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As Mumbai recovers from the unprecedented onslaught of terror and Pakistani involvement in the same is proved beyond doubt, investigators are wondering whether there was some local involvement. There are clues to show that the Mumbai attacks might have been planned with the help of local contacts, probably members of the local mafia, to store arms, ammunition and explosives at different locations, as was done during the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai. These locals might have worked as facilitators and allowed the terrorists to enhance the magnitude of damage they could inflict.

The Uttar Pradesh police had arrested Faheem Ahmed Ansari and Sabahuddin, two Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives, in connection with the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force camp in Rampur earlier this year. Ansari, a native of Mumbai, told the authorities that he had scouted targets in Mumbai for another Lashkar-e-Taiba plot, which was foiled when he and five co-conspirators were captured after the Rampur attack. He also told the police in Uttar Pradesh that he had been in contact with two Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders, Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, and a man known alternately as Yusuf or Muzammil. The police believe that these two men also directed the Mumbai attacks.

The recovery of a handmade map of targets in Mumbai from Faheem Ansari has raised the suspicion that terrorists like him might have helped the LeT with information required for this operation, which they had been planning for the past year. During interrogations, Ansari had reportedly confessed to providing sketches and videos of key targets in Mumbai to the LeT. He also revealed that after receiving training from LeT commanders, he did a reconnaissance of the likely terror targets in Mumbai. Sabahuddin, another key LeT operative, is believed to have raised funds for the LeT, which could have been used to carry out the Mumbai terror attack.

The threat posed by terrorism to India's national security is intensifying because of the involvement of these local elements. The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is now operating all over India through its fifty fronts. 23 of them are active in Kerala. Jihadis from Kerala have recently been found waging war against the Indian state even in Kashmir. A large number of Jihadi modules now exist all over the country.

After the serial blasts in Delhi, most of the arrestees were found to be natives of a particular district in Uttar Pradesh. The ISI has been working overtime to develop its network in India, and in this case, it seems to have succeeded. The modules created by the ISI can create terror whenever they want. This capacity has been displayed in the several serial blasts in which locals have been found to be involved.

The ISI and Directorate General of Forces Intelligence of Bangladesh (DGFI) also have complete control over many separatist groups, which are involved in terrorist activities in India's northeastern states. The situation has now come to such a pass, that the ISI and DGFI can create havoc without actually involving Islamist groups, but still achieving the same objectives. This was recently seen in the case of the serial blasts in Assam, which took place on 30 October. The same control can also mislead investigations. In the Assam blasts, most of the suspects arrested were from one of the outlawed groups in the Northeast, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).

The groups were acting at the instance of ISI and DGFI because their top leaders are based in Bangladesh. Whenever India tries to exert pressure on Bangladesh these leaders often move to places like Pakistan, Bangkok and other Southeast Asian countries, with the connivance of Bangladeshi authorities. An instructive case in point being that off Paresh Barua of the ULFA, who moved to Bangkok on a Bangladeshi passport sometime ago, when the Indian government demanded that Bangladesh hand him over to Indian authorities.

The cadres of these groups undergo training in Bangladesh in the camps of Islamist groups, especially Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HUJI). Their top leaders are unable to turn down the requests of the ISI and DGFI to indulge in terror activities, whenever such services are demanded from them.

The terror scene in India has become complex in the past couple of years. The Indian security forces have managed to weaken some of these terrorist groups through their operations. But in recent times, several terror groups have started acting in collaboration with each other. They have also created sleeper cells in different parts of the country. They are taking different land routes from Bangladesh and Nepal to infiltrate India. In the case of the Mumbai attack, the sea route was used very effectively. This has strengthened their striking power and often misleads investigations regarding the same. The coming together of Jihadi, terrorists and insurgent groups has increased the challenge to the Indian state. The need of the hour is to identify the emerging trends in Jihadi terror and meet the challenge accordingly.