Miniscule outfits will strike the country with new names, indicate security sources.
Of late there have been several unknown names which have emerged after every terrorist strike and the intelligence sources say that newer names will continue to emerge in the future too.
The Indian Mujahideen, in particular, will be in the forefront of all India-based operations and will operate under new names.
Sources say just the way SIMI was phased out and became the IM, the same will happen to the latter too.
In the recent past, there have been several names that have cropped up after a terror strike. The Deccan Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi and very recently the DJS. While the IM and the Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi had claimed responsibility for the Mumbai and Pune attacks respectively, the name of the DJS, a Hyderabad-based group, was suspected for the recent Bangalore blasts.
"We are very well aware of which group operates under which name. It will cause confusion at first since the investigation tends to drift in one particular direction for a while, but then it gets back on track. The IM, we are aware, is looking for a name change," sources said.
The bigger concern is, however, not the name change, but the attempts that the IM is making to merge with several defunct outfits.
It is now confirmed that the IM is shifting base to South India and is gradually looking to increase the number of modules and cells.
The IM is looking for tie-ups and there is a radar of suspicion on some outfits in South India. Outfits such as the MDF from Andhra, the Indian Mohammedia Mujahideen (AP, Kar), Deendar Anjuman (AP, Kar, TN), ISS (Kerala) and the All India Jihad Committee (Kerala).
Terror groups are constantly in dialogue with these outfits since they already have an existing network in place.
Some of the above mentioned outfits feel that they have been wronged by Indian agencies since they were never set up in the first place to undertake terror activities or cause communal disturbances.
However, ever since the police have swooped on their operations they have gone underground.
The worry for security agencies is that such outfits would only be glad to help out the IM and that would mean that it would become an extremely strong force.
