India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) is “looking into” possible links between some Indian citizens and terrorist group Al-Qaeda* after its chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri emerged in a video praising Muslim students protesting the ban on hijabs at educational institutions in the southern state of Karnataka.
The 8:43-minute-long video featuring Al-Zawahiri was produced by Al-Qaeda’s official channel and released on 5 April. The video was verified by US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the online activity of jihadist organisations.
Karnataka’s Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said on Friday that there could have been “some communication” between India and Al-Qaeda in the lead-up to Zawahiri’s video.
“A thorough investigation will be done from all angles. The state police [are] also looking into the matter,” Jnanendra stated.
“I am not saying that everyone joined hands (with Al-Qaeda),” the minister clarified.
The Intelligence Bureau and the National Investigative Agency, the federal counter-terror investigation unit, are overlooked by the federal Home Ministry.
Sputnik has approached the Home Ministry for a comment on the matter.
From India’s point of view, what’s concerning about the new video is that this is the first time since 2014 that an entire speech is devoted to the South Asian nation.
In his previous India-centric video, Al-Zawahiri announced the formation of Al-Qaeda on the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
In several videos between then and this month, he only made references to India.
The terrorist propaganda video begins with a clip of Muskan Khan, a Muslim girl from Karnataka’s Mandya city. Khan gained global fame after she stood up to a predominantly male crowd of saffron-robed presumably Hindu activists and chanted Allahu Akbar in February.
“She has unveiled the reality and unmasked the nature of the conflict between the chaste and pure Muslim Ummah and the degenerated and depraved polytheist and atheist enemies it confronts... May Allah reward her for exposing the reality of Hindu India and deception of its pagan democracy,” Zawahiri says in the video, which has been released with English subtitles.
“We must stop being deceived by the mirage of Hindu democracy of India, which to begin with, was never more than a tool to oppress Islam. We must realise that in this real world there is no such thing as ‘human rights’ or ‘respect for the constitution’ or law or other such nonsensical conjectural ideas,” the terrorist figurehead says.
Zawahiri also urges for “unity” among Muslims across the world, going on to list China, Maghreb (northern Africa), Somalia and Caucasus in the video.
* Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia.