The Government of India had some intelligence information regarding rising activities of terrorists in major cities in South India such as Bangalore and Mumbai. It is being termed as safe hideouts for terrorists, Bangalore has become a breeding ground of terrorists, it seems. Three Bangalore youths have been caught in the connection with the failed terror blasts in London and Glasgow.

Kafeel Ahmed, Sabeel Ahmed and Dr Mohammed Haneef are currently being questioned by the intelligence agencies in London and Australia. This incident has changed the image of the IT city in the eyes of intelligence agencies of India and world too.

A senior police official, who is in-charge for countering terror activities in Bangalore, said that Bangalore had been seen as the ideal shelter-point for terrorists and underworld operators from last some year.

Now the image has been changed after the UK plot. Bangalore will now be seen as a breeding ground for foot-soldiers of terror networks that have roots in the middle-east.

Bangalore was like the temporary home for smugglers in the late 1970s and mid-80s.

In the 1990s it had become shelter for Mumbai underworld operators, Andhra Naxals and Tamil extremists.

After the year 2000, Islamist terror was on the rise in the city because of the 9/11 attacks, Iraq war, local communal riots, and increased movement of students to foreign countries.

In the year 2002, Deendar Anjuman activists had triggered bomb blasts in churches in Bangalore, Gulbarga and Hubli.

That was first shot of terror in the region. The police had arrested 26 activists and revealed that they had links in Pakistan but base was here.

Later, the police officials had revealed another fact that in cyber cafes in some Muslim pockets of J C Nagar, BTM Layout and other areas of Bangalore, the most popular words used in cyber cafes were ‘Laden,’ ‘Taliban,’ ‘Saddam’ and ‘Jihad’ apart from the word ‘porn’.

These were the areas where the education level of the people is not satisfactory. Some of the cyber cafe owners said that people used to download videos of killings by armed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Senior police officer said that that VCDs changed in the visuals in mobile phone MMS were being used to provoke youngsters in the region.

Later, the arresting of LeT and Al-Badr activists in Bangalore had also disclosed that various terror groups were busy gathering details about places in Bangalore and other parts of the state to get the chemicals and explosives easily.

Now, the arresting of Kafeel Ahmad, his brother Sabeel Ahmad and their friend Hneef by the UK authorities has changed the dimension Bangalore’s image in the terror map.

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