The Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has created an online public relations desk exclusively for south India, a sign of the growing reach of the terror outfit in the southern part of the country.
The AQIS has issued a three-page online release in Tamil taking up the cause of killed terrorist Burhan Wani of Jammu & Kashmir.
The Central Intelligence agencies have undertaken profiling of criminals and terror suspects to thwart any major recruitment bid by the AQIS.
The idea to focus on South India could be because far more people from the regions are working in foreign countries than people from the north. The recruits could be made to o fly to countries of the ASEAN region in general and Indonesia in particular for training where a number of affiliates of the AQIS besides the lashkar-e-Tayyeba have significant presence. Such recruits may return after training for undertaking jehadi activities.
There are already many affiliate organisation of AQIS in these ASEAN countries with an elaborate training infrastructure.
The terror recruits from South may deliberately avoid traditional destinations like Pakistan and countries in the Middle East, including United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. These destinations usually attract stringent immigration checks by authorities.
Officials said the Pakistan-based terror groups have effected a change in the composition of the terror modules as well as their training regimen. While the hardcore recruits are trained at facilities in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region, the low level jehadis are now being trained at the training infrastructure of the terror groups particularly in Indonesia.
The profile of the terror modules has also undergone a change with local Muslims as well as those from Bangladesh, Maldives and Myanmar mainly comprising such groups. Earlier, Pakistanis and Kashmiris used to be part of the terror modules.
With the absence of the Pakistanis in terror modules, Islamabad can easily deny its role in any attack executed by such modules.
The Pak-based terror groups are seeking to create a triangle by coordinating with the recruits from South India, Sri lanka and Maldives in their bid to foment trouble in the region, officials added.