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Al-Qaeda’s footprints in India |
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Harjit Singh
For the first time since its birth, the Al-Qaeda outfit has marked its presence in India. That India is now squarely on the agenda of the Al-Qaeda was confirmed by no less than National Security Advisor, M.K. Narayanan and in a warning by the United States to India. India, of course, has been the victim of terrorist activities by Pak-based and Pak-backed terrorist groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Now after the plot for bombing of US-bound planes was botched by the London Police the links of these outfits with the Al-Qaeda proved beyond doubt is a matter of further concern to India.
After getting information from the intelligence agencies and a report by the Jammu and Kashmir Government to the Home Ministry, National Security Advisor Narayanan told newsmen on August 12 that Al-Qaeda had its presence in India through terror groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba. “LeT which is active in India is part of the Al-Qaeda compact”, he told a news channel in an interview. He said that Al-Qaeda had also links with some other terror groups like al-Badr.
The United States, which is being pressed by India to lean on Pakistan to stop supporting terrorists in cross-border violence, too shares India’s view. In fact, a day after a terrorist plan to bomb planes was foiled in Britain, Washington warned India of possible Al-Qaeda attacks in New Delhi and Mumbai between August 11 and 16, coinciding with India’s Independence Day. It also issued an advisory to American nationals in India to be careful about their security. It was only due to an unprecedented security cover that no major terrorist attack took place.
It is notable that until a hitherto unknown terror group, Al-Qahar, claimed its links with the Al-Qaeda and took the responsibility of carrying out the serial bombing of Mumbai suburban trains, and until some intercepts between Al-Qaeda operatives and Kashmir-based terrorist groups by the security and intelligence agencies in the Valley, Al-Qaeda, in its war against the West and Pakistan, had never spoken of India to be on its agenda. Although some Indian workers on rehabilitation projects in Afghanistan were killed or kidnapped, the needle of suspicion was on the Taliban and not Al-Qaeda. In their audio and video tapes, Osama bin Laden or his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri made little mention of India to be on their radar. However, for the first time since Osama bin Laden created the International Islamic Front in February 1998 for jehad against “Crusaders” and Jewish People”, India was mentioned in an audio message on Al-Jazeera on April 23 this year. The Arabic news channel carried a tape by Zawahari which announced the expansion of the global jehad to target not only the crusaders, Jews but also the Hindus. It was the first time India was manifestly included in this arc of war.
Since then the Indian intelligence agencies have been on their toes to unravel Al-Qaeda’s presence in India and its links with the terrorists operating in Kashmir and elsewhere. Their investigation found that the notorious group, which hit global headlines after the 9/11 attacks in US with its elusive supremo Osama bin Laden as the global face of terror, had developed an organic relationship with the two dreaded Pak-based terrorist outfits – Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Al-Qaeda has apparently been roped in by the LeT to step up militancy in the Kashmir valley. In a report to the Home Ministry in New Delhi, the State Government in Srinagar has quoted two intercepts in support of its claim that Al-Qaeda had established overt links with the operatives of these outfits in Jammu and Kashmir. Based on the interception of communications between the Al-Qaeda and the LeT, senior officials engaged in gathering “techint” or technical intelligence in the Valley said that while some of them were hiding in the higher reaches of Bandipore in north Kashmir along with LeT “chief commander” Bilal alias Salahuddin, a few more were believed to be holed up in the forests of Buddal in Qazigund along the Jammu-Srinagar highway. Both these locations are strategically placed as the terrorists could flee to Pak-occupied Kashmir quickly in the event of any military offensive. Police investigations have revealed that the LeT is playing host to the Al-Qaeda in Jammu and Kashmir. All new arrivals are being guided to LeT hideouts. The Police have recovered CDs from the Poonch sector in Jammu containing speeches by Osama bin Laden and detailing militants’ training techniques.
Leading figures from LeT and Sipah-e-Sahiba have worked closely with senior Al-Qaeda figures before on plots to kill Pakistan President Musharraf. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi also has links to Al-Qaeda. They may also have helped to shelter renegade Al-Qaeda figures in Pakistani safe houses. Although Al-Qaeda is a diverse organisation and its leadership under Osama bin Laden was based in Afghanistan until pushed out by the US-led invasion in 2000, Osama is reported to be in hiding in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan and the Pak terrorist groups and the tribal chieftains are giving shelter to the Al-Qaeda leadership.
The Al-Qaeda-JeM-LeT partnership takes on importance in that it represents the success of Pak-based groups in selling India as the target for jehadi freebooters.
Al-Qaeda’s links with the LeT and JeM were further established by investigation into the plot to blow up the US-bound planes taking off from Heathrow airport in London by liquid explosives to be concocted on the plane itself. Pakistan told the US and the British MI6 intelligence agency that the prime suspect in the plot, Rashid Rauf, had links with Al-Qaeda. It is not without significance that Rauf, who is a British national of Pakistan origin, fled Britain in 2002 and settled down in Bahawalpur, headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammed led by Maulana Masood Azhar. No other than the father of Maulana Azhar, Allah Baksh, has confirmed that Rauf, whom Pakistan calls an Al-Qaeda man, was a member of the JeM as well, adding that he parted company subsequently because while the JeM target was Kashmir, Rauf’s focus was on Western targets. Allah Baksh further confirmed that Rauf after settling down in Bahawalpur, had married the sister-in-law of one of his sons.
If more proof of Al-Qaeda’s links with the Pak-based terrorists was needed, it came from investigations that money for the prospective terrorists, who would have boarded the ten US-bound flights from London to blow up the planes mid-air across the Atlantic, came from Lashkar-e-Taiba. Ironically, this money came from the funds collected by Jamaat-ud-Dawa from mosques in Britain for the earthquake relief work in the quake-devastated Pak-occupied Kashmir last year.
The links between Al-Qaeda and the Pak-based terrorists are likely to deepen further which will pose a more serious threat to the security of India. Pakistan is likely to look the other way and officially deny any links. As compared to LeT and J-e-M, Al-Qaeda has a wider spectrum of Islamic support and resources and more committed cadres in spite of the fact that after the Taliban ouster from Afghanistan over five years ago, its infrastructure has broken down, funds dried up and the leadership is in disarray. India must make use of the revelation of the links of Pak-based terrorist groups like LeT and the Al-Qaeda in the failed London terror attacks to prevail upon the United States to lean on Pakistan more aggressively to stop this game of terror which, if not stopped, will further aggravate the situation.
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