04/09/2014 18:44
Al-Qaida leader says it has expanded into India
Promising to "storm your barricades with cars packed with gunpowder," al-Qaida announced Thursday it had created an Indian branch that the terror network vowed would bring Islamic rule to the entire subcontinent, The Associated Press reported.
The announcement by al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri brought few signs of increased security in India even after the government ordered states to be on alert. Instead, al-Zawahri's announcement by online video appeared directed more at his own rivals in the international jihad movement, analysts said.
Al-Zawahri said the new group "is the fruit of a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mujahedeen in the Indian subcontinent into a single entity," adding it would fight for an Islamic state and laws across the region, "which was part of the Muslims' territories before it was occupied by the infidel enemy."
While al-Zawahri's statement referred to the "Indian subcontinent" — a term that most commonly refers to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal — his comments were widely seen as directed at India, a predominantly Hindu nation that still has more than 150 million Muslims.
In an audio recording released with the video, the leader of the new group, Essam Omar, said that Jews and Hindus — who he referred to as "apostates of India" — "will watch your destruction by your own eyes."
Fighters will "storm your barricades with cars packed with gunpowder," Omar said, decrying what he called the region's "injustice toward Muslims."