India: Al-Qaeda opens new branch for Indian sub-continent called Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent
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. 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.
“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.