NSG Fears Multi-city Attacks by Qaeda
NEW DELHI: Global terror outfits like al-Qaeda are likely to forge alliance with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) to launch multi city-multiple attacks on India, J N Choudhury, DG of counter-terror force, National Security Guard (NSG), revealed on Thursday.
Choudhury, who had earlier served in the Intelligence Bureau, pointed out that several terror groups like Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and Indian Mujahideen (IM), which are already active in India, may be used by al-Qaeda for logistical support. “Now that they (al-Qaeda) have declared their intention to attack India, they will obviously align with the known groups we have -- whether it is LeT, JeM or IM. So the apprehension we have is that if they do have a combined kind of strategy or combined operations, we have to prepared and be alert if a combined group takes action.
Then there is a threat and possibility of a multi-city multiple attacks. That is what we are preparing for and hence we are also working with anti-terrorist forces and state police forces,” Choudhury said.
As reported by Express on October 12, al-Qaeda’s Indian subcontinent branch senior leader Imran Ali alias Haji Shaikh Waliullah, who was recently killed in a US drone attack, had formed a HuM offshoot, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen al-Almi (HuMa) to support al-Qaeda’s terror activities in Pakistan.
HuM was responsible for the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC814 in December 1999.
The outfit headed by Fazlur Rehman Khalil has strong ties with Taliban’s fugitive supreme spiritual leader Mullah Omar and sometimes it operates under ‘Jamiat-ul-Ansar’ (JuA) pseudonym to disguise its involvement in terror strikes in Jammu & Kashmir.
Intelligence sources said al-Qaeda Amir Ayman al Zawahiri, while announcing the formation of al-Qaeda on the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in early September had confirmed that AQIS was formed by bringing together several Jihadi groups.
J&K Militants Al-Qaeda Recruits?
Chapter 2 of Ghazwat-ul-Hind, published by al- Qaeda last month, had claimed that the AQIS has many Mujahideen, that has previously fought in Kashmir and some of them were commanders who were proved to be among the best Guerrilla fighters. A document seized from Osama bin Laden’s compound had revealed that a-Qaeda commander Badr Mansoor, a close aide of Laden, had recruited jihadis from Kashmir and Hakart-ul-Mujahideen. Arshad Waheed was responsible for the training of Queda men.