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Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: June 9, 2007
A dramatic declaration by a little-known outfit, Al Queda Hind, claiming to be a chapter of Al Qaida, of a "holy war'' against India put security agencies on the ready as they probed the antecedents of the group and its links with jihadi organisations.
While the initial assessment of intelligence officials in New Delhi and Srinagar was that Al Queda Hind is an unknown quantity, the possibility of any links with well-known Al Qaida associates like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba are being investigated. In July last year, a similar threat had been made in Srinagar and the call was ultimately traced to downtown Srinagar.
On Friday, in a statement dropped in a post-box of a local news agency, Current News Service (CNS), in Srinagar, the outfit said, "We declare righteous holy war against India on behalf of God the great...Jammu and Kashmir has the status of a gateway for holy war in India.'' The statement was accompanied by a CD showing a masked man beside an automatic rifle reading the entire statement. The statement has been signed by Abu Abdul Rehman Al Ansari who claims to be chief of Al Queda Hind.
The formulation that Kashmir is a "gateway'' to holy war against India is not new and has been articulated several times over by LeT chief Hafeez Saeed, who has said this is the first step in regaining the lost "Muslim'' land of Hindustan. Intelligence agencies are evaluating the current claim, pointing out that a man called Abu Al Hadeed, who had presented himself as aspokesperson of Al Qaida, Jammu & Kashmir, had called up CNS in July 2006 toannounce the arrival of the organisation in Kashmir.
What has made the security agencies look closely at the "declaration'' is the local element in the CD which, according to Fayaz Ahmed, a reporter with CNS, criticises all shades of political figures in Kashmir-including Syed Salahuddin of Hizbul Mujahideen, hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, moderate Mirwaiz Farooq, JKLF's Yasin Malik and chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. This smacks of local politics as it labels them as "betrayers''.
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