Jehadis training guns on city

Jehadis training guns on city
The Times of India

New Delhi: The suspected terrorist strike at IISc has brought alive the intelligence agencies’ worst fear that the country’s IT hub, with its vital economic installations, has emerged as the prime target for jehadi terror groups.

The assault came just three days after a terrorist module confessed to a plan to attack IT companies along with other targets assigned to them by their Jaish-e-Mohammed commander. The group, which had been trained in a camp in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province by ISI agents in the use of automatic weapons and improvised explosive devices, was planning to target software parks in Bangalore and Hyderabad, besides railway stations, market places and airports in North India.

According to intelligence officials, Wednesday’s incident in Bangalore prima facie looked like a terrorist attack.
The surmise is derived from two reasons: first, the choice of automatic weapon, either AK-47 or AK-56, and the confessions made by terrorists belonging to different jehadi gangs arrested by security agencies during the year.

The first evidence of the terrorist intent to move beyond familiar targets to attack the IT sector and other economic targets came in March this year after Delhi police arrested two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists from northwest Delhi. The module had a specific plan to target some of the well-known software companies, particularly Polaris.

That this was part of a larger strategy to attack the economy was confirmed in May-June when intelligence agencies stumbled upon a plot to target IT industry in Bangalore and Hyderabad, Mumbai’s stock exchange, as well as prestigious symbols of state like IMA, Dehra Dun, and NDA, Khadakvasla.

Central agencies have been concerned about the way terror groups have been able to set up a base in Hyderabad, which has recently seen a spurt in terror incidents, including a suicide bomb attack, the first-ever, by a female fidayeen.
Mohammad Ibrahim, one of the members of the Jaish group who had planned to attack IT companies, belonged to Hyderabad. Their commander, Ghulam Yazdani, an accused in the murder of former BJP minister in Gujarat, Haren Pandya, also belongs to Andhra Pradesh.