The latest arrests underline the lack of cooperation among security agencies in South Asia and the support base that exists in Bangladesh for terrorist groups.

Not only will Pakistan have to take on all sorts of Pakistani Taliban, it will also have to end the network of jihadists in provinces like Punjab and Sindh if it really wants to get rid of the Islamist menace.

A disturbing aspect of the current phase of Islamist militancy in Pakistan is that the terrorist acts outside FATA and NWFP are not being staged by ethnic Pashtun elements but by local Punjabi cohorts.

At least nine co-ordinated blasts rocked Jaipur on May 13, 2008, killing more than 70 people and injuring 200. Subsequently, a little known Islamic militant group, Indian Mujahideen (henceforth IM), claimed responsibility for the attacks through an e-mail that contained threatening assertions. The authenticity of the mail has been confirmed by the Indian Intelligence Bureau. Since then, the security establishment in India has been trying to decipher the details of this organisation.

Uttar Pradesh is emerging as a terror hub in the country. The January 1 attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Rampur by four militants belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is the latest in a series of terror-related incidents to rack the state during the last year. Six serial blasts were earlier trigged on November 23, 2007 by militants belonging to the Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI), targeting the Varanasi court premises, the lawyers’ chambers in Faizabad, and a civil court in Lucknow. Two live bombs were also recovered and subsequently defused.

A new trend in terrorism has emerged in India involving the targeting of places of worship. Fifteen such incidents have occurred across the country between 2000 and 2007, resulting in the deaths of about 130 people and injury to several hundreds more. The October 11, 2007 terrorist bombing of the Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer in Rajasthan is the latest incident in this pattern. Initial reports suggested that at least two worshippers died in the attack while some 20 others were wounded.

Hyderabad has been reeling under deadly terror strikes. Three months after the serial blasts at Mecca Masjid on May 18, 2007, another pair of coordinated attacks rocked the city on August 25. Repeated attacks by outfits with support from foreign covert agencies have made Hyderabad an epicentre of terrorist operations in India. The twin blasts on August 25 and the subsequent recovery of unexploded bombs from different places pointed to a security lapse as well as a delayed government response to demands for beefing up the city's protective measures in the aftermath of the May explosions.

The arrest of three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists on April 26, 2007 from Dilli Haat in New Delhi has once again exposed the challenge of terrorism confronting the capital. Attempts to target the National capital Region (NCR) is indicative of a broader trend of terrorists targeting mega cities in the country. Among the various terrorist outfits that seem to have a presence in New Delhi, the LeT appears to be the most dangerous and most persistent.