Home Ministry asks Intelligence Bureau to verify authenticity of al-Qaeda video

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry today asked the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to verify the authenticity of an al- Qaeda video that threatens to take the terror outfit's campaign to India.

Ministry officials said the IB has been asked to send a report as early as possible giving details of the video, its authenticity and possible place of uploading.

The IB, which constantly monitors the activities of the terror outfit operating in the country and its neighbourhood, is expected to send the report within a day or two, officials said.

US media and intelligence agencies said today that al-Qaeda has established a new branch to wage jihad in India, revive its caliphate and impose sharia in the Indian sub-continent,

The creation of the group called "Qaedat al-Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent" was announced by As Sahab, al-Qaeda's official media outlet, in a lengthy video posted on social media outlets including You Tube.

Al-Qaeda is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the group's leader Ayman al Zawahiri said "Qaedat al-Jihad" would take the fight to India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Zawahiri said the group will defend the "vulnerable in the Indian subcontinent, in Burma, Bangladesh, Assam, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and Kashmir..." and "your brothers in Qaedat al-Jihad did not forget you and that they are doing what they can to rescue you from injustice, oppression, persecution, and suffering".