Is the IM biding its time to strike again?

The Indian Mujahideen, which keeps raising its head once in a way to cause a ruckus in the country, has been operating in a very interesting manner of late.

Investigations into Bengaluru's Chinnaswamy Stadium blasts last year have revealed an interesting fact, and that is the manner in which the IM has broken up its modules to carry out operations in India.

There was a lot of talk post the Mumbai 13/7, Delhi high court and Varanasi bomb blasts, regarding the rebirth of the IM. The biggest worry was however the fact that the cases were not getting cracked due to the want of a specific trail or lead.

The investigators have found out that the IM has split up its modules into different regions in the country. The common link which investigators have found is that the Bengaluru, Varanasi and the 13/7 blasts were orchestrated by the same module controlled by Riyaz Bhatkal.

The Bhatkal module controls Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

What has been noticed is that the IM has deliberately reduced the areas of operation and hence has split its modules into different regions. They found the need to keep the activities of one module away from another which helps them in dodging investigators.

Sources in the Bangalore police say that traces of a Bhatkal operation could be found in the recent attacks. He has his set of boys who are very loyal to him who carry out attacks in absentia.

However, since they don't communicate with each other directly, it makes the cops' job a tough one.

The cops have also found that each of these modules do not have more than 10-20 members. It is a very closed group, and surprisingly, during the investigations, persons who have been close to the usual suspects do not have any information on them.

They have aped the Indian intelligence very well and have thoroughly worked on a need to know basis. A source says that it looks like the IM will continue to operate on a small scale in the days to come as well.

"There has been no specific input to show that they are increasing the size of their modules, and recruitments too have come to a standstill. They are most-probably waiting for the heat to wear off, before coming back strongly under the name of Bullet 313," the source added.