In the video, Zawahiri singles out Assam, Gujarat and Kashmir along with Bangladesh and Myanmar, as territories targeted by the new organisation.
Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri launched a new branch of the global extremist movement on Wednesday to reinvigorate and expand its struggle in the Indian sub-continent.
In a video spotted in online forums 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 “Qaedat Al Jihad” 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 militants fighting to restore a single caliphate in the 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 “ISIS” fighting in Iraq and Syria.
While still regarded as a threat to the West, the group has never managed to repeat the spectacular success 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.
Zawahiri called on the “umma” to unite around “tawhid” “to wage militants 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 Taleban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and be led day-to-day by senior Pakistani militant 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 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 online forums.
In it, Zawahiri singles out Assam, Gujarat and Kashmir along with Bangladesh and Myanmar, as territories targeted by the new organisation.
Kashmir has an active armed insurgency against Indian rule, and there have been extremist attacks in other areas in India, most notoriously the 2008 Mumbai attacks, when four days of urban violence left 166 dead.
Zawahiri is still the United States’ most wanted fugitive for his role in Al Qaeda, first alongside bin Laden and since his death as its leader.
The State Department “Rewards for Justice” program has placed a $25 million bounty on the 63-year-old’s head and US drones still patrol above the Afghan-Pakistan border area where he is thought to be.
Al Qaeda declares new branch in Indian sub-continent - Khaleej Times
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