Intelligence sees ISI hand behind Al Qaeda video

Bengaluru: The propaganda video from the al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announcing the launch of its Indian branch, “Qaedat al-Jihad” that he said would spread Isla-mic rule and “raise the flag of jihad” across the subcontinent is reportedly instigated by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

Indian intelligence agencies feel that the purpose of the video is to deflect world attention from the anti-government protests on its soil and to bring the focus back on Kashmir, which is scheduled to hold Assembly elections between October and December this year.

The intelligence agencies are also not ruling out the desperate attempts by the al-Qaeda to hold its grip on the global jihadist brand, which it has lost to the more virulent and barbaric Islamic State (IS).

According to a security expert “The IS, which was earlier al-Qaeda in Iraq pulled the ground from under the feet of its rather moderate mentor in Iraq during the post-2006 surge by United States and allies, which defeated al-Qaeda but didn’t finish them. In February this year the two jihadist groups parted ways after ISIS defied the orders of Zawahiri, who warned the IS not to kill fellow Muslims in Syria. This was the first time that al-Qaeda was rebuked by another jihadist group.”

The timing of the video is of interest to the intelligence agencies because it has been released soon after the release of the IS video showing the killing of the second US journalist Steven Sotloff.

In July last year “As Sahab” , Al Qaeda’s propaganda arm had released a video “Why is There No Storm in Your Ocean” featuring Umar, in which he had called upon the Indian Muslims to participate in the global jihad against the US. “Jihad does not limit itself to any specific region,” he had exhorted in the video. The speech is peppered with references to the Mughal empire urging Indian Muslims to “restore” Islamic rule.

The head of the newly-created South Asia branch of al-Qaeda, Asim Umar, is a Pakistani ideologue who has produced a number of online calls to jihad but has a relatively low profile. He appears wearing a black turban and beard in several online videos produced by Al-Qaeda and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the loose coalition of homegrown Islamist militants that have waged a bloody campaign against Pakistan since 2007. Amir Rana, a Pakistani expert on militancy, described Umar as an “intellectual asset” of both Al-Qaeda and the TTP but said there was so far no evidence linking him to an operational role as a commander.