Home Ministry Alert for States after Al Qaeda Announces Indian Wing in Video

New Delhi: The Home Ministry has ordered several states on Thursday to be on increased alert in response to al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahri announcing the formation of a branch of his militant group in India and its neighbourhood, a senior government official said.

In a video posted online, al Zawahri promised to spread Islamic rule and "raise the flag of jihad" across the Indian subcontinent. The government believes it is authentic and has warned local governments, said an official who attended a security briefing in which the video was discussed with the home minister.

"This matter has been taken very seriously," the official told Reuters. "An alert has been sounded."

The timing and content of the video suggests rivalry between al Qaeda and the more vigorous Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, which has started gathering support in South Asia.

Zawahri's announcement also made two references to Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"In the wake of this al Qaeda video, we will be on a higher alert. We will work closely with the central government to tackle any threat posed to the state," SK Nanda, the seniormost bureaucrat in the home department of Gujarat, told Reuters. A high security alert in the state involves activating informer networks in sensitive areas.

Zawahri described the formation of "Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent" as glad tidings for Muslims "in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir" and said the new wing would rescue Muslims there from injustice and oppression.

A senior police official said that Gujarat has been high on the list of militant organisations, including al Qaeda, since the 2002 riots.

"It will be more so now because Narendra Modi is prime minister," the official said, requesting anonymity.

Kashmir has long attracted foreign mujahideen fighters as well as home-grown separatist militants. In June, al Qaeda released a video urging young radicals in Kashmir to draw inspiration from militants in Syria and Iraq and join the "global jihad."

Intelligence sources in Kashmir told Reuters on Thursday that they had so far detected no traces of al Qaeda in the Himalayan region that borders Pakistan and China.

India has suffered several large-scale attacks by Islamist militants including the 2008 Mumbai rampage by Pakistani fighters that left 166 people dead.

Smaller domestic militant groups regularly detonate small bombs, but have so far failed to launch a major attack. Earlier this year, Indian intelligence agencies said a handful of Indian men had joined the militancy in the Levant, among the first known cases of Indians joining foreign jihad.