A change in the name of the Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) magazine 'suggests a refocusing' of the terror group from Afghanistan to Kashmir, a United Nations report has said.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India's security forces are capable and equipped to protect the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
In the video, Zawahari, who took over the reins of Al Qaeda after the death of Osama bin Laden, said, "I am of the view that the Mujahideen (armed terrorists) in Kashmir -- at this stage at least -- should focus with a single mind on inflicting unrelenting blows on the Indian Army and government so as to bleed the Indian economy and make India suffer sustained losses in manpower and equipment."
Giving a new dimension to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba plot to attack Indian facilities, Federal Bureau of Investigation's sleuths have recovered two inflammatory Al Qaeda videos, containing speeches by Osama bin Laden and other terrorists, from the house of Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was arrested in October. Produced by 'As Sahab Media', commonly acknowledged to be the media wing of the Al Qaeda, one of the videos is titled 'Bombing of Denmark Embassy'.
The announcement by Al Qaeda that it has formed a branch for operating in India is not an indication of the terrorist outfit gaining new capabilities, the United States said on Friday, asserting that it is committed to dismantling the group.
In the video titled 'From France to Bangladesh: The Dust Will Never Settle Down', AQIS chief Maulana Asim Umar mentioned Prime Minister Modi in the context of what he claims to be a war against Muslims.
Al Qaeda, which has announced the creation of a separate wing for India, wants to portray Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an enemy of Islam and as such India should take its threat "very seriously", a well-known American counter-terror expert said on Friday even as the United States tried to downplay the terrorist outfit's capabilities.
The Centre on Thursday sounded a country-wide alert after an Al Qaeda video appeared in which the terror outfit threatened to carry out campaign in India. Home Minister Rajnath Singh went into a huddle with top security officials as an initial assessment of the Intelligence Bureau found the video to be genuine.
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.
Two Indian brothers are among four men who have been indicted by a US federal court on charges of providing material support to slain Al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, prosecutors said.
If viewed as a part of the Al Qaeda's radicalisation effort to produce jihadists out of discontented Muslim youth in India, the call could well have a much larger dimension, both in the near as well as long term, directly impacting on national security, says Bibhu Prasad Routray.
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