Feeling left out by IS, Al-Qaeda announces jihad in India

[Necron99]

NEW DELHI (AP) — Al-Qaeda has expanded into India, the leader of the terror group said in a video released Thursday, vowing that its militants would bring Islamic law to the entire subcontinent and "wage jihad against its enemies."

At least three Indian states with large Muslim populations have been put on alert in the wake of the video's release, local TV stations reported, though there was no indication of an increased security presence.

The new group "is the fruit of a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mujahedeen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity," al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri said in the video, which was seen online by the SITE monitoring group.

While his comments raised concerns in India, al-Zawahri's message seemed largely directed at his own rivals in the international jihad movement, and with raising al-Qaeda's profile in the wake of repeated successes by the Islamic State militant group.

Al-Qaeda has been increasingly overshadowed by the Islamic State, whose fighters have captured wide swaths of Syria and Iraq and recently executed two American journalists.

Al-Qaeda "is struggling for its legitimacy in the eyes of the radicalized Muslim world," said Ajai Sahni, a top Indian security analyst with the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management.

"Osama bin Laden has been killed and (al-Qaeda's) entire top leadership, apart from Zawahri and a few others, one by one have been decimated by the American drone attacks," he said.

While al-Zawahri's statement referred to the "Indian subcontinent" — a term that most commonly refers to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal — his comments were widely seen as directed at India, a largely Hindu nation with a large Muslim minority.

Al-Zawahri said the group, Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian subcontinent, would fight for an Islamic state and laws across the region, "which was part of the Muslims' territories before it was occupied by the infidel enemy."

The leader of the new group, Essam Omar, said in an audio recording released with the video, that Jews and Hindus — who he referred to as "apostates of India" — "will watch your destruction by your own eyes."

Fighters will "storm your barricades with cars packed with gunpowder," Omar said, decrying what he called the region's "injustice toward Muslims."

Until recently, India had largely seen itself as beyond the recruiting territory of international jihadists like al-Qaeda. Over the past few months, however, the Islamic State has grown in prominence in India, and is increasingly believed to be gaining followers here. Last month, an Indian engineering student who had traveled to Iraq with friends, and who was thought to have joined the Islamic State, was reported killed.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh met Thursday morning with top security and intelligence officials to discuss the threat.

A spokesman for India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party said the statement was "a matter of serious concern. But there is nothing to worry about. We have a strong government at the federal level."

India, though, has a notoriously underfunded and ill-trained security infrastructure. In 2008, a small group of Pakistani militants attacked Mumbai, India's financial hub, effectively shutting down the city for days and killing 166 people.

New Delhi has also waged a long-running insurgency war in Kashmir, India's only majority-Muslim state, with militants fighting to bring independence to the Himalayan region or join it to neighboring Pakistan. The fighting has left thousands of people dead.

20
CONNECT
28

Al-Qaeda announces jihad in India

[thaimeme]

Sure....why not.

[pseudolus]

But Al Qaeda does not exist.

[Neverna]

It looks like they are competing to be leader of a single Caliphate.

"[Al-Qaeda] is an entity that was formed to promulgate the call of the reviving imam, Sheikh Osama Bin Laden. May Allah have mercy upon him," Zawahiri said.
He urged the "umma", or Muslim nation, to "wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty and to revive its caliphate".

BBC News - Al-Qaeda chief Zawahiri launches al-Qaeda in South Asia



Or maybe they will have 2 caliphates!

[Lancelot]

Interesting... the Islamic terrorists are now planning to murder civilians in India. Ah well, the Israeli hating members of Teak Door (Hate Door?) can rejoice.

Guys in the West defending and praising Islamic terrorists. No problema, they will behead you too as you profess your eternal love for Nazis and the IS

Its all a wet dream for Brother Pseudolus

[wasabi]

Coca Cola seems to flourish everywhere.
Now that is a religion without no rivals.

[Kiwi611]

Hahaha..

[VocalNeal]

It would seem the biggests injustice done to Muslims is by other Muslims

[thaimeme]

It would seem the biggests injustice done to Muslims is by other Muslims

Perhaps the brotherhood isn't that solidified..

[wasabi]

They seem to be split between two groups , the nutters verses the nutters, sunny side up or shear done.

[zygote1]

I wouldn't be too surprised to see the Pakistani security service aiding and abetting the Indian jihadis, much as Pakistan was implicated in the Mumbai terrorist attack.
It's no big secret either;

Nuclear Pakistan's Spies Target India—and Their Own Prime Minister
Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence directorate is using terrorist brinkmanship to threaten India and undermine Nawaz Sharif. It’s time to stop this dangerous game.
Just when you thought the world was dangerous enough, another crisis between nuclear weapons-armed India and Pakistan is brewing, and now al Qaeda is adding fuel to the fire by calling for jihad in the subcontinent.
Nuclear Pakistan

The Paki military no longer receives the multi million dollar bribes from the west to allow the transit of coalition fuel and materiel into Afghanistan and are probably looking for an alternative means of getting rich.

[wasabi]

The American think tanks are devising a way bof getting the Indian army to patrol and qwell the unrest in the hill tribe regions of Pakistan.
Replacing the flying drones that where so successful in eliminating the threat of pigeons coming home to roost on Pakistan mountain regions.
Indian soldiers in this region should have a calming effect on the local population.