There have been many reports in the past to show how terrorist outfits have preferred recruiting women into their fold in order carry out subversive activities. It was the Al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba which had started using women for their activities and most of the times it was seen that these women acted as carriers. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Riyaz Bhatkal's story was very similar to that of Shahid Bilal, who belonged to the Harkat-ul-Jihade Islami. Bilal wanted for his role in the deadly twin blasts in Hyderabad. Both Bhatkal and Bilal were products of the Inter-Services Intelligence's drive to setup a terror module in south India.
The Delhi police claimed before a court in New Delhi that the Indian Mujahideen (IM) had allegedly carried out the Delhi serial blasts in 2008 at the instance of its founder now Pakistan-based Amir Raza Khan, was an off-shoot of terror outfits like Students Islamic Movement of India, Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Harkat-ul-Jihade-Islami.
In a paradigm shift in its policy against terrorism, Pakistan has included Jamaat-ud-Dawa led by the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and the dreaded Haqqani network in the list of proscribed organisations after the US mounted pressure on the country.
Countries in the region like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Maldives face serious existential threats from a mix of terrorist groups active in the region and elsewhere
