As the police continue to chase these terrorists with the help of the Intelligence Bureau, who are passing on vital inputs, it has become clear that these men have slipped into the country from Bangladesh via West Bengal.
The Mumbai police say that they are very much within the city limits and one of them could have even changed his appearance. The police are however taking no chances and have even formed a special squad to arrest the suspects.
On the receiving a tip-off on the alleged LeT men, an alert was sounded off in Mumbai warning against their possible plan to strike high-profile places in the metropolis including the police headquarters at Crawford Market. Three days ago, there was another alert that cautioned about Mumbai and Ahmedabad being possible terror targets,
The Mumbai police faced a similar task during the Ganeshotsav celebrations earlier this year. In September, the police were on the lookout for two men -- Kalimuddin Khan alias Rameshwar Pundit and Hafiz Sareef -- who had reportedly sneaked into India and entered the city to launch a terror attack during the festive season. However, these two suspects are still at large.
Drawing a similarity between the situations, IB officials warn that the city can expect more such alerts in the days to come. The LeT is sending a lot of its cadres to Mumbai from Bangaldesh as compared to the earlier trend of sending cadres from Pakistan. Moreover, these alleged terrorists do not carry out a terror strike and are difficult to trace, as they leave no trail, say the IB.
The IB explained to rediff.com that in future more and more LeT men from the Bangladesh unit will throng the city. This is a carefully chalked out move because there is more information available on the Pakistan cadres as compared to their counterparts in Bangladesh.
Post 26/11, the borders India shares with Pakistan are better manned compared to the ones with Bangladesh. Infiltrating through Bangladesh is easier since there are not enough checks in West Bengal, say sources in the IB.
According to the intel, the LeT cadres job is not to carry out terror attacks, but to set up modules, hand out funds and pass on information to their counterparts in the city. To avoid drawing attention they are not generally armed. But most importantly, they act as a distraction to security agencies.
The Lashkar makes sure that information about these men reaches the police to create curiosity while their companions undertake different missions, which would be more serious in nature. These men more often than not just slip into the city and slip out immediately; they never hang around in the same place, the IB added.
Moreover, the LeT is also looking at strengthening their base in Mumbai and sending cadres to the city is a part of the same exercise. While most of these men do not come to carry out terror attacks one cannot take them for granted. You never know when they strike and hence it becomes absolutely necessary to issue an advisory, said the IB.
