IM likely to attack before May: computer scientist

Terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) is likely to carry out attacks in India between January and May, says a computer scientist whose data analysis system has been used by the World Bank and the US army in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) is likely to carry out attacks in India between January and May, says a computer scientist whose data analysis system has been used by the World Bank and the US army in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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"I would be happy if my prediction is proved wrong, but my data analysis on the behaviour of IM shows that they are going to strike soon," said VS Subrahmanian, a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, during a programme in Kolkata on Monday.

The session was organised by the alumni association of IIM-Kolkata and Ananta Aspen Centre on the occasion of the publication of his latest book, Indian Mujahideen.

Earlier, Subrahmanian has also worked on the behavioural pattern of Lashkar e Taiba (LeT).

According to him, data analysis using 770 variables show that five things indicate towards an imminent IM attack. They are: IM operatives being nabbed, warming up of Indo-Pak relationship, religious conflict in India, IM conference being held and the outfit claiming responsibility for previous actions or release of propaganda material.

"Besides, in November, IM put up campaign material on the internet on Gujarat riots and the demolition of Babri mosque. Indo-Pak relations, too, have slightly warmed up," he said, adding, "All these indicate the IM is going to carry out terror attacks between January and May".

Subrahmanian’s model for analyzing group behaviour has been used on 45 terror groups and a system that he developed for identifying locations of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) weapon cache was used in Baghdad in Iraq and the Helmand and Kandahar provinces of Afghanistan.