Al-Qaeda Opens New Branch In Indian Sub-Continent

WASHINGTON: 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, U.S. media and intelligence agencies said.

The creation of the group called “Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian sub-continent” 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 group’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 sub-continent, seeking to raise the flag of jihad, return the Islamic rule, and empowering the Shariah of Allah across the Indian sub-continent,” Zawahiri said in the opening of the video, according to the translation by SITE Intelligence Group.

Zawahiri said the group will defend the “vulnerable in the Indian sub-continent, in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir...” and “your brothers in Qaedat al-Jihad did not forget you and that they are doing what they can to rescue you from injustice, oppression, persecution, and suffering.”

In the video, Zawahiri said the group was years in the making.

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