These outfits are likely to take over some uninhabited islands near Maldives for the purpose. Gulf-based LeT and ISI operatives are funding the new enterprise which will primarily focus on Tamilnadu and Kerala, the nearest to Maldives.
Hyderabad and southern Tamilnadu have emerged as active sleeper cells of LeT in recent years. Even Jaish-e-Mohammad has made forays into south India and is often said to work in concert or in collaboration with the LeT. Most of their activists have come through the old Bangladesh route under the garb of medical treatment.
Investigations into the serial blasts in Bangalore and Hyderabad have thrown up a Gulf angle to the terrorist operation. Their finances are coming from operatives based in Gulf. Asif Ibrahim, a Maldivian, who was arrested in Kerala, has told investigators that LeT uses several Kerala based activists for its operations. The man who had triggered the bomb blasts in Male in September 2007 has been traced to Thiruvananthapuram.
