As government veers round to the view that the terrorists who struck the back-to-back blows at Bangalore and Ahmedabad could be linked, the security establishment is looking at a sharp escalation in the terror threat facing the country.

The consecutive attacks on two state capitals marked a break from the pattern of allowing a considerable gap between strikes. But if the assumption about the involvement of the same group is validated by investigations, it will signify the capacity of jehadi outfits to strike at two big cities almost simultaneously, thus marking involvement of a large number of operatives, sophisticated planning, a new confidence and a widening of the arc of terror in India.

So far, terror masterminds would lie low after a big hit to allow the plot’s executioners to melt away before they would be asked to regroup for another attack. When they dispensed with this tactic last Saturday to go for Ahmedabad, it spoke of their confidence in their ability to extend the battle zone, as well as the belief that they could get away with it.

The consequences of terror attacks on two metros at one go are too grim to comprehend, but the twin strikes over the weekend have forced authorities to look at just such a prospect as the possible progression of what is an increasingly audacious terror campaign.

Authorities could not have, going by the pattern so far, anticipated that jehadis would set off explosions in Ahmedabad just the day after hitting Bangalore, but the serial bombings have already forced them to cast away old assumptions regarding an enemy which has itself shifted the goalposts.

The busting of a plot to blow up the busy Gemini flyover near the US consulate in Chennai, thanks to the chance apprehension of one of the suspects, Ghafoor, and the truck load of explosives meant for Kerala are clear pointers to a pan-Indian plot. It also marks the determination to hit targets further south of Bangalore.

If the atrocities over the weekend marked a new-found cheekiness, they were backed by professionalism of a high order. Just one instance: one of the bombs which did not explode in Gandhinagar was numbered 23, leading intelligence agencies to suspect the plotters had chalked out to the last detail work allocation among the modules deployed in Ahmedabad.