NEW DELHI: Last week's arrest of five men from north Bihar in connection with blast probes across the country has turned the terror spotlight upon the region, which has so far been infamous as a smuggling hub between India and Nepal.

In police and intelligence circles, the region is being talked about as "another Azamgarh " — the reference being to the east UP hometown of many Indian Mujahideen operatives who allegedly played a role in the 2008 terror strikes.

Going by early leads, sources in the Intelligence Bureau and state security agencies say, IM may have established more than seven sleeper cells in the area. "We have information that IM has established its base amongst youths — some of them even engineers — at Mirganj, Araria and Sitamarhi, in addition to Madhubani and Darbhanga. Often, the youths are lured with hawala money from across the border. Others are indoctrinated with videos of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with which the Indian state has no connection," a source said.

"The suspects, although they had stayed in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Malda (West Bengal), had Bihar addresses on their fake passports and other documents. So, it is evident that this module has its home in north Bihar and West Bengal. The members almost never use modern gadgets like mobile phones, to avoid being traced," said the source, adding, "four other top operatives who hail from Bihar and Karnataka are still at large". Security agencies were surprised to find that the elusive Kashmir terrorist Ghulam Sarwar , allegedly involved in Delhi high court blast in September, was also using fake documents showing his residence in Bihar.

Police sources say Bihar's location makes it a suitable transit point for terrorists and smugglers from Bangladesh and Nepal, as also Mumbai gangsters. While terrorists can easily cross over to Nepal through the porous border, Bihar's Purnea district which shares borders with two West Bengal districts (Murshidabad and Malda), has also emerged as a transit point between India and Bangladesh.

Sources told TOI the first leads on north Bihar's terror link came in 2005 when two LeT operatives were caught there. Terrorist outfits like LeT, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Hizbul Mujahideen are known to scout religious places and educational institutions in Champaran, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saharsa and Purnea districts for recruits. Several local youths are allegedly working for the ISI as couriers of arms, ammunition and money.