US had warned Delhi of Qaeda's designs in August

Government sources told HT that al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahri’s video statement did not come as a surprise to Indian agencies, which see it as a response to the growing clout of ISIS among Islamic radicals.

Updated on: Sep 5, 2014, 11:56:25 IST

Hindustan Times | By Shishir Gupta, New Delhi

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The United States alerted India about al Qaeda’s plans to expand operations into the Indian sub-continent in late August, sources said on Thursday, as part of the two countries’ close intelligence cooperation that is set to become stronger during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington later this month.

Government sources told HT that al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahri’s video statement did not come as a surprise to Indian agencies, which see it as a response to the growing clout of ISIS among Islamic radicals.

“Zawahri’s statement of launching al Qaeda in the Indian sub-continent is a desperate attempt to stop the radicals from gravitating towards the so-called caliphate declared by ISIS’ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” said a top Indian counter-terror operative.

“This is not only competitive jihad but also an attempt by al Qaeda to recapture lost ground among Sunni Muslim radicals. It is a matter of serious concern to India as the new branch will launch terror attacks as spectacular and gruesome as ISIS’ beheading tapes.”

“Zawahri fell out with al-Baghdadi over the question of support to the al Nusra group in Syria in 2011.

Read:Asim Umar, man who will head South Asia branch of al Qaeda

The internal security establishment has taken Zawahri’s tape very seriously with counter-terror agencies directly talking to state police chiefs on Thursday and asking them to take pro-active steps in case radicals decide to fly al Qaeda flags in support.

Already, ISIS flags have been seen in Kashmir Valley and on T-shirts worn by some Muslim youth in Tamil Nadu. "A country-wide alert by the multi-agency centre has been sounded since morning and efforts are being made to reach out to (the) Muslim community to report in case youth are being radicalized in the name of al Qaeda," said a senior home ministry official.

While the US tip-off to the Research and Analysis Wing (RA&W) gave Indian agencies extra time to prepare for the new al Qaeda branch, South Block is seriously looking at setting up a joint group on countering violent extremism (CVE) so that critical information on radical Salafi groups could be shared in real time.

“The purpose of CVE interaction is to study the way US is preparing legislative framework against Muslim youth joining global jihad with ISIS in Iraq and see whether a similar variation can be applied in India,” said an intelligence official.

Read: States on alert after al Qaeda announces India wing

Counter-terrorism officials expect Zawahiri will use the al Qaeda-affiliated, Af-Pak-based Ansar ul Tauhid group for attacks in the sub-continent, particularly as its members were earlier with the Indian Mujahideen.

Ansar ul Tauhid was set up after Indian radicals from Azamgarh and Bhatkal broke away from IM founders Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, due to interference from Pakistan’s ISI in selecting Indian targets, and joined al Qaeda.

HT Analysis:Has Asia become a fertile ground for al Qaeda?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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