It is a shame that the serial blasts on two consecutive days in Bangalore and Ahmadabad has made the intelligence sources admitting that they are helpless. Many sources in the security establishment admitted to an almost complete inability to prevent the kind of local terrorist operation that Bangalore and Ahmadabad saw on succes-sive days. The possibility of more such strikes in other cities cannot be ruled out. Significantly, some analysts in the establishment are beginning to question the outright blaming of SIMI factions for carrying out terrorist attacks. The timing of the bombings in Bangalore and Ahmadabad, after the Manmohan Singh government won a majority, and the fact that both blast have taken place in BJP-ruled states are raising curiosity among these analysts within the security establishment.

The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a banned organization is a dedicated cadre based organization committed to Islamic ideology, and preaching violence. SIMI has of late has been making attempts to protect its assets by purveying a spurious theory about a hard-liners and moderates split in its ranks. The so- called moderates recently convened a meeting in Kerala to devise a strategy for selling the theory. A section, which bought into the claim, advertised that moderates were unhappy with subversive activities of the hardliners. This meeting sought revocation of the ban on the outfit. Intelligence officers familiar with the functioning of the outfit said the attempts to project a section as political Islamists being part of an attempt to regroup.

According to officials, students are the main targets for SIMI activists who brainwash them to take to Islamic cause. Active members of SIMI closely observe Muslim students, especially of engineering and medical streams and evaluate them on various parameters including their religious faith, temperament and other attributes. Meanwhile, in what could unravel the actual penetration of terror in southern states, especially Karnataka, in major crackdown on the banned SIMI the Madhya Pradesh police raided several places in Indore recently and arrested 13 top leaders of the organization, including its Karnataka head. Other heads in the net are from Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Back in Bangalore, the arrest of Yahya Kammakutty, a B.Tech graduate and a former employee of Tata Infotech and GE Wipro Healthcare, by the Karnataka police last month had revealed SIMI’s rising clout among educated Muslim youths in Karnataka and Kerala. Among the half nataka for suspected SIMI links, at least four were found to be medical students and some IT professionals. The intelligence and investigating agencies had indicated that the Muslim IT Professionals Association, a Bangalore based voluntary organization, is propagating fundamentalist values and fostering terror links among IT professionals in the guise of social service. However, there have been strong reactions from Muslim techies.

While some feel that Karnataka may not be the target for terrorist attacks, but a safe zone for scheming attacks in different parts of Southern India, including Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu, others feel that the state is as vulnerable as any other in the region. The vulnerability is largely attributed to the fast stride that the state has made in terms of economic and commercial activities in fields like IT and biotechnology.