New Delhi: In an alarming development, al-Qaeda has established a new branch to wage jihad in India, revive its caliphate and impose sharia in the Indian sub-continent, US media and intelligence agencies said today.
The creation of the group called “Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent” was announced by As Sahab, al-Qaeda's official media outlet, in a lengthy video posted on the social media outlets including You Tube.
"Establishing Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent is the result of two years of work to unify the Mujahideen. The rise of this new branch demonstrates that jihad under the leadership of Amir of Believers, Mullah Omar (head of the Afghan Taliban) is expanding," he added.
The group, headed by senior Pakistani militant Asim Umar, would report to top Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the groups's leader Ayman al Zawahiri said “Qaedat al-Jihad” would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
In the video, Zawahiri singles out Assam, Gujarat and Kashmir, along with Bangladesh and Myanmar, as territories targeted by the new organization.
“A new branch of al-Qaeda was established and is Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent, seeking to raise the flag of jihad, return the Islamic rule, and empowering the Shariah of Allah across the Indian subcontinent,” Zawahiri said in the opening of the video, according to the translation by SITE Intelligence Group.
In a video released by the Al Qaeda, its chief Ayman al-Zawahiri said, "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."
"Establish sharia in the land and to free the occupied land of Muslims in the Indian sub-continent," Zawahiri added in the video.
“This entity was not established today, but it is the fruit of a blessed effort for more than two years to gather the mujahideen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity to be with the main group, Qaedat al-Jihad, from the soldiers of the Islamic Emirate and its triumphant emir, Allah permitting, Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid,” he said.
“It is an entity that was formed to promulgate the call of the reviving Imam Sheikh Osama bin Laden, may Allah have mercy on him, to call the Ummah to unite round the word of Tawhid [monotheism], to wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty, and to revive its Caliphate,” Zawahiri said in the 55-minute video.
Al-Qaeda, which was founded by Osama bin Laden who was killed in Pakistan by US commandos in May 2011, has long claimed leadership of the jihadists fighting to restore a single caliphate.
In July 2013, al-Qaeda in another video had urged the Indian Muslims to join global jihad.
