India yesterday ordered several provinces to be on increased alert after al-Qaeda announced the formation of a wing of the militant group in India and its neighborhood, a senior government official said.
In a video posted online, al-Qaeda boss Ayman al-Zawahiri promised to spread Islamic rule and “raise the flag of jihad” across the “Indian subcontinent.”
The government believes it is authentic and has warned local governments, said an official who attended a security briefing in which the video was discussed with the interior minister.
Photo: AFP
“This matter has been taken very seriously,” the official said. “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-Qaeda has a presence in India.
The timing and content of the video suggests rivalry between al-Qaeda and its more vigorous rival in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State — previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — which anecdotal evidence suggests is gathering support in South Asia.
Media reports say Islamic State pamphlets have been distributed in Pakistan in recent days.
Al-Zawahiri’s announcement also made two references to Gujarat, the home state of new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist.
Modi has long been a hate figure for Islamist groups because of religious riots on his watch as chief minister of the state in 2002. More than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, died in the spasm of violence.
“In the wake of this al-Qaeda video, we will be on a higher alert. We will work closely with the central government to tackle any threat posed to the state,” said S.K. Nanda, the most senior bureaucrat in Gujarat’s home department.
A high security alert in the state involves activating informer networks in sensitive areas.
A senior police official said that Gujarat has been high on the list of militant organizations, including al-Qaeda, since the 2002 riots.
“It will be more so now because Narendra Modi is prime minister,” the official said, requesting anonymity.
Al-Zawahiri described the formation of “al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent” as glad tidings for Muslims “in Burma [Myanmar], Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir” and said the new wing would rescue Muslims there from injustice and oppression.
A senior intelligence officer in Assam said security forces there were “well prepared” to face any threats.
Muslims account for 15 percent of Indians but, numbering an estimated 175 million, theirs is the third-largest Muslim population in the world.
Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan, has long attracted foreign mujahidin fighters as well as home-grown separatist militants. In June, al-Qaeda released a video urging young radicals in Kashmir to draw inspiration from militants in Syria and Iraq and join the “global jihad.”
Intelligence sources in Indian-held Kashmir yesterday said that they had so far detected no traces of al-Qaeda in the Himalayan region.
The appearance of Islamic State flags at recent protest rallies in Kashmir was the work of an individual and did not point to any involvement of the group there, one said.
India has suffered several large-scale attacks by Islamist militants, most recently the 2008 Mumbai rampage by Pakistani fighters that left 166 people dead.
Smaller domestic militant groups regularly detonate small bombs, but have so far failed to launch a major attack. Earlier this year, Indian intelligence agencies said a handful of Indian men had joined the Islamic State, among the first known cases of Indians joining foreign jihad.
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