The Al-Qaedea announcement to Assam

The threat issued by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri which prompted the world intelligence agencies to stop and take notice had directly threatened to disrupt the peace and communal harmony of the Indian subcontinent. The author Dwaipayan delves into what it means for Northeast India in general and the state of Assam in particular.

Barely a few weeks ago, Al-Qaeda, the global terror outfit behind 9/11 armed attacks, had candidly declared India as a target of its jihadi operations. The pronouncement,interestingly, was made by a video posted on social media, casting only the Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri, incidentally having been its chief since the death of Osama Bin Laden, exhorting his “Muslim brothers” to “raise the flag of jihad” across the “Indian sub-continent”. In his 55-minute video address Al Zawahiri announced carving a new branch of Al-Qaeda for all Muslims, especially in the Indian subcontinent. This new branch, as he said, is to help hoist the flag of jihad. Zawahiri then briefed through the video, “your brothers in this terror group did not forget you and they are doing what they can to rescue you from injustice,oppression…”, adding that the branch will defend those vulnerable in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam,Gujarat, Ahmedabad and Kashmir.

The statement of the militant organization’s top leader immediately thereafter got the Union Home ministry, National Security Adviser and intelligence agencies like RAW and IB into a huddle to assess its implications. One gratifying aspect in the context of the serious Al-Qaeda threat to the security of the sub-continent is that the Central government while taking it seriously asserted states to step up surveillance.

An intelligence official close on the heels of the announcement on September 4 by the Al-Qaeda chief of opening an Indian branch of his terror orgainisation made a very significant remark. He said that such a statement by a top leader is usually released after some leg-work has already been done. If his view is construed to be authentic, there is indeed a genuine reason to be worried about.But some security analysts have downplayed Zawahiri’s statement by saying that what he said is not too new. Truly so because this type of speech exhorting his followers to dance to the outfit’s tune is being delivered regularly, even after the death of Bin Laden. But what is worthy of note here is that there has been so far no report of Al-Qaeda having any presence in Assam or, for that matter anywhere else in the country. Frankly, it has now been reduced to a spent force with the death of Bin Laden. Its influence whatever it may be , so to say is limited only to Syria, Afghanistan and the sensitive border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Dwaipayan

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