Focus on next Al Qaeda chief as Indian agencies stay alert
Focus on next Al Qaeda chief as Indian agencies stay alert
Within hours of US President Joe Biden pronouncing the dying of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a precision drone strike, hypothesis rotated round a likely successor, with some other Egyptian Al Qaeda figure, Mohammed Salahaldin Zidan, who is going via way of means of the assumed call of Saif al-Adel, rising a probable candidate, in keeping with safety officers who screen the region.
There isn’t anyt any readability on contemporary whereabouts of Adel, who for lengthy turned into rumoured to be in Iran.
The humans mentioned above additionally stated that al-Zawahiri’s dying will hit morale of the group’s supporters and cadres in India however there may be additionally the priority of disappointed combatants probable transferring allegiance to the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP).
An professional concerned in monitoring worldwide terrorism and the sports of global terror groups, on circumstance of anonymity, stated: “Considering the operational talents of ISKP to mount staggering assaults, any viable tilt from Al Qaeda ranks to Islamic State warrants critical attention.”
The Indian intelligence network is maintaining a near watch on Al Qaeda’s sports as Adel, a veteran subject professional and previous lieutenant colonel withinside the Egyptian unique forces, has spearheaded brazen assaults along with the bombings of americaA embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Adel additionally fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan withinside the Nineteen Eighties and reportedly skilled a number of the hijackers concerned withinside the 11th of September assaults no matter having to start with adversarial the operation.
There turned into no professional phrase on Zawahari’s dying from the Indian authorities, which currently re-installed a diplomatic presence in Kabul.
Nonetheless, Zawahiri’s dying is probably to abate al-Qaeda’s local associates along with Al Qaeda withinside the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Ansar al-Islam (AAI), the professional added.
The UN sanctions tracking team’s trendy document in July this yr concluded that AQIS reportedly has 180-four hundred combatants, more often than not from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Pakistan.
AQIS combatants also are represented amongst Taliban fight units. The associate is led via way of means of Osama Mehmood and his deputy Atif Yahya Ghouri, and has a presence in numerous Afghan provinces.
Intelligence organizations have these days obtained inputs that Al Qaeda cadres in India had been at the back of propaganda campaigns and efforts to rebuild the organisation, mainly after the talk over feedback made in opposition to Prophet Mohammed via way of means of former BJP spokespersons.
AQIS had threatened in June to perform assaults at numerous places, together with Delhi, Mumbai, UP and Gujarat, in reaction to statements via way of means of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
One of the closing messages issued via way of means of al-Zawahiri turned into a video launched in April this yr, wherein he spoke approximately the hijab controversy in Karnataka and requested Muslims withinside the subcontinent to combat the attack on Islam “intellectually, the usage of the media, and with guns at the battlefield”. He additionally spoke approximately Kashmir some times, together with in July 2019, whilst he requested “mujahideen in Kashmir” to inflict unrelenting blows at the Indian Army and the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir.
After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan closing yr, there had been worries in India that the electricity of Al Qaeda could boom and skilled combatants will be despatched to India given that the primary combating arm of the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, turned into at the back of numerous assaults on Indian interests. Another professional stated, “The extraordinarily near ties among Taliban and Al Qaeda are glaring from the truth that al-Zawahiri turned into stationed in a complex Kabul neighbourhood. This near Al Qaeda-Taliban tie-up is completely in opposition to Indian interests, in particular withinside the backdrop of Al Qaeda’s intentions to goal India.”
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