‘Hotspots’ of jehadi elements and IM sleeper cells under lens
The Centre on Thursday issued a countrywide alert after an al-Qaeda video threatened to carry out campaign in India. After convening a high-level meeting in the morning, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh directed various security agency chiefs to keep a vigil on the “hotspots” of jehadi elements and Indian Mujahideen sleeper cells across the country. The meeting was attended by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, chiefs of RAW, IB and JIC, and senior Home Ministry officials.
An alert has been issued by the Home Ministry to all States and security agencies to take possible precautionary steps, Home Ministry officials said. Security agencies feel the video could be an attempt by al-Qaeda to carry out fresh recruitments in the sub-continent as it stares at diminishing influence vis-a-vis the ISIS.
Singh, who discussed the issue with top security officials, later told reporters that the Prime Minister’s Office has been informed about the video. Ministry officials said an assessment is being made about the presence of al-Qaeda in the country. According to sources, the “hotspots” meant by the areas where the jehadi elements recruiting cadres, including the IM’s active areas. It also includes the borders of Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Sources in the security establishment said the move to post the video shows the outfit is desperate to gain foothold in India following its shrinking base in West Asia and Afghanistan due to the rise of the ISIS and the Boko Haram and emergence of a stronger Taliban in Kabul. The move also suggests that the video is basically aimed at attracting the Muslim youth to join its fold.
The IB, which constantly monitors the activities of terror outfits operating in the country and its neighbourhood, is expected to send the report in this regard within a day or two, officials said.
US media and intelligence agencies said on Thursday that al-Qaeda has established a new branch to wage “jehad” in India, “return the Islamic rule” and impose sharia in the Indian sub-continent.
The creation of the group called “Qaedat al-Jehad in the Indian Subcontinent” was announced by Al-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s official media outlet, in a lengthy video posted on social media outlets including You Tube.
Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the group’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said in the video that “Qaedat al-Jehad” would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Zawahiri said the group will defend the “vulnerable in the Indian subcontinent, in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir...” and “your brothers in Qaedat al-Jehad did not forget you and that they are doing what they can to rescue you from injustice, oppression, persecution, and suffering”.
While the video has particularly sought participation from Muslims in Gujarat, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, the agencies here are concerned that the radical outfits in South India can in particular redouble their efforts to radicalise the educated youth to join their folds. The agencies are taking efforts to preempt any flaring up of communal tensions likely to be incited by banned terror outfits.