Terrorist operations in India have become as vast as the Himalayas.  The long leap of  the jehadi terrorism from the heights of Jammu and Kashmir to the Centre of  South India, particularly Bangalore, has not surprised those who have watched “the movement” grow from a trickle to a torrent.  
 It is estimated that  around 40,000 terrorist  modules are operational in the country, of which 500 to 800 concentrating on Bangalore itself. The numbers of these modules may vary but their effectiveness in terms of inflicting damage cannot be underestimated.  
A module could comprise of 1 to 2 or 2 to 20 people who may have been motivated, funded or armed to carry out a designated task. The individuals joining the module could be lured by regular funding, job or enticed by as winnable a  trick as providing a visa to the neighbouring country.
Intelligence agencies note that a module may conprise of planners, overground ideological propagandists, those providing sanctuary and funds and the last but not the least  “footmen.” A module may be “active” or “sleeping” depending on instructions from “the mastermind.”
The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in tandem with key terrorist outfits has been trying to fix “projects” in India in the last two years.  “Arrests in the UK and Australia point out that their efforts have paid dividends and that their network has gone far beyond Jammu and Kashmir, UP, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh,” comments Ved Marvah, former Delhi Police Commissioner and former Governor of Bihar and Jharkhand.
In South India, Pakistani  ISI-jehadi modules are numbered at around 7,000 of which 20 per cent are perceived to be scattered in Karnataka, with Bangalore having the maximum concentration.
Anonymity, opportunity to mix and mingle with local populace and a tacit hint that the government may not take action has encouraged “the plotters” to settle for India’s Silicon city. South Indian metropolises are seen by jehadi outfits as safe, less suspicious, more homogenous and docile in comparison to North Indian cities.
Apart from the ubiquitous Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan based terrorist outfit which is a direct creation of Pakistan ISI, Harkat-ul-jihad-al-Ismali (HUJI), a banned Bangladeshi Jehadi outfit is also known to have a good  presence in Bangalore. HUJI was established in 1992 with the reported assistance of terror mastermind Osama-bin-laden. Its cadres are known to be active in Jammu and Kashmir, Afghanistan and Chechnya. LeT, established in 1990, is suspected to have carried out the attack at Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore on December 28, 2005.
Intelligence agencies suspect that at least six local organisations have been involved in the subversive activities in the Karnataka. However, no direct evidence is available against the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
 About the terror outfit Al-Qaeda’s penetration in India or in South India, the intelligence agencies feel that Qaeda is more than an organisation and has now   transformed into a movement to radicalise the local organisations.  Al-Qaeda’s  unauthenticated video had last year picked India as “a big target.”
As such senior sleuths in  Intelligence Bureau  (IB) rule out the physical presence of Al-Qaeda in India let along Bangalore.
A  shift of  jehadi bases towards Bangalore may invite serious problems for the City in future with the terrorists eyeing major IT, space, defence and heavy engineering industries. After Mumbai it is now Bangalore which provides opportunity to target economic and scientific symbols of  progress in the country.
why is Chennai, for instance, not a target?  The agencies say that Chennai not being know internationally, does not get same coverage. Whereas Bangalore is world famous as an IT hub.”
Apart from Bangalore, the worrying zones in Karnataka  are Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur and Dharwad, the part of the “old Rajakar rule.” The coastal regions of Mangalore, Udupi or Karwar are not unaffected by ISI operations.  With train and international flights providing easy  connectivity, the jahadi groups have a lot of room for manoeuvering in these cities.