LAGOS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian federal government has ordered the State Security Service (SSS) to deploy special forces in the troubled states across the country following the outbreak of violence in northern part of the country as a result of the activities of the Boko Haram sect.

    The special squads are to work alongside the anti-terrorism squads already unleashed in the frontline states, including Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and Kano, the Nigeria Tribune newspaper reported on Monday.

    A competent source said the service is fully tracing elements of the Boko Haram sect in view of the widespread nature of their activities in last week's violence.

    The source added that the SSS had always been on the trail of such dissident groups but that the usage of the intelligence information had always been the deciding factor.

    The task of the new squad is to ascertain the sources of funding of the sect and its basic aims and objectives, the report said.

    "It is true that the group's name is Boko Haram, which means, Western Education is bad, but its leader displayed some level of sophistication and it shows that this group cannot be working as an isolated group in Nigeria," the source said.

    "While there are no such groups popularly canvassing against acquisition of Western education, it is important to know whether there are further ulterior motives," the source added.

    The security networks have decided to ensure that all affected areas are properly combed, while space is not yielded to surprise attacks, the report added.

    "We have to watch out for possible attacks on Abuja, Lagos and Sokoto, because there are insinuations that some runaway leaders of the group might want to embark on retaliatory attacks, following the killing of their leader," the source said.

    The police are said to be holding hundreds of inducted members of the sect, including women and children who have so far refused to renounce the sect.

    The source said while the security agencies are taking pre-emptive measures against the recurrence of the violence, another effort aimed at determining the identities of the arrested sect members had been flagged off by the police.

    The SSS had arrested the leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf in November 2008, when he spent three weeks with the service in Abuja. He was subsequently handed over to the police, which charged him before an Abuja high court, but the court granted him bail and he was set free to join his associates in January 2009.

    The riot was triggered by some Islamic fundamentalists, popularly called "Boko Haram" which is said to have been campaigning against anything Western.

    The sectarian unrest that erupted in northern Nigeria's Bauchi State quickly spread to neighboring Adamawa, Kano, Bornoand Yobe States where over 600 people were reportedly killed.