India on al Qaeda's radar: Zawahiri announces new wing to fight for Muslims .

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India on al Qaeda's radar: Zawahiri announces new wing to fight for Muslims in Kashmir, Gujarat.


Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha

New Delhi: As the Islamic State continues hogging headlines after every barbaric act, an overshadowed al Qaeda is gearing up to get its old steam back as its leader Ayman al Zawahiri on Wednesday announced the formation of a new terror branch in the Indian subcontinent, besides vowing obeisance to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

In almost an hour-long video posted in jihadi forums, al Qaeda leader Zawahiri declares the formation of Qaeda al Jihad for the Muslims across India (Kashmir, Gujarat, Ahmedabad and Assam), Myanmar and Bangladesh, saying it will crush the “artificial borders” dividing the umma (the Muslim nation) across the Indian subcontinent, reported the SITE monitoring agency.

The new branch of Qaeda will have Asim Umar, the chief of AQ's Shariah Committee for Pakistan, as the leader and Ustadh Usama Mahmoud is its spokesman.

In the video, Zawahiri specially mentions the four states of India, saying, "We want Islam to return to the Indian subcontinent, which was part of the Muslim world before it was invaded. It will serve Muslims in Burma, Kashmir, Gujarat, Bangladesh, Ahmedabad and Assam."

The new India wing of Qaeda is apparently an ominous move for India, which has hardly gotten over the shock that four engineering student from Thane left for Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State fighters.

The shock came to light when one of the Indian youth named Arif Majeed, was killed in Iraq's Mosul fighting with the the IS fighters. According to Maharashtra ATS, the news was given to his parents by on of his IS co-fighters.



Arif Majeed, who before leaving for Iraq told his parents that he was going on a pilgrimage to Karbala, later wrote to them, reportedly saying he was joining the battle to defend Islam.

The case of Arif Majeed and many more such youths who might be willing to join the IS on the call of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is no doubt a threat to India's security.

Zawahiri says the new offshoot is the result of “a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mujahideen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity” adding that it will “promulgate the call of the reviving imam, Sheikh Osama bin Laden. May Allah have mercy upon him.”

Urging all the Muslims “to wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty and to revive its caliphate.”

With the new announcement, Zawahiri, who took over the reins of Qaeda after Osama bin Laden's death in 2011, seeks to bring al Qaeda back into limelight, as the terror group has been pushed into obscurity by the new monster of the ISIS, which occupied large parts of Iraq and Syria and established a Caliphate.

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Habisla.

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India on Alert After Al-Qaida Announces Local Branch

India ordered several provinces to be on increased alert Thursday, after al-Qaida announced the formation of a wing of the militant group in India and its neighborhood, a senior government official said.

The move follows al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's announcement that the Islamist extremist movement has launched an offshoot in the Indian sub-continent could pose a challenge to India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi.

In a 55-minute video released Thursday, Zawahiri said al-Qaida has been preparing for more than two years to set up the new branch.

"This entity was not established today, but is the fruit of a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mujahedeen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity," he said.

Al-Qaida is already active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but Zawahiri said the group would now take the fight to India, Myanmar, also known as Burma, and Bangladesh.

The government believes it is authentic and has warned local governments, according to an official who attended a security briefing in which the video was discussed with the home (interior) minister.

"This matter has been taken very seriously,'' the official told Reuters. "An alert has been sounded.''

Indian security forces are usually on a state of alert for attacks by home-grown Islamic militants and by anti-India groups based in Pakistan. It was not immediately clear what additional steps were being taken.

Until now there has been no evidence that al-Qaida has a presence in India.

The timing and content of the video suggests rivalry between al-Qaida and its more vigorous rival in Syria and Iraq, Islamic State, which anecdotal evidence suggests is gathering support in South Asia. According to media reports, Islamic State pamphlets have been distributed in Pakistan in recent days.

Challenges for Modi

The al-Qaida announcement could pose a challenge to India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi, who has already faced criticism for remaining silent about several incidents deemed anti-Muslim while he was governor of Gujarat state.

National University of Singapore India analyst Kanti Prasad Bajpai tells VOA that Zawahiri's announcement will not be received well in Hindu-dominated India.

"[Zawahiri] is an old antagonist going back to his links to Afghanistan, so his message that India is included in the horizon -- it will underscore what people have always feared, but of course this very explicit stance towards India means that Indian security planners must take note," Bajpai said.

Muslims account for about 15 percent of Indians but, numbering an estimated 175 million, theirs is the third largest Muslim population in the world.

Modi has not commented on Zawahiri's announcement, but a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party said it was a matter of "serious concern."

Myanmar

In Myanmar, also known as Burma,  a senior official in President Thein Sein's office told VOA that his government will work with regional and international authorities to fight against terrorism. The official, who did not give his name, warned that terrorists may try to "instigate religious violence" in Myanmar, where there has been rising tensions between Muslims and Buddhists.

Many analysts see Zawahiri's statement as further evidence al-Qaida is facing serious competition from the Islamic State jihadi group, which controls vast areas of Iraq and Syria.

Professor Greg Barton at Australia's Monash University tells VOA the announcement is al-Qaida's attempt to outflank the growing popularity, within extremist circles, of the Islamic State group.

"Al-Qaida's star is seen to be declining while IS' star is rising," Barton noted. " I think Zawahiri is trying to get back in the game, and one area they haven't paid attention to in the past has been South Asia beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan. So they likely will pick up a presence [there]. It's about a sense of importance and it's about their credibility and their brand image."

Al-Qaida has been under pressure since the death of its founder Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. commandos in May 2011.

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Mengikut pandangan you all, apa yang dia orang ni buat salah ke tak salah?

AbukRokok

aku pelik kenapa al qaeda masih xlancar2 kan perang terhadap shia iran?

kentutmanis

lg pelik kenapa al qaeda ni xbuat cawangan kat israel, pi bunuh sesame islam  doesnt matter la kat iraq ke syria ke afghan ke  mmg kebodohan yg superb tp disokong penuh oleh segelintir besar puak sunni meleis, bile kite condemn isis ke. alqaeda depa kate kite anti islam, dah tu darah org islam yg lain2 tu lg halal dr darah jews kah ..

PongKang

ni da tahun 2014 masih ada lagi perang2 ala medieval... dorg ni psychopath berkumpulan ke hape?

famri7

Idola ummah sejak zaman osama lagi...syukur sis.penyelamat ugama semakin meluaskam sayapnya.

kakikuDibibirmu

overshadowed alqaeda tu yang tak menahan tuh

sueism

PongKang posted on 5-9-2014 02:59 AM
ni da tahun 2014 masih ada lagi perang2 ala medieval... dorg ni psychopath berkumpulan ke hape?

kalau tak perang x sah katanya
hidup dalam ke amanan menyemak mata
so marilah kita berperang tengok org mati
sana sini last bila semua org dah mati
puas hati dia sebab nak makan pun dah susah

nanacinta

daripada diorang pergi bom orang, baik diorang fikir macam mane orang yahudi yang sikit ni boleh kuasai dunia dan jadikan barat sebagai proksi...senjata terbaik zaman skrg ialah ekonomi dan pengaruh bukannya bom atau senjata...masih tak faham ke...

umat islam zaman sekarang kena buat strategi...yang minoriti muslim kat negara2 barat cuba kuasai ekonomi dan institusi2 penting kat sana macam yahudi...muslim kat negara2 islam majukan ekonomi negara masing2..tak payah susah payah guna senjata...

cuba contohi orang2 yahudi yang siang malam brainstorming fikir cara kuasai dunia dan jaga keselamatan bangsa mereka...kena faham zaman sekarang bukan macam zaman dulu...

honeybee1802

Apsal al qaeda tk trget israel jer?

Simunggu

agenda merosakan nama islam..silap hari bulan semua perancangan yahudi juga...

BotakChinPeng

Itu laa. Zalim sangat dgn org islam  di india. Kan dah jadi sasaran alqaeda

sekngucing

al qaeda buat perang semata2 sebab nak kumpul dana
lagi satu, leader dia tgah kumpulkan semua bijuu di dunia ni
tak lama lagi leader dia yaitu pein akan dtg ke malaysia utk tangkap satu lg jinchuriki

cHimo

Makin lama makin gila .