HYDERABAD (India): If two bomb blasts in less than three months have battered the image of Hyderabad as a growing international IT hub, even more alarming is the revelation that at least a dozen trained operatives of extremist groups have infiltrated into the rank-and-file of some top IT companies.

Sources in police said efforts are on to track them down. “They (the operatives) are as good as any other IT professional. They have all the required qualifications and merit to join any IT company. But, they are also elements inspired to carry out a dangerous operation on instruction from their handlers,” the source revealed.

Incidentally, two professionals working for city-based IT and ITeS companies have already been named in terror attacks so far. While, Naved, who was an employee of an MNC BPO, has been accused of participating in the Mumbai blasts, Kafeel Ahmed, who worked for the city-based Infotech’s Bangalore facility, was the man who drove the flaming jeep into Glasgow airport and later died of burns.

“It is a sensitive issue. Identifying a particular group with trained extremists will alienate an entire community. We have to find a way to handle the issue,” the source said. Incidentally, a few months ago, IT companies in Hyderabad got together to form what is called the Cyberabad security council with the idea of stepping up security and gathering intelligence. The council collaborates with the police. Authorities have passed on the information about the infiltration to the representatives of the industry. “We have to examine the database of some of the companies. It is still too early to call the situation grave,” the source said.

In fact, authorities have also tracked down an association of IT professionals who, they think, have some subversives on their rolls. The details of the association are still being evaluated. “We need to see who is behind this association and what kind of members are with it,” the source said.

All operatives nabbed with a background in IT have been found to be using technology to maximum use.

“The extremists are now tech savvy. They are able to hack into servers, download critical data and use the technology to achieve precision in their operation,” a source said.—Dawn/The Times of India News Service