Osama bin Laden, right, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, are pictured in this still image from... Read More
Al-Zawahiri said the group would help expand al-Qaeda attacks in India as well as work to end what he called the suffering of Muslims throughout the region, including in Kashmir, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The video indicated the new group would be led by two
Pakistani militants from Pakistani territory.
“Oh, our Muslim nation in the Indian sub-continent! Support your Mujahedeen brothers with your opinion and advice, and money, equipment and prayer, and follow the procession of jihad,” al-Zawahiri said in the video.
The announcement risks adding to tensions between India and Pakistan as border skirmishes intensify between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, further dimming initial hopes that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s May election victory would spur peace talks and enhance economic collaboration. The two countries have fought four wars since 1947, with most of the violence stemming from disputes over the Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir where the Modi government intends to end the special rights awarded to its minority population.
The Indian government is fully prepared to confront the threat from al-Qaeda, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said by phone. Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval declined to comment on the authenticity of the video or the threat posed by al-Qaeda in India.
Islamic State
The advance of the Sunni militant group known as Islamic State, previously known as ISIS, has eclipsed al-Qaeda in the public eye, with the group attracting recruits from across the Muslim world, including defectors from the leadership of core al-Qaeda groups, according to interviews with five U.S. intelligence officials earlier this month. While al-Qaeda shares Islamic State’s goal of establishing a new caliphate, its stranglehold over the region has weakened, forcing it to focus attacks on U.S. targets and new territories in the region.“The Islamic caliphate of ISIS has gained tremendous global prominence because of the brutality and ruthlessness, and al-Qaeda itself is now competing internationally for Muslim support. It is a rival of the Islamic caliphate,” said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies’ International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.
Modi’s History
Many Indian Muslims -- 13 percent of the population -- see Modi’s Hindu nationalist background as a source of oppression which coincides with his link to violence in his home state. Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 that left about 1,000 mostly Muslim people dead have made Modi a target for Islamic extremists, said Sreeram Chaulia, Professor of the Jindal School of International Affairs outside New Delhi.“According to Pakistani jihadists, Modi’s party is full of killers of Muslims who have blood on their hands and they’re out for revenge,” Chaulia said today in a phone interview. “The threat level around him has always been high,” he said.
Domestic terrorism is nothing new to India where extremist groups, including the Indian Mujahedeen, have executed at least 11 major terrorist attacks since an intelligence overhaul in 2008 that followed the killing of 166 people during a three-day siege in Mumbai carried out by Pakistani militants. The IM, often linked to al-Qaeda training in Pakistan, is blamed for orchestrating a bombing that killed 16 people in Hyderabad last year and a 2011 blast at New Delhi’s high court that left 15 dead.
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