Al Qaeda training Indian jihadis for a big terror strike
NEW DELHI: Al Qaeda was working with the Indian Mujahideen to launch major terror attacks across the country, decrypted communications between the two organizations and testimony from suspects have indicated.
Terror plots uncovered by Indian intelligence included the kidnapping of foreigners and turning the nation into a “Syria and Iraq where violence is continuously happening”, intelligence officials said.
The evidence pointed to growing ties between al Qaeda and IM, which has been accused in a number of terror attacks including the 2008 Delhi bomb blast and the 2011 serial blasts in Mumbai.
Weeks after al Qaeda announced the formation of a South Asia wing to strike across the subcontinent, agencies said they had discovered IM members were training with al Qaeda and other groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan for major attacks.
Security officials cited last Sunday’s deadly suicide bombing at Wagah that left more than 60 dead and a terror alert at the Kolkata port, as evidence that militant coordination and activity are on the rise.
“The thing we are looking for
AGENCIES SAY THEY DISCOVERED IM MEMBERS WERE TRAINING WITH QAEDA AND OTHER GROUPS IN PAK AND AFGHANISTAN
is how al Qaeda or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant tie up with local groups, especially as the drawdown takes place in Afghanistan,” said Sharad Kumar, head of the National Investigation Agency.
ISIS has carved out swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, but its influence over militant groups in South Asia is believed to be limited so far.
Al Qaeda, however, is deeply entrenched, with leader Ayman al-Zawahri believed to be hiding near the Afghan-Pakistan border and its militants fighting NATO forces in Afghanistan. Foreign combat troops are due to withdraw at the end of the year. Some members of IM are already fighting alongside al Qaeda in Afghanistan, according to an Indian government chargesheet against 11 suspected members of the group alleged to have plotted attacks in India. The worry is that more battle hardened fighters could now turn their sights on their homeland.