
the intention behind such attacks is not against any policy of the government,
but to create communal tension.
Sameer further in his narcoanalysis test claimed
that the plan to carry out such attacks was hatched in Pakistan. From there,
the ladke (operatives) are taken to Bangladesh from where they sneak into
India and carry out the attacks.
The Karnataka angle:
Police suspect that these persons could have
been actively involved in setting up the terror modules and sleeper cells
in Karnataka.
There are three terror modules in Karnataka
being operated by the al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
Intelligence sources say that there are terror
modules operating across the country and the modules in India have been divided
into the Western and Southern Corridor and Eastern and Northern Corridor.
Till around 2003, South India was a haven
for terrorists and this part of the country was used only to plan attacks.
However, now with security beefed up in the northern parts of the country,
terrorists have started carrying out operations in the south.
