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Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri declared on Wednesday in a video message that the global Islamist extremist movement has launched a new off-shoot in the Indian sub-continent.
In the video, Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's right hand man, who has been heading the organisation since he was killed in 2011, 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."
Asim Umar, chief of Al Qaeda's Sharia Committee for Pakistan, has been named the leader of the new group, called the Qaedat al-Jihad. Another leader, Ustad Usama Mahmoud is named the spokesperson.
For India, which is already reeling with shock over reports of youths from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu joining Iraq's Islamic State, this is being seen as an alarming call to arms.(Read: One of the Four Indians Suspected to Have Joined ISIS Reportedly Dead)
In the video, Zawahiri goes on to say, "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."
Among the six main goals of the new wing, Zawahiri lists the need to, "Establish sharia in the land and to free the occupied land of Muslims in the Indian sub-continent."
Al Qaeda, which has been under pressure since the death of Bin Laden in May 2011 in Pakistan in a US operation, is now facing a serious threat from the Islamic State, its breakaway faction, which controls vast areas in Iraq and Syria. Al Qaeda affiliates are in direct military confrontation with IS in Syria.
The organisation's chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had proclaimed an Islamic State Caliphate in June after the group took over chunks of northern, western and central Iraq. In direct competition to Zawahiri, Baghdadi has also proclaimed himself "Caliph Ibrahim" and wants the "Caliphate" to include among other areas, Jordan, Palestine and all of Arabia. It already controls an estimated 30% of Syria. (Read: Iraq Militants Declare Establishment of 'Caliphate')
With Baghdadi's sermons already drawing youth from the subcontinent to the "jihad" in Iraq, the announcement is being seen as Al Qaeda's attempt to get a foothold in the sub-continent. It is also an attempt to project Al Qaeda as a global jihadi organisation and grab back headlines from IS.
Story First Published: September 04, 2014 01:00 IST
Al Qaeda Launches Wing in Indian Subcontinent
Al-Qaeda leader announces India wing - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has announced the formation of an Indian branch of his global armed group that he said would spread Islamic rule and "raise the flag of jihad" across the subcontinent.
In a video spotted in online "jihadist" forums on Wednesday by the SITE terrorism monitoring group, Zawahiri said the new force would "crush the artificial borders" dividing Muslim populations in the region.
Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where its surviving leadership are thought to be hiding out, but Zawahiri said the group would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
"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 sub-continent into a single entity," he said.
Founded by Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan by US commandos in May 2011, al-Qaeda has long claimed leadership of the self-declared jihadists fighting to restore a single caliphate in Muslim lands.
But since the death of its figurehead, it has been somewhat eclipsed, first by its own offshoots in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and now by the so-called "Islamic State" fighting in Iraq and Syria.
While still regarded as a threat to the West, the group has never managed carry out another attack on the scale of the September 11, 2001 attacks by hijacked airliners on New York and Washington.
But, in launching "Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian sub-continent," Zawahiri may be attempting to recapture some of the limelight for his group and to exploit existing unrest in Kashmir and Myanmar.
"It 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.
'Waging jihad'
Zawahiri called on the "umma," or Muslim nation, to unite around "tawhid," or monotheism, "to wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty and to revive its caliphate."
He said the group would recognise the overarching leadership of the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and be led day-to-day by senior Pakistani fighter Asim Umar.
The 55-minute video begins with stock footage of the late bin Laden giving a sermon, before cutting to a satellite map of southwest Asia, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and the Horn of Africa.
Then it cuts to a white-bearded Zawahiri, in a white turban and glasses, against the backdrop of a brown floral curtain and desk with hardback books and a tin holding ballpoint pens and prayer beads.
Umar also speaks in the video - using the Urdu language of Pakistan rather than the Egyptian doctor Zawahiri's native Arabic - along with a new group spokesman identified as Usama Mahmoud.
The video is produced by Al-Qaeda's usual media arm, the As-Sahab Media Foundation - "The Cloud" - and SITE reported that it had been widely distributed on jihadist online forums.
In the video, Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's right hand man, who has been heading the organisation since he was killed in 2011, 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."
Asim Umar, chief of Al Qaeda's Sharia Committee for Pakistan, has been named the leader of the new group, called the Qaedat al-Jihad. Another leader, Ustad Usama Mahmoud is named the spokesperson.
For India, which is already reeling with shock over reports of youths from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu joining Iraq's Islamic State, this is being seen as an alarming call to arms.(Read: One of the Four Indians Suspected to Have Joined ISIS Reportedly Dead)
In the video, Zawahiri goes on to say, "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."
Among the six main goals of the new wing, Zawahiri lists the need to, "Establish sharia in the land and to free the occupied land of Muslims in the Indian sub-continent."
Al Qaeda, which has been under pressure since the death of Bin Laden in May 2011 in Pakistan in a US operation, is now facing a serious threat from the Islamic State, its breakaway faction, which controls vast areas in Iraq and Syria. Al Qaeda affiliates are in direct military confrontation with IS in Syria.
The organisation's chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had proclaimed an Islamic State Caliphate in June after the group took over chunks of northern, western and central Iraq. In direct competition to Zawahiri, Baghdadi has also proclaimed himself "Caliph Ibrahim" and wants the "Caliphate" to include among other areas, Jordan, Palestine and all of Arabia. It already controls an estimated 30% of Syria. (Read: Iraq Militants Declare Establishment of 'Caliphate')
With Baghdadi's sermons already drawing youth from the subcontinent to the "jihad" in Iraq, the announcement is being seen as Al Qaeda's attempt to get a foothold in the sub-continent. It is also an attempt to project Al Qaeda as a global jihadi organisation and grab back headlines from IS.
Story First Published: September 04, 2014 01:00 IST
Al Qaeda Launches Wing in Indian Subcontinent
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has announced the formation of an Indian branch of his global armed group that he said would spread Islamic rule and "raise the flag of jihad" across the subcontinent.
In a video spotted in online "jihadist" forums on Wednesday by the SITE terrorism monitoring group, Zawahiri said the new force would "crush the artificial borders" dividing Muslim populations in the region.
Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where its surviving leadership are thought to be hiding out, but Zawahiri said the group would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
"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 sub-continent into a single entity," he said.
Founded by Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan by US commandos in May 2011, al-Qaeda has long claimed leadership of the self-declared jihadists fighting to restore a single caliphate in Muslim lands.
But since the death of its figurehead, it has been somewhat eclipsed, first by its own offshoots in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and now by the so-called "Islamic State" fighting in Iraq and Syria.
While still regarded as a threat to the West, the group has never managed carry out another attack on the scale of the September 11, 2001 attacks by hijacked airliners on New York and Washington.
But, in launching "Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian sub-continent," Zawahiri may be attempting to recapture some of the limelight for his group and to exploit existing unrest in Kashmir and Myanmar.
"It 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.
'Waging jihad'
Zawahiri called on the "umma," or Muslim nation, to unite around "tawhid," or monotheism, "to wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty and to revive its caliphate."
He said the group would recognise the overarching leadership of the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and be led day-to-day by senior Pakistani fighter Asim Umar.
The 55-minute video begins with stock footage of the late bin Laden giving a sermon, before cutting to a satellite map of southwest Asia, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and the Horn of Africa.
Then it cuts to a white-bearded Zawahiri, in a white turban and glasses, against the backdrop of a brown floral curtain and desk with hardback books and a tin holding ballpoint pens and prayer beads.
Umar also speaks in the video - using the Urdu language of Pakistan rather than the Egyptian doctor Zawahiri's native Arabic - along with a new group spokesman identified as Usama Mahmoud.
The video is produced by Al-Qaeda's usual media arm, the As-Sahab Media Foundation - "The Cloud" - and SITE reported that it had been widely distributed on jihadist online forums.
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