NEW DELHI: Terror groups are no more having to scout for recruits; rather, self-radicalized youth seething with a sense of injustice to Muslims are reaching out to the jihadi outfits to volunteer to work for them.

Interrogation of Indian Mujahideen (IM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives in connection with the recent Hyderabad blasts has brought out what security and intelligence agency call the “deeply worrying trend" , where terror groups are able to find recruits without having to work really hard. NIA ’s interrogation of IM operatives Syed Maqbool and Imran Khan and LeT member Obaidur Rehman also revealed that the new recruits had no qualms about switching loyalties from one group to another.

Maqbool and Imran were arrested last year in connection with the August 1, 2012 Pune blasts and are suspected to have conducted reconnaissance for the Hyderabad blasts. Rehman was part of the LeT module of 18 operatives busted by Bangalore Police last year. He is suspected to have helped Maqbool and Imran carry out reconnaissance of Dilsukhnagar in Hyderabad, where twin blasts on February 21 claimed 16 lives.

Investigations found that Rehman had earlier approached IM cadres to take him to Palestine to fight a “holy war" . When he failed in that objective, he got in touch with LeT cadres in Saudi Arabia in order to make it to Palestine. Later, he was arrested for plotting to kill some Hindu fundamentalists.

Sources said Maqbool had approached suspected HuJI terrorist Abdul Majid, then lodged in a Hyderabad jail for involvement in riots which broke out in the wake of the 2010 Mecca Masjid blasts, for terror activities. Majid came out of jail and fled to Saudi Arabia the same year promising to provide all help to Maqbool. Majid is a protege of radical preacher Maulana Naseeruddin and brother of Abdul Zahid, an accused in the attack on Hyderabad Special Task Force headquarters in October 2005.

“It was through Majid that Maqbool met Rehman, who is a relative of Majid. Rehman expressed willingness to go to Palestine to fight Israel and Maqbool promised to help him," said an official.

Maqbool, however, chose to send his hometown (Nanded in Maharashtra) friend Imran to Saudi Arabia on a request from the latter in 2010. There, Imran met the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case accused Fayyaz Kagzi (an associate of 26/11 accused Abu Jundal) who got him in touch with ‘Bade Bhai and Chhote Bhai’ (suspected to be IM founders Iqbal and Riyaz Bhatkal) over email to take further orders.

Upon his return, Maqbool sent Imran along with another associate Asad Khan to Hyderabad in November 2011 for recruitment. Rehman met them and asked to be taken to Palestine again. “Though Asad promised him it would be done, the plan fell through," the officer said.

An increasingly impatient Rehman then started looking at other quarters for help in achieving his objective. This is when he got in touch with an LeT network being handled from Saudi Arabia by suspected LeT operative Farhatullah Ghori that allegedly prepared him to attack Hindu fundamentalists in Karnataka.

“Barring a few, almost all accused in either Pune blasts or the LeT module are self-motivated youth who themselves approached terror groups for work rather than outfits scouting for them. This is a worrying trend and can cause greater problems in future as now merely monitoring and controlling operations of terror groups will not help," said the officer.

