After Central Intelligence Agencies confirmed that Chief of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) Maulana Asim Umar had asked Indian Muslims to start ‘jehad’ by killing senior Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, the Delhi Police swung into action on Friday by holding a fresh security review of all its premises, including police stations, offices of senior officers and their residential colonies in the national Capital. Police also directed that drivers and wireless operators of the officers should be immediately sensitised.
An alert issued by Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said that information has been received that the Cchief of AQIS in his statement issued through his links has exhorted Indian Muslims to start ‘jehad’ by killing senior IPS and IPS officers. In a communication to the New Delhi Range Joint Commissioner of Police, he said that the Central Intelligence Agencies had confirmed that such a statement was indeed made by Maulana Umar.
Emphasising that the matter be accorded top priority, Deep’s secret note said that in wake of the Intelligence inputs and the nature of the committed cadres of the AQIS, all the officers should take adequate precautionary measures for their personal safety. A highly placed source said that tight security blanket has been further tightened around all high-profile offices in the NDMC area.
The US State Department had recently designated AQIS a ‘foreign terrorist organisation’ and Maulana Umar a ‘global terrorist’. Umar, whose original name is Sanaul Haq, was declared chief of Al Qaeda’s offshoot for the Indian Subcontinent in a video released by group head Ayman al-Zawahiri in September 2014. In his statement, Umar had said the State and its departments were equally responsible for the incidents against Muslims in India.
“Otherwise how could anyone dare to just take knives and cut Muslims like vegetablesIJ We say if the Indian state is not involved in the massacre of Muslims, then Muslim youth should also be given free hand, as given to Hindu mobsters during riots,” said the statement put out by SITE Intelligence Group, a non-governmental counter terror group that researches and analyses terror threats.
Reports suggest that Umar was a native of Sambhal in UP before leaving India for Pakistan in 1999. He is said to have suggested that Indian Muslims should follow the example of their brethren in Syria, adding that they should look at the example of Europe where one single Mujahid after another has disturbed the entire continent.
Maulana Umar’s statement had said: “Kill senior officers of institutions and administrative departments that get (people to) start these riots. Target IPS and IAS officers, cause them financial losses.”