Investigations have thrown up a fresh modus operandi of terror groups in the city of Hyderabad with the ‘individual’ sleeper cell being the dreaded new form of the terror network.

The individual is regularly paid by terror handlers and kept at ‘stand to job’ readiness for future operations. A couple of these sleeper cells were activated recently but the administration being on high alert after the riots in the last week of March and frequent terror alerts passed on by Central intelligence and security agencies may have thwarted a deadly terror strike.

An investigation team is working on clues to such terror cells provided by Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq, a cabdriver working as an LeT operative, who was arrested on May 3. The information gleaned from him has proved to be an eye opener for investigation agencies.