MUMBAI: With terror groups trying to be self-sufficient and Pakistanis’ Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) hand becoming far less invisible in recent terror attacks in the country, particularly in Maharashtra and Gujarat, the ability of terror groups in India to function independent of the ISI signals far more serious trouble than it may seem.
According to Anti-Terrorist Squad officers, first, homegrown terror groups are experimenting with improvised forms of explosives. Palestinian bomb-makers have extensively used peroxide-based explosives. This implies that terror outfits in India are no longer anticipating supplies of high-grade explosives from across the border.
The second point is that the operations of these outfits have been small-scale and relatively inexpensive to conduct, making them self-sufficient and sustainable. The argument here, the ATS officers said, is that the terrorists would not bother to experiment with dangerous explosives mixtures if their ties with state sponsors of terror were still vibrant.
Thirdly, interrogations of captured terrorists have revealed that the planners and executors of this new terror wave have been able to recruit and train hundreds of young, motivated men. The raw recruits, as well as their masters, are all Indians, the officers said.
The Indian security agencies have unprecedented trouble on their hands: a homegrown terror network that has been able to cover the helping hand of ISI. The federal government has been confronted with detailed analyses of the year’s serial blasts.
It is becoming an uphill task for the Indian security agencies to blame the blasts on the ISI as the Pakistani agency did a thorough job, raising the deniability quotient by several notches. With the ISI hand becoming far less invisible, the ability of terror groups in India to function independent of the ISI signals far more serious trouble than it may seem.
The outfit behind these attacks, “Indian Mujahedeen,” which includes elements of Students Islamic Movement of India and militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the Harkat Al-Mujahedeen (HM) has relied on ammonium nitrate fertilizer as the base explosive, instead of RDX, an ordnance product.
