“Sleeper cells” are small groups of terrorists, who stay visibly active in their respective professions, lay dormant in their militant actions.
BANGALORE: Indian investigators have reasons to suspect that the three men from Bangalore, detained in connection with the abortive terror attack in UK, are part of a well-organised network of “sleeper cells” linked indirectly to Al Qaeda through Pakistan-based militant outfits.
“Sleeper cells” are small groups of terrorists, who stay visibly active in their respective professions, lay dormant in their militant actions and rise to the occasion when the situation demands.
Though there is no hard evidence of such a network yet, but there are enough pointers that Bangalore is a springboard for organised terrorism against targets in and outside the country, said an official. Considering the gravity of the situation, no official is prepared to comment.
The police in India and the UK, meanwhile, have begun informal communications through the Intelligence Bureau. Details of interrogation of the suspects — Sabeel Ahmed and his brother, Kafeel Ahmed in England, and Mohammed Haneef in Australia — and the questioning of their families and friends in Bangalore, are being compared. The exchange of notes is, however, being officially denied.
Though the families have rubbished any link of their kin with militant outfits, the police have information to suggest that Haneef had links with the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), while he was a student in Bangalore. Those, who recruited him into SIMI, went underground after the organisation was banned in 2001.
Police and intelligence personnel are investigating Sabeel and Kafeel’s possible links to militant outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Reportedly, both the organisations along with the ISI and the Al Qaeda have established footprints in south India.
Investigators are mostly concentrating on Sabeel’s acquaintances, a doctor who graduated from the same college in Bangalore as Haneef, and Kafeel, an engineer. Police believe that Kafeel organised a meeting last year to sympathise with the Muslims of Chechnya.
Their possible link with Ejaj Ahmed, a Pakistani with known terrorist connections, who came to India some years ago and disappeared, is also being investigated.
It is clear that the indoctrination of trio into fundamentalism began during their student days. But who and at point of time they were recruited into active militancy is not clear.
According to some, both Sabeel and Kafeel became radical Muslims after they associated themselves with a certain Muslim sect while they were in India.
Afsar Ali, the president of a local mosque, said the boys once created an unproar by saying they should follow Islam the way it was followed in Saudi Arabia.
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