NEW DELHI: Intelligence agencies are scrambling to verify an input that Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar is setting up a special squad to target prominent politicians including senior cabinet ministers and a high-profile chief minister.

The input was shared with all stakeholders at an intelligence meeting last week, sources said. As per the initial tip-off, JeM and

have come together for the task and are using a Bangladesh-based cadre for logistics. Some of the men assigned to execute the task are learnt to have already crossed the border, the intelligence input suggested.

As per intercepted chatter, reports about a CM moving around with minimal security has made him one of the prime targets.

Sources, however, said the input was yet to be fully corroborated. Teams from a foreign intelligence agency is learnt to have visited the hideout mentioned near Dhaka but did not find anything.

According to sources, the Jaish top brass is seething following the crackdown on Azhar and the

by Indian security forces earlier this month. Talha's death was a major blow to the outfit as he was involved in several terror attacks, including those at the Pulwama police lines and Srinagar airport recently.

Of late, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed an increase of JeM terrorists as the Deobandi group seeks to replace Lashkar as the main jihadi threat in the Valley. Two days ago, three

d in central Kashmir's Budgam area.