India ready to tackle Al Qaeda threat: IAF chief

With al-Qaeda launching a dedicated wing for the Indian sub-continent, Indian Air Force Chief Arup Raha has assured that India is ready to tackle threats from such terrorist outfits.

“There is a threat perception from such agencies but the nation is prepared for it,” said Raha on September 5 at the margins of a seminar on the role of the IAF in the 1965 war with Pakistan.

Raha was referring to the September 4 announcement by Al Qaeda that it had created a group called “Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent”.

In a 55-minute video, Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri called the formation of the group a glad tiding for Muslims in the region, and added that the group will aim to “break all borders created by Britain in India” and “raise the flag of jihad” across the subcontinent.

Al Zawahiri said the global jihadi organisation had not forgotten injustices and oppressions suffered by Muslims “in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir”.

Some security experts suggest that the video is an attempt by a weakened Al Qaeda to find new recruitments in the sub-continent as it faces pressures, in West Asia from the other Sunni Jihadi group The Islamic State.

Following Al Qaeda’s announcement India’s Home Ministry hadissued an all-India alert.

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